Taking images that represent a product or a business is more challenging than it seems. Sometimes, it’s impossible to eliminate all the distractions from a photo. What then? Do you just use the image of that car for sale in an overcrowded parking lot, or that photo of a brick-and-mortar store with parking signs and vehicles blocking much of the view? You don’t have to—that’s where image clipping comes in.
Image clipping is the act of cutting one section of an image for a number of different effects. Image clipping is used to cut distractions out of an image, to remove a background and replace it with another, or to create a transparent background behind an object, among many other possibilities. So why do businesses need image clipping? Image clipping results in professional photos and marketing materials—here are seven ways the process does just that.
Image Clipping Highlights the Best Features
When you shop for fine jewelry, the items are often displayed in a well-lit case on black fabric. Why? Because the light makes the jewelry shine, and the black highlights the sparkle of those diamonds, drawing out their best features. It’s the same way with product photography and other types of images used to promote a business. Every element of the image needs to work together to make that item feel like a freshly shined diamond on display.
Take product photography, for example. The best product photos show off the item to potential buyers until they can’t help but click that add to cart button. Image clipping allows that by making sure every element of the photo is working to show off the product in style.
Image Clipping Cuts Out the Distractions
On the opposite end, image clipping also helps to cut out the distractions. Just like a jewelry salesman doesn’t want lint on that black fabric, eCommerce businesses don’t want distracting elements in the background taking any of the attention off the product itself. Image clipping fixes that by removing any distracting items to really highlight the product itself.
Say there’s a wrinkle on the backdrop, or maybe the background wasn’t even big enough. Or perhaps you are selling items too large to fit on a backdrop—like a car. Image clipping services can take a car photographed in a parking lot and make it appear like it was instead shot in an expensive studio with a distraction-free background.
Outside of eCommerce, image clipping can also be helpful for brick-and-mortar stores. Photographing the storefront, for example, isn’t always easy. In many cases, there may be parking signs in the way or even another businesses close by that appear in the background. Image clipping can resolve both those issues, eliminating all the distractions.
Many Designs Call For Transparent Backgrounds
Major online stores like Amazon have one big thing in common on their product pages—images are presented with just the product, on a transparent background. From websites to marketing materials, transparent backgrounds highlight the product, and are even a necessity for many types of design.
By selecting just part of the image and using a transparent background instead, products can be easily added to any promotional material for a seamless look. If your website has a colored background, a product on a white background is going to look rather off in your design. Multiple products can be overlapped into one and still look great if those photos have been properly clipped.
Because #PhotoshopFail Isn’t Good Publicity
Some image edits are simple to do—but image clipping is not one of them. When clipping one image and adding it to another, there’s more to it than just simple cutting and pasting.
When combining two images, it takes a professional to truly get them to blend seamlessly and make sure the light, colors and edges all make it appear as if the photo was taken that way. While Photoshop fails may be funny, they aren’t so humorous when it’s your business that made the mistake.
Image Clipping Creates a Uniform Look across All Marketing Materials
Unless all your photos were taken on the same day by the same photographer, they aren’t going to look similar. But, with image editing, they can. By editing all of the images in the same way, the photos businesses use from their website to their advertising materials can all have a uniform look.
Product photos can be a big challenge when it comes to uniformity, especially for businesses that are continually adding new products, which of course means new photographs. Image clipping can put the product on the same background, with the same look across all the images.
Quality Images Are Part of a Quality Brand
Every single thing a business presents to the public works together to create a brand, images included. If you are presenting potential customers with images full of distractions and ads with awkward, unblended images, what is that saying about your brand? Don’t let potential customers think your business isn’t professional with unprofessional images. Image clipping gives photos that final nudge to pro-level quality.
Professional Photos Generate More Sales
But the biggest reason for businesses to use image clipping is this: great, professional images generate more sales. A customer shopping for a car is going to have a much different impression of the vehicle presented on a clean white background than one that’s photographed in an overcrowded parking lot. An ad with boxy, plain photos isn’t going to capture anyone’s interest. Numerous eCommerce businesses have reported increases in sales with one simple change—replacing images with professional quality shots. Images that are professionally edited—including image clipping to eliminate distractions and highlight the best features—are more likely to result in sales than unedited photos.
A business can quickly look unprofessional if their images are unprofessional. Image clipping takes a photo and transforms it into one that represents the business best. Whether it’s creating a transparent background on product photos or blending photos for an ad, image clipping takes photos to the next level, making it a must for businesses.
– SmartPHOTOeditors
SmartPHOTOeditors
Prev
