The best jewelry photos aren’t made through photography skills alone. To get the best shots to use for your client’s website, you’ll want to fix even the smallest flaws in your image with the best photo editing app for jewelry. These are the apps that allow you to polish your images and edit out these tiny flaws while still making your images look naturally radiant. Using a jewelry photo editing app is what makes the difference between images that simply show what your client’s product looks like and images that bring out the best in a product.
But with plenty of jewelry editing and retouching software, how can you tell which is the best one for your jewelry retouching techniques? As a skilled provider of professional photo retouching services, we work with the latest and most efficient retouching programs for photographers and brands, including jewelers. Here are some of the best photo editing apps and software for jewelry images.
Adobe Photoshop
While we recommend just getting the Adobe Creative Cloud for full access to all of Adobe’s creative apps, this can be a bit expensive, especially if you aren’t an editor planning to extend your services to video and web design. For the editor specializing in retouching images, Photoshop is the one staple you should have in your arsenal of tools. As of writing, the latest edition is Version 23, which was released in October 2021 and updated in February 2022.
We recommend Photoshop because it’s the jack of all trades that’s perfect for editors on every level. Photoshop is a common tool for editors and designers that, if you’re a beginner, you’ll find plenty of tutorials online, as well as a community of editors that can provide feedback and answer your questions. With Photoshop’s number of tools, you can easily develop your skills and improve until you’ve gotten a hang of its different useful retouching features.
If you’re planning to get Photoshop, we recommend getting it on a PC or Mac, since these give you the full benefits of jewelry editing software. Photoshop is also available on the App Store for iPads and some versions of the iPhone, but this is only a Photoshop Express version which offers very limited features. Also, the file for Photoshop Express is different from the .psd we’re used to on the PC or Mac, and there may be some slight differences to the quality we’ve come to expect from Photoshop.
Adobe Lightroom
Although technically a subset of Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom has gained popularity as its own jewelry retouching software. Lightroom’s latest version, Version 11, was released on October 2021 and recently updated on August 2022.
While Photoshop’s features focus more on editing different features of an image that are great for touching up blemishes and flaws, Lightroom is best used for image settings that affect the entire photograph, such as features like white balance, brightness, contrast, tone, filters, and more. Lightroom is also popular for its preset filters, which you can use to ensure multiple images have similar aesthetics and settings.
Unlike Photoshop, which has to have an express version on mobile devices, Lightroom offers a lot more extensive features. However, only some of the basic features are available for free on the mobile app for iOS and Android users, and premium membership is required to get a full taste of the jewelry photo editing app on your mobile device. Lightroom accounts also have the flexibility to let you work on both your mobile devices and desktop.
However, given that Lightroom only covers certain portions of retouching and can do very little when it comes to flaws, we recommend pairing Lightroom with Photoshop. Lightroom offers more versatility with image settings, while Photoshop can handle the blemishes that need editing out.
Afterlight
Afterlight is a jewelry photo editing app for those who want a more versatile and affordable version of Lightroom plus a few basic editing features from Photoshop. its most popular features include its high quality filters and real film textures created by professional photographers. With over 130 filters and 20 tools, Afterlight gives you a comprehensive and versatile platform to edit your images to your desired aesthetic.
Afterlight is available for all iOS devices and Android. While the app is free on both operating systems, it offers monthly and yearly subscriptions to get exclusive access to things like fonts, designs, frames, borders, and premium presets. However, most reviews claim that the interface on Android lacks some of the important tools that are present on iOS. So, if you have to buy an account, it’s best to get it from an Apple device to get the most out of your account.
Picsart Photo & Video Editor
Picsart’s popular app offers both photo and video editing all in one app. Although it’s most popular for social media users, given the app’s social network integration, its features make even its free version a versatile tool as one of the best photo editing apps for jewelry.
The Picsart photo editing app offers a wide array of tools that cover both retouching and adjustment settings. Its free version offers a number of tools similar to Photoshop, as well as filters, adjustment settings, and automatic retouching tools for people and objects.
Users can also opt to purchase a Picsart Gold membership, which gives them access to additional tools such as the Remove tool, AI enhancements, certain retouching tools, and a feature to quickly remove the background of an image. Picsart is available on iOS, Android, and Windows devices. Since 2020, Picsart is now available on Windows, but only for operating systems with Windows 8.1 or higher.
VSCO
VSCO is another popular software that can serve as a jewelry photo editing app for those on the go. Although VSCO is synonymous for social media users who curate their aesthetics, its features rival that of Lightroom’s own mobile device features.
VSCO includes over 200 presets, advanced adjustment tools, and the ability to edit a large number of photos with the same filter. It’s also known for its community of photographers and content creators where you can get plenty of inspiration when thinking about ideas that fit your product photography’s aesthetic.
Like most apps, VSCO is available for free for Android and iOS. However, full access to its offerings require an in-app purchase of their subscription.
Get Photo Retouching Services From Our Skilled Editors
These are just some of the best photo editing software for jewelry that we can recommend to editors of all levels who want to try their hand at jewelry photo editing services. Keep in mind that while some of these options are free, some of them require payment for use or require in-purchase apps before you can take advantage of the full set of tools the program has.
But if you’re looking for photo manipulation services from editors with years of experience building their skills, look no further than Paper Boat Creative. Our team offers high end photo editing services for various types of photography, including jewelry photography. We understand the tricky and delicate nature of bringing out the natural shine of jewelry pieces, so you can leave it to our team to produce photos that enhance the shimmer and luxury of your products.
Get in touch with us today for a free demo of our services using the latest apps and software in the industry.
