It makes perfect sense to go with what feels familiar, like basic retouching or background removal. But we’ve learned from working with thousands of photographers and business owners that your photos often benefit from multiple services working together. Combining services gets you better results with less hassle, since you can handle everything in one order instead of juggling separate projects. Let’s show you how to pick the right edits for your photos.

How to identify what your photos actually need

Before you start combining services, let’s figure out what you’re actually working with—it’ll save you time and help you get better results.

Photo diagnosis checklist

Take a look at your images and ask yourself if you spot any of these:

• Background issues: Is the background distracting, the wrong color, or inconsistent across your batch? Does it look messy or unprofessional?
• Subject problems: Are there imperfections, poor lighting, or color issues with your main subject? For apparel, does it need to show fit and drape without a model?
• Technical fixes: Is anything crooked? Are shadows missing or looking unnatural? Any dust, dirt, or glare issues?
• Brand requirements: Do you need multiple product colors? Specific formats? Transparent backgrounds for marketing materials?

Common photo problems and their solutions

Here are some scenarios we see all the time:

• “My product looks flat and boring” → clipping path + shadows
• “The background is messy and distracting” → background removal + retouching
• “I need to show this product in 5 different colors” → clipping path + color change
• “The model’s hair isn’t looking right” → image masking + retouching
• “My apparel needs to show shape without the mannequin” → ghost mannequin + retouching + symmetry

Most photo challenges need two to three services working together, not just one by itself.

How Path services work better together

Here’s why thinking in combinations instead of individual services makes more sense:

• Save admin time: Upload everything you need edited in a single order and get it all back together, ready to use. No juggling multiple orders or trying to keep track of which image versions are where.
• Speed up your workflow: Everything gets delivered together in the formats you need. Your designer handles all the edits for each image, so there’s consistency across the entire batch.
• Keep all photos consistent: When the same designer handles all your edits, you get cohesive results. Colors match, shadows look natural together, and the overall style stays consistent.
• Keep costs down: We offer discounts when you bundle multiple editing services together.

You can combine pretty much any of our services together—two, three, four, or more. What matters is understanding which combinations work best for your specific type of photography.

Service combinations by photography type

Every photography project has different needs, and you might even use the same image for different purposes. Here are some proven editing combinations that work well for different situations:

Sports photographers

When you’re dealing with high-volume shoots and tight deadlines, you need services that work fast and handle the most common issues in sports photography.

Your typical service combo:

• Image masking for complex backgrounds, hair, equipment details, etc.
• Background removal for clean, professional shots and official team photos, etc.
• Photo retouching for spot removal, color correction, skin touch-ups, etc.

There may be time-critical events such as championship coverage where you need polished images fast, or you might need to update and create consistent team roster headshots across an entire squad, just like this photographer does. You can choose different services depending on what each batch of images needs, whether that’s processing 200+ action shots or creating headshots with a uniform, professional look.

We offer turnarounds from 6 hours, so you can deliver images to your clients, magazines, or publications fast.

Product and ecommerce brands and photographers

For ecommerce, consistency is everything. Your product photos need to look professional, meet marketplace (like Amazon) standards, and convert browsers into buyers.

A standard combo:

• Clipping path for clean cutouts that meet marketplace requirements or create a clean website look.
• Shadow services add depth and dimension so products don’t look flat.
• Color change shows all available product colors without reshooting every single variant.

Advanced ecommerce stack (add these for even more polished results):

• Ghost mannequin is essential for apparel brands to show fit and drape.
• Symmetry shows perfect product alignment for a premium, professional look.
• Photo retouching removes any product imperfections (like wrinkles in fabric) and enhances details.

New ecommerce brands often start with the foundation combo (clipping path + shadows + color change) and add ghost mannequin as their apparel inventory grows. Established retailers may go with the full stack approach for complete consistency across their entire product catalog.

Portrait and headshot photographers

Professional portraits and headshots need to look polished but still natural. The goal is enhancing what’s already there, not creating something fake.

Typical professional edits for portraits and headshots include:

• Background removal/clipping path gives you versatile backgrounds for different marketing uses.
• Photo retouching helps with natural beauty enhancement, color correction, and flyaway hair fixes.

Corporate headshot scenarios may include:

• Basic combo of background removal + basic retouching.
• Premium package, adding advanced retouching and multiple background options for different brand uses.

Advanced portrait combination (for high-end clients or special projects) may include:

• Image masking for complex hair or clothing details.
• Color change for different outfit variations or brand color matching.
• Multiple background options so clients can use the same headshot across different marketing materials.

Wedding and event portrait combinations may include:

• Image masking for intricate dress details and flowing fabric.
• Retouching for flawless, natural skin and perfect lighting.
• Background removal for ceremony photos that need to work in albums and marketing.

How to choose your perfect edit combination

Use this simple framework to figure out which services make sense for any project:

1. What’s your end goal? Are these photos for marketplace listings, marketing materials, portfolio work, or client galleries?
2. What’s your biggest time constraint? Do you have a tight deadline, a high volume of images, or particularly complex edits?
3. What’s your budget priority? Are you focused on cost per image, or is premium quality and time savings more important?

