How can I fix uneven lighting and white backgrounds in a clothing product shoot?
Asked 4/15/2013
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2 answers
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I photographed models wearing hats and scarves for a clothing brand, but the lighting was uneven. Some images show mixed color temperatures, with cooler light on one side and warmer light on the other, and the white background is not evenly bright. In a few shots there are also noticeable shadows on the background and the products are not lit as strongly as the models’ faces.
What retouching steps in Lightroom or Photoshop would help balance the color, brighten or clean up the background, and improve the product presentation for web use?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
5
So, looks like the photos had lights with different temperatures. Looks like a cool light source on the left and a warm light source on the right.
A straightforward approach would be to take it into Lightroom and apply a gradient with a countering color to cool the colors down from the right or warm up the image from the left, so that you have an equalized image.
Which way you go depends on how you want the final image to look.
EDIT: So, a quick workflow
- Import into Adobe Lightroom
- Apply a gradient, reducing the color temperature
- Then, reduce the "orange" in the scene a bit
- To brighten the background, I would use LR's "white" or "highlight" slider:
This takes the original from:
To this more balanced image:
To the background lightened image:
Originally by user19243. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user19243
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Yes—this is mainly a color-balance and background cleanup issue.
A good workflow is:
- Correct the mixed lighting first. If one side is warmer and the other cooler, use a graduated filter or local adjustment in Lightroom to add the opposite temperature/tint until the image looks even.
- Reduce excess orange/yellow tones if the warm side is too strong.
- Brighten the background with Whites/Highlights in Lightroom, or use Curves/Levels in Photoshop.
- If you want a pure white ecommerce look, use a curves adjustment and masking to push the background to white without over-brightening the subject.
- Use local adjustments to brighten the hats/scarves if the faces are lit better than the products.
- Consider a tighter crop that emphasizes the headwear and leaves a bit more space above the head.
For future shoots, move the models farther from the background to reduce harsh shadows, light the background separately so it goes white more easily, and make sure the product is lit at least as well as the face.
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