Elevate Your Visuals

It has been almost 200 years since Nicéphore Niépce took the world's first surviving photograph with the first proper camera. 

Little did he know the blurry image of his Burgundy estate in 1826 would not only go on to become a multi-billion-dollar business and a key component of global commerce, but it would also be creatively retouched, making it easier to see its details.

As content creation specialists, with a client portfolio that includes Boden, Fatface and Charles Tyrwhitt, we know there's much more to product photography than snapping a camera lens and publishing the resulting image.

There is a world of difference between the photos taken at a studio shoot and the final image consumers see in a catalogue or on a website.

It takes a team of creative retouching experts, acting as a seamless, well-oiled machine to achieve the perfect result, on the page and on the web, on budget and on time.

At ec2i, that's our business as usual.

Photographers have been thinkering with their images ever since Niépce's groundbreaking work. 

As demand for professional photography services has grown over the decades, so the talent and techniques needed to get the most out of images has evolved.

It wasn't long before technology was invented to accelerate and improve the changes that could be made to photographs, with subsequent iterations leading us to the suite of tools available today.

The creative retouching team at ec2i are experts in the latest, state-of-the-art digital systems that maximise results for all our business clients.

Our process creates perfectly colour-matched shots, crammed with detail and depth, saving them money and time.

Great photographers bring lots of services to the table: imagination, dexterity and an ability to think on their feet.

Despite even the most careful planning, something can be thrown into the photo shoot mix that can throw things off. The weather takes a turn for the worse of the product being photographed changes in some way.

Thanks a lot to our creative retouching services, achieving consistency across a campaign isn't a problem. But what exactly are those services, and how can they help you?

There’s a subtle but distinct difference between the art of retouching photos and the process of editing them. 

Editing a photo usually means cropping or straightening it, balancing light, or adjusting the exposure. 

Retouching can be used to change or even remove the actual components within a shot. We can do that in several different ways.

The faces that cram the pages of beauty websites, magazines and catalogues are as inspiring as they are beautiful.

Yet an original image of these gorgeous creatures often looks nothing like the final result we see on a giant billboard or a glossy front cover. 

Even the biggest name can arrive at a shoot with skin blemishes, or during a bad hair day, but you would never know it. 

That’s because (with some notable exceptions, actor Kate Winslet being the most famous one) our experienced team has been able to work its high end retouching magic - and not just on the models. 

From instantly removing shadows on a wall or erasing stray hairs to changing the depth of backgrounds, or smoothing the textures of a fabric. 

The range of techniques our retouching experts offer focuses on the detail in a photograph, turning good beauty shots into great ones.

While a photographer can control the light effects in a studio down to the finest shadow, taking the process outside can lead to rather more mixed results. 

Location shoots, no matter where in the world they take place, can include some degree of risk when it comes to the light for the photography. 

Overcast days, unexpected shadows cast by buildings or even a lack of access to a particular place can all have an impact on the final images. 

It’s not something our customers have to worry about, thanks to our creative retouching specialists, who can ensure the final photographs deliver the brand message. 

They know exactly how to brighten a dull part of an image without oversaturating the whole photograph, retouch harsh lighting to soften images, or even change the colour temperature of a photo. 

All while ensuring they stay on-brief. 

When the lighting is right, the colours of your product in a photograph will pop. Yet will they look the same no matter where the final images are seen?

Getting the light right in an image is a hugely important area of focus for a brand’s commercial campaigns, but it’s only half the story. 

Remember the internet photograph of a dress that some were certain was blue and black, while others insisted it was white and gold?  

The answer to that conundrum lay in whether the viewer was an early bird or night owl, and therefore thought the photograph had been taken in natural or artificial light. Early risers saw a yellow and gold dress, while their counterparts saw black and blue.  

Viral internet puzzles aside, it is a neat demonstration of how colour accuracy is vitally important to businesses in the e-commerce, retail and multi-channel industries. 

But with hundreds of colour shades on the rainbow, how can brands be sure the products in their photos will look 100% the same, whether the image is reproduced in print or on the web? 

You come to us. 

Our expert team uses light booths, colour-calibrated monitors and a clean, white working area to deliver great results: high-quality photographs of products whose colours look the same. 

Whether the shots are gracing the pages of a glossy brochure, on the web, or lighting up social media, our retouching results are the same: quality and consistency, every time. 

One of the most exciting things about retail and e-commerce is the almost constant pace of change. You have to be ready for anything both in the studio and out of it. 

Businesses are required to both drive consumer demand and ensure they meet it, adding lots of work to their marketing department’s schedule. 

A popular product sells out; a business decides to expand the available colours of an item; another adds a new product to their range; a background wall at a location has been damaged by graffiti. All these things can happen after a studio photoshoot has finished. 

Don’t worry. Our retouching services can help in all these situations and more. Adding and removing image components as required, saving you money, time and stress. 

We can create a final image using compositions of several other photos taken in the studio, adding or removing items to combine them with existing image shots to extend the life of your digital or print catalogue. 

We have state-of-the-art camera equipment, and a purpose-built, on-site studio to photograph updated products, including footwear or garments. 

Our attention to detail means the final image will exactly recreate the original campaign shoots for a business client: from composition and studio lighting to colour grading and natural shadows. 

The expert retouchers at ec2i can also manipulate existing images, using Adobe Creative Suite, including Photoshop and Illustrator. 

Our service allows us to create multiple, perfectly-matched colourways for the same product, effortlessly remove obsolete items, change a background, and turn a wintry shot into a sun-drenched one. 

We offer all the retouching support you need to maximise resources and avoid costly reshoots. Our images can then be posted and published across all your marketing channels. 

It goes without saying that we work very closely with industry clients using our retouching service. 

The seamless, collaborative process gives our customers access to our online proofing and workflow tools. The client stays informed at every stage of retouching and is able to quickly approve projects. 

The result of that support means we can remove any potential delays or bottlenecks, and meet their retouching needs in the most efficient way possible. 

We bring all our essential services to the table, aiming to save clients time and money, and help bring their products to market more efficiently.

We have more than 20 years’ industry experience working with premium brands at ec2i, but that doesn’t mean we don’t relish getting our teeth into a new challenge. 

In the same way that the e-commerce world is always evolving, we’re constantly trying to find ways to better meet our clients’ needs, from tech tips and software developments to new talent who can bring something new to the images we offer.

Every brand wants to create eye-catching, memorable photography for advertising to expand their reach and engage as many customers as possible.

We ensure that happens. See our experts’ skills for yourself, with a free retouching test - it’s all part of our service. 

Do you want our creative retouching team to get involved with your latest project? Fantastic, we’re ready to help bring your campaign to life. 

If you have any other questions about creative retouching or any of our other services, drop us a line, we’d love to hear from you. 

Email info@ec2i.biz or use the contact us button below, and we’ll get back to you straight away.