Consider your photo use case

Sometimes the same photo needs different sets of edits depending on how you plan to use it. For example, a product photo might need:

• For marketplace listing: clipping path + white background + basic retouching.
• For social media: same photo but with different background + enhanced colors + shadows.
• For print: higher resolution + color matching + vector conversion.

How to mix and match your edits

Use this simple approach to figuring out which services work best for your projects:

• Start simple: Pick two to three core services that address your biggest pain points.
• Test combinations: Try different combos on smaller image batches to see what works best for your workflow.
• Scale up when it makes sense: Add more services as you see results and understand how they improve your final images.

When to add each editing service

Not sure which services you actually need? Here’s a quick reference for what each one does best.

Clipping path: When you need hand-drawn, crisp clean cutouts that you can use on any background.

Background removal: When you want clean white (or any color) backgrounds for product photos.

Image masking: For intricate shots with hair, fur, or complex borders that need precise, natural-looking cutouts.

Shadow: When products look flat or unrealistic—shadows add depth and dimension, and they actually help generate more sales.

Ghost mannequin: For apparel that needs to show natural fit and drape without models or mannequins, essential for consistent ecommerce catalogs.

Color change: When you have multiple color options and need to show true-to-life colors without reshooting every single shade.

Photo retouching: When imperfections distract from your subject—this corrects flaws and makes every element shine.

Multi-clipping path: When you need to select multiple areas within images for separate editing (like changing just the shirt color but not the pants).

Vector conversion: When you need scalable graphics and logos that maintain quality at any size.

Symmetry: When product alignment matters for brand consistency and that premium, professional look that converts better.

How to place your Path order

Ready to try combining services? Here’s exactly how to do it and how it works:

Getting started

1. Sign up for your Path account
2. Top up Path credits (optional but recommended—you get bonus credits when you top up)

The ordering process

3. Click “new order” to start your project
4. Select all the services you need for this batch—you can choose as many as you want
5. Upload your images using drag and drop
6. Get instant quote and you’ll see your total cost immediately
7. Set preferences like:
   a) File format for your edited images
   b) Additional comments or instructions
   c) Upload any supporting files if needed
8. Select turnaround time (longer turnaround means cheaper pricing, or choose rush for time-sensitive projects)
9. Review and approve your quote
10. Choose payment method and submit your order

If you need 1,000+ images edited a month, we offer bulk pricing with better rates and priority support.

Ordering edits with Path couldn’t be any easier

Now that you know which combinations work for your type of photography, placing an order is straightforward. Try Path free with 2 free edits and see how much better your photos look with the right services working together.

Let us look after your image edits, so you can get back to the fun stuff. Try Path free.

Learn more

The post How to Know Which Photo Editing Services You Need appeared first on Path Edits.

Learn what the Magic Wand Tool is and how to select and mask in Photoshop with it. This Photoshop masking tutorial will turn you into a pro in no time.

What is the Magic Wand Tool?

The Photoshop Magic Wand Tool is a quick and easy way to select and mask certain portions of an image, giving you the ability to alter one part of your image while leaving other parts intact. One of the most common uses of this tool is to swap out or remove the background of a product photo, leaving the subject of the image in place. 

The Magic Wand Tool works by selecting an area of solid color within an image. Once your selection is made, the Magic Wand Tool gives you multiple options for refining that selection. 

What is the Magic Wand Tool used for?

The Magic Wand Tool is a go-to tool when you want to display a product in various settings by showing it against different backgrounds, or when you want to remove a background altogether so your product stands on its own.

This is often the case for marketplaces like Amazon or eBay, which have product photo requirements of their own that outline the approved backgrounds your images can have.

How to select and mask in Photoshop with the Magic Wand Tool

For the following tutorial, we’ll be working with this photo of a soccer player. You’ll learn how to remove the background from the player using the Magic Wand Tool, so that you can later put the player into different scenes. The Magic Wand Tool is a great option for removing backgrounds on photos with a mostly solid background.

Step 1: Unlock the background and select the Magic Wand Tool

Before you can use the Magic Wand Tool, you’ll need to make sure your layers are set up correctly. Go to your Layers panel, located by default in the lower right-hand corner of Photoshop 2024’s application window. If you don’t see the Layers panel, you can bring it forward by choosing Window > Layers from the dropdown menu at the top of the application window.

Within the Layers panel, double click on the Layer entitled Background.

A pop-up window will appear, prompting you to rename the layer “Layer 0.” Click OK.

Within Adobe Photoshop 2024, choose the Magic Wand Tool from the Toolbar. By default, the Toolbar is placed to the left of the application window. The Magic Wand Tool may be hidden behind the Object Selection Tool or Quick Selection Tool.

Note: To select any tool that is hidden “behind” another tool, choose the tool that is in front, and then hold the mouse button until other tools are visible. Then, select the visible tool you need.

Step 2: Select the solid areas of the background using the Magic Wand Tool

There are several different ways to use the Magic Wand Tool to remove a background. We’ll start with the simplest method and work our way to more advanced methods as we refine our selection.

When you click on a portion of your image using the Magic Wand Tool, the tool selects the pixel you selected along with adjacent pixels of the same (or similar) colors. 

Once you have the Magic Wand Tool selected, you’ll see several different options in the Options Bar at the top of the screen. You can adjust the Tolerance of the Magic Wand Tool here. The higher the Tolerance, the more similarly colored pixels will be selected alongside the pixel you select with the tool.

