It’s very important that your product photography looks the best it can. It’s often the only thing your customer is going to see of your product before you get a chance to explain what it does and why they should buy it. Here are some ecommerce photo editing tools you can use to make sure your photos look as good as possible.
You want to sell more products and make more money, right? Obviously. But it isn’t always just about the product. You need quality images of your products so you can use those photos to help sell your products online. When doing product photography, you might think you only need a camera and simple lighting. After all, if it looks good on a phone screen or monitor, it’ll be fine in print, right? Wrong again! While taking great product photos is important to a successful ecommerce business, editing your photos is equally important. Why you ask? Because no matter how good your product images may look before editing, they will most likely get worse after editing. Nevertheless, there are some ecommerce photo editors which are guaranteed to be good for your business.
Unfortunately, the former two are under your jurisdiction, but we can help with the latter. Our suggestion? Start by getting the right photo editing apps.
These will give you the polished, professional edge your audience will love. Need a little guidance here? Don’t worry. Here are seven of the best apps you can snag for yourself today.
Adobe Photoshop is probably the most prominent, influential, and widely-known photo editor in the world. The downsides, though, are that it costs a pretty penny and is far from the most intuitive thing ever.
That’s where Photoshop Express comes in. Unlike its big brother, Express is super accessible, intuitive, and available in free options and paid!
Even industry experts champion it as one of the best photo editing apps on the market, and after giving it a try for yourself, it’s easy to see why.
Best Features
While Photoshop Express might not have quite the same depth as the original, it’s still got its fair share of great features.
Light and color balance correction, framing options, word tools/text addition, transformation tools, and more are all here and work pretty effortlessly.
There’s also a swath of fantastic crop options, including presets for all major social media platforms, so posting is quicker than ever before.
Pros:
- Offers a free option
- Easy to use
- Wide range of photo effects and cropping presets
- Text layering is simple and looks wonderful
Cons:
- Retouching could be better
- More robust features require a subscription
Falling under a similar category as Photoshop Express, Pixlr is a photo editing app that influencers and eCommerce brands can use quickly and on-the-go.
Also similar to Express, it gives plenty of flexibility and a decent amount of depth for a mobile solution without being too overwhelming for total editing newbies.
The two are highly comparable, but like anything, people have their preferences. Download it today and find out what yours is.
Best Features
Pixlr has all the go-to features that you need for a terrific ad, social media post, or anything else of that nature. Effects, adjustments, filters, general retouching, and text additions play a big role in the app and function well for the most part.
Its quick-fixes and adjustments are particularly good, as is its interface. Just a few taps, and you’re ready for posting. Simple and efficient.
Pros:
- The interface is suitable for beginners and professionals alike
- Free and premium options available
- Pre-made filters are beautiful
- Free stock images are surprisingly good
Cons:
- The number of templates leaves something to be desired
- Buggier than some of the competition
If you haven’t heard about Crello before now, you were cheated. Crello isn’t just another photo editing app; it’s a full business content creation tool with a lot to offer.
The app is unique in a saturated market, partially because it is a SaaS software, allowing for all sorts of hardware use.
This in addition to its fantastic design tools, atypical, animated options, and dedicated development team, it’s no wonder thousands of people and eCommerce brands have come to swear by it.
Best Features
Reviews of Crello are high across the board, thanks to the app’s various templates and its animation features. The former of these is extremely good.
There’s pretty much a template for any occasion, all of which look highly professional and well done while giving plenty of customizability for consistent branding. And as for the animation?
They’re probably the most highly praised feature of them all – not too complicated to figure out, inspired, and fun.
Pros:
- First-class animation and video features
- Lots of cool, customizable templates
- Content is frequently updated
- Layouts and stock photos are high-quality
Cons:
- Search function could use work
- Not as user-friendly as some competitors
- Some people have had issues with the upload section
In recent years, Canva has seen a massive spike in popularity, largely due to its ease of use.
The app itself is intuitive and requires very little time to master, ideal for eCommerce businesses who want to focus on their products or services rather than on conquering an editing software’s learning curve.
Much like other similar apps, Canva comes in both a free and premium version and boasts everything from frames to filters, effects, text, etc., all without a complicated UI getting in the way.
Best Features
Canva’s a photo editing app and a full graphic design tool, and this is reflected throughout the app’s entirety.
