Mobile Viewing

First I open the photo in Photoshop. I love this program so much, it’s an expense but when i use it every day and it’s fabulous i gladly spend less the money. I do the least expensive option: photography plan at $9.99 a month. Not an add i just love it! https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html#mini-plans-web-cta-photoshop-card

Open Image

Once I have the photo open in photoshop I double click on the background layer and rename it original. 

Crop

Next we will crop the photo. If you are going to use this image for your Etsy listings I like to use square, they look great following the thumbnail photo on Etsy and they can easily be used on instagram. After you crop just make sure your image is at least 2000 pixels on the shortest side. You can do this by selecting image>image size and check your dimensions.

Stretch Brightness with Levels 

Next we will adjust levels, levels allows you to stretch the brightness of an image without loosing detail. Once you click on the levels adjustments you’ll see the histogram, all you need to do is drag the right white tab towards the mountain of the histogram. I find it best to stay right on the edge of the mountain for the best result. 

Color Correction with Curves

Next we will adjust the curves, curves allow you to ensure your color is correct. You’ll be able to ensure that you image isn’t too yellow or blue, essentially we are making sure our white balance is correct. You’ll want to make sure you do these next steps in the exact order, if you miss a step the effect won’t be correct. First select Curves from the adjustments pane. Next, I select the layer thumbnail in the layers panel, double click on the white eye dropper (the color picker box should display) and then select a part of the image that should be a white color. You’ll notice when you move your color picker around the white areas the RGB numbers are changing, this is telling you the amount of R: Red, G: Green, and B: Blue that are in that specific area of your photo. Our goal is to get those numbers to be the same. To do this click on a spot that should be a white color, leave your mouse curser there and hit the tab key, keep tabbing until you get to the R, G, and B values. Identify the highest R,G,B value and match the others to that value. For example your R value may be 255, G: 234 and B: 222, R is the highest so make your G 255 and your B 255 as well. Once this is complete hit enter and enter again for no then click the mouse in the same spot and your white will now be white balanced. 

Light and Airy with Brightness

Next we will adjust the brightness. Select Brightness/Contrast from the adjustments pane, slide the brightness tab to the left or right to achieve the level of brightness you desire. I tend to bump my brightness to the right quite a bit to brighten my images. You can always change this later if you want to tweak this setting. 

Adjust Shadows

Next we are going to adjust the shadows in the image. First, right click on your original layer, click duplicate and name this layer shadows. Then go to image>adjustments>shadows/highlights. Adjust the amount of shadows to your liking. I try and slide the tab so I decrease the shadows for a light and airy feel. 

Adjusting just the Background, Lighten it up!

Next we are going to make the background even whiter, this will make your product be the center of attention and your image will look crisp. First, select your shadows layer, duplicate it and name it replace color. Then navigate to image>adjustments>replace color with the color picker choose part of the background and then slide the tab on lightness to the right to lighten the image. You’ll notice that your object is getting light too, don’t worry we will bring back the detail in the next step so just focus on getting your background nice and light. You can also adjust the fuzziness tab to determine how much of the image is effected. I bring the tab to a point where the brightness has covered the background. Then select okay.

 Now we are going to bring back the detail in our object. To do this we will select the replace color layer and navigate down and select add a vector mask. Then select the layer mask (the right hand portion of the replace color layer and then select your brush tool, in the brush drop down input 30% hardness and change your color you’ll be using to black. Now brush over your object, adjust the size of your brush to efficiently cover the area of your object. If you are having trouble staying in the lines of your object the object selection tool is a great tool to use to highlight only your object so you can easily paint on just your object. Make sure you are selected on your replace color mask layer once you brush. You’ll see your area start to fill in if you look at the replace color layer, notice the black area taking shape? 

All Set, any final Adjustments?

Next take a look at your image, do you want to make any changes? Click on each individual layer and make any tweaks! Next select all your adjustment layers by clicking the first one then holding shift and selecting the last layer (excluding original) right click and select group layers. Now you can easily see your original layer and your group of edits. Click the eye icon on your group of layers to see what the original looks like and then click the eye again to bring back your adjustments. Looks great, doesn’t it! 

Save Image For Etsy

Finally select Layer, Flatten image and then file save as to select jpeg and save the image so you can upload it to Etsy or use on your favorite