For this example, we will keep the Tolerance at 10.

Click somewhere within the background of the image. The Magic Wand Tool will create a selection of all contiguous portions of your image that are roughly the same color as the background portion you selected.

The Magic Wand Tool did a relatively decent job, but there are some portions of the background (such as between the player’s legs and under his right arm” that are not selected.

To select areas of the background that did not get selected, hold down the SHIFT key and click within those areas that need to be selected. Holding SHIFT allows you to add to the existing selection without deselecting anything.

Step 3: Select other portions of the background and foreground

The ground in this photo is not a solid color like the background. It is, however, all varying shades of green. In order to select an area that is all about the same color but has a lot of detail, we need to adjust the Tolerance of the Magic Wand tool to a higher value. In this example, we’ve set the Tolerance to 50 and selected the grassy ground area of the photo.

The results are less than perfect, but if we were to make the Tolerance much higher, we might accidentally select portions of the player’s legs.

To smooth out the selection, choose Select > Modify > Smooth… from the dropdown menu at the top of the application window.

In the Dialog Box that appears, set the smooth value to something large enough to smooth out the edges of the selection but small enough to keep the integrity of the selection’s outline. For this example, we’ll set the value to 5.

Click OK.

The selection now looks almost close to perfect. Almost.

Step 4: Create a mask

Select the inverse of your current selection by choosing Select > Inverse from the dropdown menu or by typing SHIFT + CTRL + I (SHIFT + COMMAND + I on a Mac).

Now, your subject is selected (instead of your background).

Next, go to Select > Modify > Contract… to tighten the edges of the selection. This is to compensate for any artifacts that may have appeared in the selection when we smoothed it earlier.

In the dialog box that appears, set a Contract value to something between 1 and 4 pixels. The amount you set it to will vary depending on the image you are working with. In this example, I’ve set the value to 3.

Click OK.

In your Layers panel, look for the Mask icon at the bottom of the panel. It will look like a black rectangle with a white circle inside of it.

With Layer 0 selected, click on the Mask icon. You will now see your subject isolated against a transparent background.

We’re almost there, but there are a few things we need to fix before we’re done.

Step 5: Clean up the selection using the mask

As advanced as Photoshop 2024 is, nothing can match the human touch for perfecting a selection. In order to finalize your image, you will need to use your Brush Tool, and your judgment, to modify and perfect certain areas of your selection.

In Layer 0 of your Layers Panel, make sure you have the new layer Mask selected. When the Mask is selected, you’ll see a small, black outline around the Mask. Look closely as it’s a little hard to see.

Next, select your Brush Tool from the Toolbar to the left of the application window. In the Options Bar at the top of the application window, you can set the width and hardness of your brush.

If you have correctly selected the Mask icon in Layer 0, then the Foreground and Background colors in your Toolbar will be black and white. When white is the Foreground color, you can “paint back” portions of your masked image. When black is in the Foreground, you remove areas of your selection and they become masked.

For instance, in our example image, certain portions of the player’s sleeves disappeared when we created our initial selection. Therefore, using the Brush Tool, we can “paint back,” or add those portions of the sleeve back in.

Changing the size of the brush and switching between a white foreground and a black foreground, fix any edges of your selection that need finessing.

Other ways to select and mask in Photoshop 2024

Photoshop 2024 also offers another option for Selecting and Masking that may or may not be easier for you. Let’s start with the original image again to learn this second method.

When your Magic Wand Tool is selected, you’ll notice there are some selection options available in the Options Bar at the top of the application window. At the far right of the bar, click Select and Mask….

A new window will open showing most of the image erased. Don’t worry–the image is still there; it’s just been “masked.”

At the top of the screen, click the button that says Select Subject.

Photoshop will attempt to interpret and select the subject of your image. Though, as you can see in the image below, the results are not always perfect.

At the top of the window, you will find Add and Subtract buttons. These work to add to your selection or subtract from it using the modification tools on the left-hand side of the window. You can also control the size of the tool.

On the left side of the window are tools you can use to modify the selection. These tools are rather intuitive to use. 

The first tool, the Quick Selection Tool, allows you to grab whole blocks of color at once. This is a good tool to use to “paint back” the ball in the image.

The next tool, Refine Edge Tool, helps when defining or redefining the edge of your selection. Below that is the Brush Tool, which works just like the regular Brush Tool in Photoshop (and like the Eraser Tool when the Subtract button is activated). 

The Object Selection Tool tries to figure out where certain objects begin and end in your image, the Lasso Tools allow you to freeform select areas of the image, and the Hand Tool and Zoom Tool help you navigate around the image as you work to refine the selection.

Once you’re satisfied with the selection, click OK. You will see that nothing has changed in your original image, but there’s a “marching ants” selection around your subject.

Next, just like in the first method listed above, you’ll need to make your Background Layer into an unlocked Layer 0, and create a Layer Mask.

Whichever way you choose to create your selection, you now have your subject isolated from its background, and you can place your subject into whichever new setting works best for your branding needs.