Its photo adjustment tab does its job and does it well, allowing all the usual brightness, contrast, and saturation sliders as well as settings to alter blur, x-process, and more.
What’s truly stellar, however, is Canva’s varied and professional built-in stock photos and app integration. The first of these likely have everything you need, but if not?
The app integration is a lifesaver with Pexels, Pixabay, YouTube, and even GIPHY right there for all your content-inclusion needs.
Pros:
- User-friendly regardless of experience
- Font selection is varied
- Very cost-effective
- Plenty of included stock images
Cons:
- Templates aren’t as impressive as in other applications
- Free version can be somewhat limiting
The VSCO girl trend may be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the app, but it deserves more of a legacy than only this.
VSCO is actually a respectable photography application and sharing platform that functions on a “creator-first” basis. It encourages both creativity and simplicity, focusing on minor fixes and adjustments to create the best-looking photos possible without making them look too edited.
The editing solution isn’t quite up there with the likes of Photoshop or Crello and company, but it’s perfected the basics and done it in style.
Best Features
As said before, the VSCO app isn’t here for the dramatic changes and content creation that some others out there are. Instead, it’s all about the small details.
Get those right, and the photo will look fantastic. Luckily, the app offers a suite of features to help in this endeavor. Although, two of the best include X-skew and Y-skew, which allows you to effectively stretch the photo along its respective axis to change the photo’s angle.
The camera controls are also a hit, aiding you in shooting the best product photography, ad photography, or anything else you can throw at it.
Pros:
- Filters aren’t overly stylized but still make a big difference
- Allows for frustration-free angle changes
- Advanced camera controls
- Angle modification truly changes the photo editing game
Cons:
- A bit too simple for eCommerce and other businesses to use as an all-in-one solution
- Most filters require the paid version
- Other paid software makes more financial sense
While Adobe may have already had one product make this list, Lightroom still more than deserves a spot amongst the top elite.
Slick and well-designed, it has some powerful editing tools within its depths, and its constant updates just keep adding even more.
Photo Merge-HDR, downloadable and customizable presets, RAW file editing and uncommon adjustment tools are only a few of the things that make it stand out from the crowd.
Still, these alone make the photo editing app a special buy for any eCommerce brand, professional photographer, or devoted graphics artist.
Best Features
The unusual and underrepresented features shine when you’re dealing with such professional and thorough editing solutions – and this is no different with Lightroom.
Many of them aren’t even direct photography tools and are instead quality of life upgrades and shortcuts. Setting transfer and a Quick develop panel are two of our favorites as they allow you to apply image adjustments and preset applications with a single click instead of several.
You then get more done in less time. What’s not to like about that?
Pros:
- Simpler to master than many other apps
- Robust and clean UI
- Plenty of editing tools to play around with
- Available free and paid, mobile and PC
Cons:
- Fairly expensive
- Limited sharing options
- Fine detail alterations are better suited to Photoshop
Don’t recognize this one on the list? BeFunky is a comprehensive editor and graphic design solution that’s made specifically to craft marketing campaigns.
eCommerce brands, pay attention! Fonts, frames, and filters get the focus they deserve, with tons offered even in the free version. Cropping, color, and temp edits and overlays haven’t been forgotten either, adding up to an editor you can trust.
There are also no ads, no watermarks, and no other unnecessary distractions, so you can do what you do best with no interruptions.
Best Features
As to be expected, BeFunky’s interface is intuitive and not overly crowded or complex. This allows just about anyone to pick it up and use it to its full potential, all without too much of a struggle.
Beyond just the user-friendliness of the app, its drag and drop editing themed effects, and templates are real stars of the show.
Integrated stock photo options through Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash just sweeten the deal for a photo editing app that can do a little bit of everything.
Pros:
- Free and inexpensive premium option
- Features partnerships with several stock image sites
- Navigation is a cinch
Cons:
- No eraser tool is a total pain
- Many features are behind a paywall
- View Larger Image
- 11 Best Picture Apps for Creating Amazing Product Images
Our brains are hardwired to be attracted to what we perceive as visually appealing. The more attractive something appears, the more attention you’ll give it. This is why you will be needing some picture apps to achieve the amazing product images.
