Colour correction and consistency for online stores

"The colour was different from the photo" is one of the most common reasons customers give when they send a product back. It is frustrating for both sides: the product was fine, the photo was not. Colour correction is the edit that closes that gap, and consistency is what makes a whole catalogue look trustworthy.

Why colours go wrong in product photos

• White balance — cameras guess the colour of the light, and a small error shifts every colour in the image.
• Mixed light — daylight from a window plus warm studio lights gives different colour casts in different parts of the frame.
• Reflected colour — a coloured wall or prop can tint a white product.
• Different shoots — the same product photographed months apart, with different equipment, rarely matches without correction.
• Screens — every screen shows colour slightly differently, which is why the standard sRGB colour profile matters for web images.

How professional colour correction works

1. Neutralise the image so whites are white and greys are grey.
2. Match to the product, ideally against the physical sample or a reference photo you approve.
3. Adjust brightness and contrast so detail is visible in both light and dark areas.
4. Export in sRGB for the web, so browsers show the colours as intended.

Our colour services also cover colourways: when a product comes in several colours, one well-shot photo can be recoloured to each variant, so every colour has an identical image in the same pose and light.

Colour variants: what to send with your order

Recolouring one photo into every colourway saves a reshoot for each colour, but the result is only as accurate as the reference the editor works from. To get variants right first time:

• Send a reference for every colour — a quick, well-lit phone photo of the real fabric or product next to a white sheet of paper is often enough.
• Name the colours exactly as they appear in your shop (for example "Forest Green", not just "green"), so files and listings match.
• Give a code if you have one: a Pantone, RAL or hex value from your supplier makes matching far more precise.
• Mention texture and finish — matte, glossy, heathered or metallic fabrics react differently to recolouring, and some (strong prints, mixed materials) are better photographed separately.

A good editor will tell you when a colour cannot be produced convincingly from the base photo — for example a very dark base turned into a very light colour — rather than delivering something that will disappoint customers.

Consistency across a catalogue

Correcting one photo is easy; keeping five thousand consistent is a process. What helps:

• One written specification for background, white balance target, margins, size and file type — applied to every order.
• Reference images per product line that new photos are matched to.
• The same editing team, or at least the same rules, over time.
• A review step: check a few images from each batch side by side with older ones before publishing.

In the Client Portal you save that specification once — background, size, margins, file types and colour profile — and choose it again on every new order.

A quick checklist before publishing

Try it on your own photos

Send a few products where colour matters most. Start a free trial in the Client Portal, upload a few product photos and compare the results with your current images — or tell us about your catalogue and we will suggest a workflow.