When to use the Magic Wand Tool for your photos

Learning how to select and mask in Photoshop with the Magic Wand Tool is helpful because it’s a technique you can apply to a range of photos—sports, product, ecommerce, portraits, headshots, and more. Here are a just a few scenarios where it comes in handy:

• Show your subject in various environments. Help your audience connect with your subject emotionally by seeing it in a beautiful or familiar setting when changing the background. This can also help you prepare the image for different target segments, so you can swap out backgrounds that make more sense for your audience.
• Select your subject so you adjust its size or color without altering the setting in which it has been photographed. This means you can show different color variants for your product without having to take multiple photos.
• Remove the background from a photo so your subject stands out on its own.
• Create a white background image so you can list products on third-party marketplaces, like Amazon or eBay.

The post How to Replace or Remove an Image Background Using the Magic Wand Tool appeared first on Path Edits.

It can be incredibly frustrating to move the background from hair if you don’t understand some of Photoshop’s unique eraser tools. Trying to remove the hair from a background can be time consuming and end up ruining your original image if done incorrectly.

In this Photoshop tutorial, you’ll walk away knowing how to remove a background from hair with the Background Eraser Tool. Once you’ve mastered how to remove the background from hair in Photoshop 2024, you’ll be able to tackle any photo or image.

We’ll be using an image that shows you how to remove the background from curly hair in Photoshop, but these directions will work with any type of hair.

Step 1: Set up your layers

Open the image you want to remove the background from in Photoshop 2024. Get to your Layers panel by selecting Window > Layers or by clicking on the Layers panel icon to the right of the screen.

Make sure the locked Background layer is selected (it should be selected by default). Open the Layers panel menu by clicking on the three little lines in the upper left-hand corner of the panel. From the menu that drops down, choose Duplicate Layer.

Pro tip: Create a duplicate layer so you can preserve the original image. This gives you a backup of the original in case you make a mistake or need to start over.

In the pop-up box, click OK to create the Background copy layer.

Step 2: Create a high contrast layer

Click on the plus sign at the bottom of the Layers panel to create a new layer.

In your Toolbar, doubleclick on the Foreground color to bring up the Colors dialog box. Using the color sliders, choose a color that’s in high contrast to the background color of your original image. Since our image has a gray-blue background, we’ll choose a bright pink.

You want to use a bright, high contrast color to work with as you remove hair from the background in Photoshop so you can easily see how much of the background is actually being removed as you work.

Once you’ve chosen your color, select your new layer and choose Edit > Fill from the dropdown menu at the top of the application window, or click SHIFT+F5 (FN+SHIFT+F5 on a Mac). In the dialog box that appears, choose Foreground color at 100%.

Once you’ve filled your new layer with the Foreground color, move that layer between your Background copy and Background layers in the Layers panel. You can do this by grabbing the new layer and dragging it until it pops into place between the Background layers.

Step 3: Remove the background around the hair and model

Select the Background Eraser Tool from the Toolbar. It may be hidden behind the Eraser Tool.

Next, select the Background Color from the Toolbar and select the image’s background color using the Color Picker in the pop-up dialog box.

Click OK.

With the Background Eraser Tool selected, you’ll need to make sure certain settings are set up correctly in the Options Bar at the top of the application window. First, in the dropdown menu next to Limits, you’ll see options for Contiguous, Discontiguous, or Find Edges. Since we’re working with hair, with a wispy edge, we want to select Contiguous.

As you work to remove the background around other parts of your image with more abrupt edges (such as the arms and clothing), you may discover that Find Edges works better.

Just to the left of Limits, you’ll see three icons with an eyedropper. Make sure the icon on the far right is selected.

You’ll also see other options in this Options Bar: the Brush Preset and Tolerance. Begin with a brush hardness of 15% or softer, and a brush size that makes sense for the image you’re working with, and start with the Tolerance set to 50%.

Finally, check the box next to Protect Foreground Color.

Go back into your Layers panel and make sure your top layer, Background copy, is selected.

Now, with your Background Eraser Tool, begin erasing the area around the hair.

As you work, you may need to adjust the Tolerance level up or down depending on the colors in the foreground image.

For instance, there are a lot of blue tones in the model’s clothing which could be accidentally erased using a high Tolerance level; therefore, we’ll reduce the Tolerance down to about 20% while working around these areas. You may also find it’s helpful to reduce the brush size when working in these areas as well so you have more precision over the pixels being removed.

You may also have to adjust the background color if your image has a lot of variation in its background.

Continue erasing until you have an “outline” around your entire subject.

Once you’ve erased the area immediately around your subject, you can increase your brush size and your Tolerance and remove the rest of the background.

Step 4: Replace the background

Go back into your Layers panel and hide the bright color layer and the original Background layer by clicking on the Eye icon next to each layer.

You now have a transparent background, and you can insert any background you wish into the image. Or you can copy this layer and paste it into another image.

Now that you’ve learned how to remove the background from hair in Photoshop, you can substitute your original backgrounds with your individual brand colors or with more complex backgrounds, adding interest and continuity to your photography.

Master more Photoshop skills

You can improve your photo-editing skills with our library of Photoshop tutorials that will help you create perfectly edited images to promote your products. Browse some of our most popular Photoshop tutorials:

• How to Change the Background Color of a Picture
• How to Make Someone Smile in Photoshop: A Tutorial for Brands
• Blur the Background in Photoshop: A Tutorial for Your Product Photos 

FAQs about removing background from hair in Photoshop

How do I remove background from hair in Photoshop?

