How to Use Lightroom for Jewelry Retouching

[tta_listen_btn]

When it comes to editing and retouching jewelry images, you will always think of using Photoshop first, as it is the popular choice for editing images among Photographers and Jewelry Editors. However, you can consider Lightroom for jewelry retouching. 

Why will I need Lightroom if I have Photoshop editing skills? It is only natural to have such a question coming to your head. So, let us first discuss how Lightroom can be an effective skill for your jewelry editing workflow.

Why would you use Lightroom for Jewelry over Photoshop?

Unlike Photoshop, where you can make edits to selected regions and enhance that particular area, Lightroom enhances the overall image, such as color correction. However, it has many features that help make your jewelry photos stand out without spending considerable time on individual pixels. 

Furthermore, another way to save time that helps speed up the overall jewelry editing workflow is by having the option to save the settings you used for a particular photo as a preset. You can then use this preset for all other images in your library. 

Using Lightroom for Jewelry Photo Retouching

When we are considering editing jewelry images, there are certain things we need to watch out for to make them attractive to potential customers. These are the color tone of the overall image, the brightness, and exposure, saturation, and contrast, or white balance. You might even need to retouch specific areas to remove inconsistencies. So, let us discuss how you can enhance these properties of your jewelry images in Lightroom:

Cropping and Straightening 

Doing this process before you start making global adjustments to your image is always advisable. No matter how accurately you can eyeball how straight your camera is while taking the photos, it may still be slightly off. Therefore, consider straightening your image. 

Now, you can consider cropping your jewelry photos to focus on the subject and make it the center of attention. Another reason to crop is to remove if you have anything unwanted in the background. 

To find this tool you have to check under the Histogram which is in the top panel. Furthermore, one of the features of Lightroom is the ability to straighten automatically. However, if this doesn’t work, you can straighten the image manually from the Crop & Straighten Tool. 

Adjusting White Balance

Adjusting the white balance is something you should consider while taking the photograph itself. Set the white balance using the camera setting. White balance adjustments are necessary, so the image looks natural without looking too warm or cool. Furthermore, without it, it could lead to color inaccuracies which can deter potential customers.

However, when white balance adjustments have not been considered during the photographing process, you can consider using the option presented in Lightroom. 

You can find the Basic tab under the Histogram, where you can see sliders for the various things you can adjust to enhance your images. To adjust the white balance in Lightroom for jewelry retouching, click on the eyedropper tool and select an area with neutral colors. Once you have selected an area with neutral colors, Lightroom will automatically adjust the color temperature of your jewelry image. 

Adjusting the Tone

Now balancing how your colors appear or when the shadows are crushed or the highlights are blown off is something you must consider while editing your jewelry photos. 

Under the Tone section, there is an option for automatically adjusting the tone. However, the results may be different from what you are looking for. Therefore, you can use the slider for each option, such as Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, or Blacks. It is the section where you will spend the most time tweaking each setting to adjust how you want your image to appear.

Adjusting the Presence

Now the options for Saturation and Vibrance in under the Presence Section. Usually, when you are taking images, they are taken in RAW format. The colors in RAW are usually muted. You can adjust the sliders for Vibrance and Saturation to boost the colors while staying true to the natural color of the jewelry. Thus, considerably enhancing the picture so they are enticing for customers.

Conclusion

Let us conclude with one last option you can consider for retouching your jewelry photos. Once you are done adjusting your image, you can use the Spot Removal tool to make the final touches to remove any inconsistencies in the image. So, there you have it; using Lightroom for jewelry photo retouching can provide a complete editing package.

Frequency Asked Questions [Lightroom for Jewelry]

Q.1 Can you sharpen the jewelry image in Lightroom?

Ans. Yes, you can sharpen the jewelry image in Lightroom. However, you must do this at the end of all other adjustments that you needed to make. Furthermore, make sure to sharpen selected objects, like for example the jewelry item. You can sharpen that to have defined edges and bring focus to the product itself. 

Q.2 Does the Spot Removal Tool work in a similar way to that in Photoshop?

Ans. Yes, the Spot Removal Tool works similarly. You must adjust the size of the brush and click on the area you want to adjust and move it to the area you want to take the sample from. It will replace it with the sampled area.