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Colour correction

Adjusting the colours of a photo so the product on screen matches the product in hand: neutral whites, the right brightness and an accurate hue.

Also called color correction · colour adjustment

With Herofab Colour variants

Model wearing the white strapless dress on a white background
Source photo: On a hanger. Made with Herofab · Virtual try-on

The order matters. White balance is set first, so that neutral areas are neutral; then brightness and contrast; only then the product's own colour, judged with the item held next to the screen in daylight. If one colour is still off, a selective adjustment of that hue alone fixes it without tinting the background or other products in the frame.

Some colours are hard for cameras. Navy and indigo tend to drift towards violet, saturated reds lose their texture, black fabric picks up a blue or brown tint, and two fabrics that match in one light can differ in another, an effect called metamerism. These are the colours to check one by one, and in a series of colour variants each variant is corrected against its own sample.

Correction aims at truth, not appeal. Raising saturation or warmth to make a product look richer creates a gap between the listing and the parcel, and that gap leads to returns. A photo recoloured to show another variant is checked against the real item too, since dyes and textures do not respond to light in the same way. The corrected file is then saved in sRGB so the result reaches the shopper unchanged.

Questions

Colour correction, answered.

Can I colour correct a whole batch of product photos at once?

Yes, when the photos were taken in the same light with the same camera settings. Correct one photo, then copy or sync its settings to the rest of the series. Mixed daylight, a moving sun or auto white balance break the method, since each frame then has its own cast, and each colour variant is still checked against its own sample.

Why does my product colour look different on my phone and laptop?

Because screens differ in brightness, colour temperature and gamut, and many are not calibrated. A shopper's screen is beyond the seller's control, so correct the photo on a calibrated screen or against the real item, and save it in sRGB. A final look on a phone is worthwhile too, since many shoppers browse on one, but adjust to the reference and not to every device.

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