You remove the background from hair in Photoshop using the steps in this post:

1. Set up your layers
2. Create a high contrast layer
3. Remove the background around the hair and model using the Background Eraser Tool
4. Replace the background

How can I change my hair background?

You can change your hair background by removing the background of your image using the Background Eraser Tool or by choosing the Magic Wand and using the Remove Background option. Then, choose a new background color or image to replace your original background with, or leave it as a transparent background.

How do I remove green screen from hair in Photoshop?

If you need to know how to fix hair that is in front of a green screen, set up your layers and use the Background Eraser Tool, this time with a red filled layer under your green screen layer. 

Because green screens are very bright, a greenish hue often ends up in the hair. To counteract this, you can increase the tolerance of the Background Eraser Tool as you erase around just the edges of the hair. If that does not work to your satisfaction, after erasing as much as you can, create a rough selection around the areas in the photo where you see the color green.

Then, choose Select > Color Range from the dropdown menu to capture just the greenish pixels within your rough selection. You then can use whatever color adjustment tool you prefer (such as Hue/Saturation or Color Balance) to fine-tune the colors in that selection.

The post How to Remove the Background from Hair in Photoshop: A Tutorial [Updated 2024] appeared first on Path Edits.

​​Isolating a subject allows you to repurpose your product photo and use it on any other background to fit your ecommerce or marketing needs.

Clipping path and image masking are two techniques that help achieve this. But what are the differences between the two? Let’s look at the breakdown for clipping path vs. masking and which tasks each photo editing technique is best suited for.

Clipping path vs. masking: what’s the difference?

The main difference between clipping path and image masking is the technique you use to remove the background from an image.

More complex images require image masking. It’s technically possible to remove the background from complicated images with clipping path, but the result isn’t as appealing as it would’ve been with image masking.

As you can tell in the image above, the photo edited with clipping path looks unnatural. That’s because the hard edges of a clipping path are visible. On the other hand, image masking handles hair very well for a seamless finish.

For more straightforward products, like Sana Jardin’s perfume bottle below, the brand likely used a clipping path. The result of shooting this shiny product? A sleek, clean-cut perfume bottle with a reflection shadow that adds a touch of luxury.

And to get the natural—but not messy—outline, the photo editor probably used image masking to remove the background of this Crown Affair scrunchie photo. Note the use of drop shadow as well. Adding a subtle shadow to products creates a 3D look and helps them stand out, especially against a clean white background.

You can use both techniques in a single image: clipping path for straight, hard edges and masking for the softer or more complex areas. If a photo calls for both image editing techniques, your best bet is to use a clipping path first and then follow up with masking for the finer details.

For example, this play gym from Lovevery was likely edited using a clipping path and masking.

The stronger lines of the toy’s frame could easily be edited with clipping paths, but masking would be more appropriate for the softer material bottom and baby’s hair.

What is a clipping path?

Like image masking, clipping path is an image editing technique that allows you to remove the background from an image. You can create a clipping path using the Pen tool in Adobe Photoshop and then selecting paths that form a closed vector shape to separate a part of the image. Everything inside the path will be selected, and anything outside will be left over.

Clipping path is generally used when the subject of the image has straightforward edges—think boxes, electronics, simple accessories or garments, ornaments, etc.

Still, clipping paths require an experienced, accurate hand. A poorly drawn clipping path can result in images that don’t look real or natural, and consumers easily notice even the smallest mistakes. Sloppy images don’t make a great impression, and that’s typically reflected in sales.

You want your product photos to stand out—in a good way—so you definitely want to consider working with a professional for these types of edits. To give you an idea of the level of detail involved, we zoom into images sometimes as much as 200% to get as close to the edge as possible.

Types of clipping paths

Clipping paths aren’t too complicated, but there are a few different types of clipping paths:

Single-layer clipping path

A single-layer clipping path is a simple path created on one layer with the Pen tool in Photoshop. This is useful when you need to remove or change the background for subjects with straight, simple edges, like in the examples below.

Multilayer clipping path

Multi-layer clipping paths are created with the Pen tool in Photoshop to extract multiple parts of an image. This is an advanced type of clipping path used to separate each part of a photo and is particularly useful for retouchers, especially to color correct sections of the image.

In the example below, we created a separate clipping path for each shoe and shoelaces. This allows not only to remove the background, but also to change the color of each shoe without altering the shoelaces.

Illustrator clipping path

Photoshop isn’t the only software or app you can use to create clipping masks. Adobe Illustrator also has its own path and mask tools. Referred to as Clipping Masks in Illustrator, this tool allows you to cut out portions of an image into a specific shape.

What is image masking?

Image masking is another method of image background removal. This technique involves a variety of tools in Photoshop, such as Background Eraser tool, Magic Eraser tool, and color separation technique.

Masking is a non-destructive way to adjust a part of your image while leaving the rest untouched. For photo editors, that means more control over where and how the image adjustments take place because masks are applied on layers. Masking is typically used for images that contain more complex lines, like hair, fur, etc.

Using AI to remove background and complete clipping paths and image masking

What if you’re in a hurry or don’t have access to a professional retoucher? Artificial intelligence (AI) photo editors and AI masking features in Photoshop can help you quickly remove the background without any editing experience.

The downside is the result won’t be as high-quality as hand-edited background removal using clipping paths or masks, especially for complex subjects. But for some marketing visuals, you might find it’s just enough. If you’re curious about the differences between AI and professional retoucher edits, take a look at this AI background removal comparison.

Why should you remove the background from product photos?

Perhaps you wonder why it may be necessary to remove the background. After all, can’t the photographer simply shoot a great product photo that’s publish-ready? There are a few reasons why you may want to consider isolating a subject in a photo:

• 
  Allows you to reuse visual assets: Once you’ve removed the background, you can repurpose your photo to fit Amazon and other marketplaces, create ghost mannequins for apparel, design creative marketing visuals, and more.
• 
  Cost-effective: Whether you isolate the subject yourself or outsource it to professional photo editors like Path, it’ll cost significantly less than photographing the same subject again. Ordering photo edits in bulk will cost even less.
• 
  Saves time: Instead of organizing a new photoshoot, you can use already photographed subjects and create new visuals in just a few hours, perfect for last-minute campaigns or store listings.
• 
  Elevates DIY photos: Not every photoshoot will have a spacious or perfectly-lit studio space. Knowing you’ll remove the background makes DIY product photography more accessible for smaller budgets.
• 
  Removes distractions: If you aren’t able to shoot on a clean white background and avoid unwanted objects in your shots, background removal erases all of that.
• 
  Makes pixel-perfect images possible: If you’re creating product groups, it’s easier to mix and match products with removed backgrounds for sharp, well-lit results, like the example below by vegan skincare and fragrance brand Fais. It features several products that all have backgrounds removed before placing them in a group to create a gift set.

The bottom line on clipping path vs. masking

When it comes to background removal, neither method is superior in a clipping path vs. masking comparison. Both clipping path and masking edits have their place in photo retouching, especially for the wide variety of images needed for ecommerce photos. And both require a practiced hand to execute well.

Interested in professional, affordable photo edits? The Path team does all edits by hand and offers 24/7 support.

The post Clipping Path vs. Masking: What’s the Difference? appeared first on Path Edits.

Generally, we remove the background using clipping paths or image masking:

• Clipping path: Used for a wide range of items with straight or smooth edges, like clothing, furniture, food, and household goods.

• Multi-clipping path: A more advanced technique for groups of products, items with holes like jewelry or bikes, and garments with complicated clasps or ties, among others. 

• Image masking: Great for more complex subjects and uneven edges, like wool clothing, furry plush toys, pets, hair, transparent objects, multiple models, and others. 

You can use software or apps that automate background removal (but don’t always get the edges to a professional standard), use software like Photoshop, or outsource to editors and studios such as Path for a top-notch result.

Why do brands use background removal?

Background removal is just one of the methods of enhancing your product shots with post-processing and unlocking the different ways you can use them for marketing and advertising. Here are some reasons why other ecommerce brands do this. 

Gives product shots an instant professional look

A perfectly white background and an uncluttered studio setup are challenging to achieve when photographing products. It only takes a small detail, like a background crease in a product photo, to leave a bad impression on your brand.

But removing any traces of the original background means your product takes the spotlight in every photo, and your online store looks professional—like in this example from the Little Seed Farm shop. 

Customers can shop and compare items easily because all products have a distraction-free white background. It also matches the website’s clean design.

You can replicate this with background removal on your product shots and changing the background to pure white or transparent if your website background color is different.

Fits industry standards for ecommerce marketplaces

Marketplaces drive 46% of online purchases, and 77% of shoppers think they’re the most convenient way to shop online. But if you want to sell across different marketplaces and introduce your products to a larger audience, listing photo preparation can be a headache because each platform has different image guidelines.

Removing the background and swapping it for a clean, white one is the first step for selling on any major marketplace like Amazon. Even smartphone product shots with a white background can be good enough for listing photos.

If the white background product shot doesn’t fit your own store aesthetic, you can adapt the same shot by changing the background color to match your site, like the sustainable clothing retailer Pact. The brand has a light beige background for products in its store, but its Amazon listings all have a white background.

See Pact’s online store: 

And its Amazon storefront: 

Cost-effective for inventory changes

You can avoid having to reshoot your inventory whenever your brand gets a new color variation of an already existing item. All it takes is changing your product’s color in post-production, and you can instantly add it to your store. And you save yourself time and money hiring a team to shoot products you already sell.

The consistency in your listing photos also makes it easy for customers to focus on choosing which color or pattern to buy. For example, yoga and fitness brand Mache shows the same yoga mat styling regardless of which color variation customers click. 

Adds new life to your visual assets

Removing background from your product shots gives you unlimited creative possibilities. You can use the product shots all across your marketing channels—and even combine products in groups or add other design elements.

For example, the original image of this machinery is completely unusable. But we carefully removed the background from the complex object to create a clean white background image ready for many uses. 

Take the holistic pet food brand Halo as an example. The brand uses its pet food product shots on the homepage as a banner, all across its store, and on other promotional graphics. 

Make the most of your background-free photos

Just like the brand examples above, we have a few ideas to help you repurpose your cut-out products to maximize your return on investment and bring something fresh to your marketing visuals.

Add shadows for depth

White background product shots can sometimes appear dull and lifeless. But you can make your products stand out with a simple fix: add a subtle shadow to give your products a 3D effect and make them come alive.

Depending on your product type and shape, you can use different shadow effects: 

• Drop shadow: Adds depth with a subtle shadow so products stand out against the background.
• Floating shadow: Makes products look like they’re hovering above a surface.
• Reflection shadow: Gives an impression products are resting on a reflective surface.
• Natural shadow: Uses an imaginary light source created by the editor for a natural-looking shadow cast on the background or surface.
• Existing shadow: Keep naturally occurring shadows in the photo, even when the background is removed or replaced.

You can learn to do this yourself using Photoshop or outsource to professionals for faster turnaround.

Switch out backgrounds for seasonal promotions

Planning your marketing calendar means preparing for all different seasonal holidays and promotional campaigns ahead of the year. There’s no need to reshoot your products for every new promotion—you can simply use the cut-out product with a background that fits the theme.

Take a look at royalty-free stock websites like Pexels and Unsplash for some high-quality backgrounds you can use to fit any season of the year. 

Repurpose your product shots with a branded background and design

Once your product photos have the background removed, you can experiment with different on-brand colors and design elements.

In the example below, sustainable skincare brand Farmacy Beauty combines product shots with colorful gradient backgrounds for a striking first impression when customers land on its website. The brand is all about using nature’s best ingredients, so the thoughtful design touches and clever marketing copy reflect that. 

Create share-worthy product moodboards

Moodboards aren’t just for brainstorming your brand design ideas in internal meetings. You can use moodboards to excite your customers by mixing and matching products, for example, to show an outfit idea that goes with current trends. Not only will you create extra hype around your brand, but it may inspire some customers to shop for the full look.

You can use websites like Canva, Adobe Express, and VistaCreate to design collages or moodboards for free. Just choose a template, upload your products without a background, and add any design elements, branding, or text.

Get inspiration from publications that regularly curate products from different brands, like Luxury London. In this collage, the publication has put together a chic boardroom meeting look for readers who want to add color to formal wear. You can use this idea for product groups that work for your brand. 

Create infographics to educate and inspire customers

Original graphics like infographics are powerful visual tools to share a message with customers—just over 40% of marketers say this type of visual performs best for their brand. You can be as creative or educational as you want with infographics—whichever fits your brand.

For example, all-natural fabric and lifestyle brand Ettitude has a simple graphic to highlight the benefits of its vegan silk loungewear against a cheaper and less sustainable alternative. Infographics like these are a handy way to repurpose your product shots. And it makes a great alternative to using non-branded stock photos. 

Image source

Sell more with product bundles

Product bundling is an effective way to boost sales. It involves promoting and packaging complementary products together and offering them as a single item. You can offer similar product bundles, promote gift sets, let customers mix and match, or upsell bundles of inventory you want to clear.

The female-founded fashion brand M.M.Lafleur reported a 20% increase in average order value for bundled items, but you can use this sales tactic for any ecommerce business. So as long as you have product photos with removed backgrounds, you can create different variations of bundles in your store.

For example, nature-inspired health and lifestyle store Fat and the Moon uses bundles to sell skincare sets for different skin concerns. The brand also has product kits for travelers, children, and new mothers. If you need to change your bundles at any point, you can simply add or remove items from the product group shot and update the listing. 

Image source

Create lifestyle composites

You may not always have the budget for custom photography shoots. This is where lifestyle composites can come in. They consist of a stock photo as a background and your product carefully placed in the shot. If done well, the result is realistic, and your customers wouldn’t tell the difference.

It’s a quick and cost-effective way to get new visuals for your brand without planning a photoshoot from scratch. You can order lifestyle composites from many ship-and-shoot photography studios—all you have to do is mail your products, and the team takes care of photography and editing.

In the shot below, Products On White Photography used a lifestyle stock photo of a laundry room and added Meliora laundry detergent. Natural-looking shadows and the right product placement make the photo look as real as a “regular” photoshoot. 

You can use composites for white background product shots too. Suppose you want your customers to be able to better gauge the dimensions of your product by adding a person to the photo. You can use this photo editing method even on complex products like the industrial machinery unit below. The editor will first remove the background, change it to white, and then add a realistic-sized model.

Build a library of visual assets for your team

As your brand’s digital assets grow—from unedited product shots to cutouts to creative brand images—it makes sense to consider a streamlined workflow for saving and managing your visuals. It will be easier for everyone in the company to filter, search, and track all past orders and uses of photos.

Not only will a system like this speed up content creation for your marketing team, but you will also avoid paying twice for something your brand already owns. There are more ways than one to organize your files. From simple libraries on the cloud storage to more sophisticated digital asset management (DAM) software, the choice is yours.

Giving new life to product photos

With so many options for using background removal to spice up your product photos, the hardest choice is deciding where to begin. If your brand needs a helping hand with building up a library of background-free product shots, our experienced team of editors can help you get started.

The post How to Use Background Removal Services to Improve Your Product Photos appeared first on Path Edits.

Not sure which other photo editing tricks can bring the needed drama and extra definition to your product images? Let’s explore your options with before / after examples so you can learn to spot the needed photo editing technique.

1. Background removal via image masking

While clipping paths are ideal for removing backgrounds from items with straightforward edges, not every job is clean. In some cases, we have hair, fur, grass, and other fine details that don’t lend themselves to the nice clean lines we use when we create clipping paths. For images with these hairy details, image masking, compared to clipping paths, is the way to go.

Image masking is a more advanced method of background removal that’s also more detailed and time-consuming. This is why we use it as needed, not as a go-to choice.

The masking post-production technique uses artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize the borders of an object and make some parts of the image transparent, bringing pixel intensity of the identified parts to zero.

Generally, the more complex your object’s silhouette, the higher resolution you’ll need to use when editing—and the more likely image masking will yield cleaner, true-to-life results.

2. Get rid of product blemishes and imperfections

However carefully you handle your object during a photoshoot, the inevitable fingerprint, dust, smudge, or otherwise imperfect spot will make an appearance.

If you have these issues in your shot, photo retouching can help. The best retouching method depends largely on the material and reflectiveness of the item.

In the example below, a chair image was improved by removing the inconsistent spots that appear on the fuzzy suede-like material. The original image shows the fabric’s imperfections, whereas the edited image shows the product as it’s meant to be displayed.

3. Smooth wrinkles on fabric

While you want to iron or steam any fabrics prior to shooting, wrinkles and imperfections are also typically inevitable. Photoshoots are long and models are only human—an odd deep crease is almost unavoidable on most of the fabrics. You can use a “digital iron” to smooth out those wrinkles in Photoshop.

In this case, the Healing Brush Tool, Clone Stamp, and Content Aware Fill Tool help to make a perfect photo even with slight imperfections.

Check out how retouching turned a pair of messy, heavily creased shorts into a neat pair from visibly natural materials in the example below from fashion boutique Motif Concept Store.

4. Add or remove reflections

While some lighting effects are intentional, product shots can also end up with the occasional glare, reflection, or otherwise unwanted distraction due to light. Natural lighting is best for product photography, but you can’t control it. And setting up artificial lighting for your product photoshoot requires advanced skills and expensive equipment.

In other cases, you might want to add a reflection of a product to your shot. Maybe you weren’t able to get the angle right, the lighting wasn’t working, or you didn’t have a reflective surface available for the shoot. This is also possible in Photoshop. These images work well in print and digital ads, social media imagery, emails, and other marketing collateral.

5. Remove price tags and hangers

When shooting products, it’s best to remove price tags, hangers, and other distracting elements prior to taking the pictures. But that’s not always possible. Sometimes, you need to rely on Photoshop to remove these items after the fact.

And while it might seem straightforward, removing these unwanted elements may involve a combination of post-editing techniques like clipping paths, image masking, the healing brush, and more.

6. Change colors in Photoshop instead of taking new shots

When you have a product available in a number of colors or prints, but otherwise the design is exactly the same, you can simply change the color in Photoshop. Rather than spending time and money on coordinating an entirely new shoot for each new print or variant, you can prep your images using the content you already have.

Best part is, because it’s tedious and not too advanced, color change is a service you can easily outsource. Check out how natural the edited khaki shorts look in the example below.

7. Add shadow for dimension on white background

It may seem trivial to a novice in ecommerce sales, but every seasoned etailer knows the value of a drop shadow in the background. It gives an object extra dimension and depth, helping it jump off the page instead of looking flat and lifeless. Moreover, items look more realistic with a shadow.

See how a small natural show turns this flat image of earrings into a more realistic photo that jumps off the screen. It almost gives it a 3D-like quality.

Creating realistic drop shadows to a series of products styled as a web catalog needs a lot of attention, as the shadows should contribute to the general feel of consistency and professionalism, as opposed to creating a chaotic feel to the listings. And you want to make sure your shadows are realistic. Bad shadows could make your image look low-quality and spark mistrust in your audience.

8. Add a ghost mannequin for apparel product photos

To do ghost mannequin edits, you’ll need to know ahead of time. While other editing techniques can be applied to almost any product image, ghost mannequin photos must be shot and edited a certain way. You can’t just shoot an image of a T-shirt in a flat lay mode and then convert it to the ghost mannequin type. You have to take a picture of a garment on a mannequin to enable further manipulations.

This image editing technique is a popular compromise for brands that need models for their apparel photos but don’t have the ability to hire models for shoots. So it has the best of both worlds: it doesn’t cost a small fortune, but it looks almost as if worn by a person, making it easier for potential buyers to picture wearing it.

Depending on the garment cut, you may need to do one or a combination of ghost mannequin services: neck joint service, bottom joint service, or sleeve joint service. The most advanced technique in this category is called mannequin to model, where a piece of clothing is Photoshopped onto a model. The trick here is to make sure both plastic and live models are in the same pose.

Product photo enhancements as a service

Ecommerce photos almost always go through post-processing enhancements to be able to effectively do their job of attracting customers, educating them about the product, and ultimately converting them into buyers.

No Photoshop skills or spare time to do it yourself? You can outsource the most tedious and time-consuming edits to Path, your virtual photo-editing studio. Our edits start at just 39¢ per photo, and every edit is completed by hand—not some automated, mistake-prone software. 

The post Beyond Clipping Paths: 8 Ways to Improve Product Photos in Post-Production appeared first on Path Edits.