This same concept applies to online shopping, the more attractive the product images are in your store, the more attention they will get.
So how do you make product images more attractive? It starts with the image itself. Every product in your store should have a number of high-quality images that represent the product from many different angles and showcases the product as it’s intended to be used.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a professional photographer. You just need a little imagination and a decent camera or smartphone. Having a little knowledge of lighting and basic photography concepts will also help.
So how do you make the pictures you just took go from just “ok” to amazing?
Enter online image editors.
Image editors take “ok” images and make them look professional.
Here’s our list of the top image editors for beginners.
The Best Free Photo Editing Apps
1. BeFunky
Easy, intuitive, and feature-rich, BeFunky makes image editing and manipulation a piece of cake with an intuitive interface and powerful features. They offer a free version that does pretty much everything you need, or you can upgrade and get frames, effects, collage templates, and more stickers for $4.95/month.
2. Pixlr
Recommended for the beginners, Pixlr just makes image editing easy. The Pixlr editor requires Flash player to run. Might not be a problem for everyone but I was prompted to download it. Once you overcome that step, you’re in image editing heaven, this one is one of the friendliest picture apps.
3. PicMonkey
Recommended for individuals who like overlays and adding text to images, Picmonkey is a great image editor with a lot of kick-butt tools. In addition to the editor, they give you hub storage for up to 50 images on the basic plan. They have a free trial. Once that expires you’ll be paying $7.99 a month.
4. Canva
While Canva has some limitations with basic photo editing, it’s still an excellent product for a picture app. It comes ready with preset image sizes for social media, blog postings and more. In addition to great layering functions, it has some really awesome font tools that allow you to create some very eye-catching images. They offer a free version which is fine, but the templates are limited in this offering. If you want an unlimited access of their templates, you’ll be paying $12.95 a month.
5. Crello
Just like Canva, it is made for marketing material, social media posts, and other blogging activities. It has a gorgeous interface and all of the templates are updated and trendy which makes Crello different from any other picture apps.
6. iPiccy
It includes an extensive variety of easy web-based picture app tools. It comes in as a chrome extension and requires Flash. It gives users the ability to quickly enhance, share, and even print photos. Solid offering and highly rated in the Chrome Webstore Directory.
7. Snappa
Another super easy, cloud-based graphics editor that gives you access to over 600,000 images and 5,000 templates. The free version lets you download 5 images. Upgrade to the paid version for $10 and get unlimited downloads and the ability to save your creations to their cloud.
The Best Paid Photo Editing Apps For Major Edits
8. Photoshop
The industry standard for image editing and manipulation, Photoshop is used extensively by graphic designers around the world. It has literally thousands of features and allows you to do pretty much anything you can think of to an image. That said, Photoshop isn’t something the average person can jump right into. It requires some basic image editing understanding to use this picture app. The good news is there are thousands of sites dedicated to helping you learn this amazing and powerful program. This is a paid application that can be used individually, or in combination with other Adobe apps. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
9. Lightroom
Like Photoshop, Lightroom is an incredibly powerful software program geared towards Photographers. Since the target market isn’t designers, you’ll notice it’s not quite as extensive as Photoshop. But if you’re a photographer looking to make your images look spectacular, this is your application. Part of the Adobe suite of products.
10. Affinity Photo
Affinity provides designers with a wide range of professional editing and publishing tools. For a one time price of about $50, you’ll get a lot of the tools found in applications costing a lot more. Like Photoshop, Affinity is geared towards professional designers. Works with both desktop and iPad.
11. Alien Skin-Exposure X3
Exposure X3 combines cutting-edge creative tools, stunning special effects, powerful organizing tools, and intuitive design into a fast, reliable RAW editor and organizer. Comes with a free 30 day trial, after that you’ll have to pay $149 for a lifetime license to the product.
Conclusion
When selling on the web, visuals matter. Numerous studies have concluded that webstores using high-quality, visually appealing images convert higher and grow faster. If your serious about selling online and haven’t looked into using a quality image editor, now is the time. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us below.
A customer’s first impression of your store is established the moment they land on your product page. It is crucial that you present your best shot at impressing them, and you do that by taking high quality photographs that accurately represent your products. Your shoppers have seen thousands of ecommerce stores with thousands of photos and it will be hard to stand out if you don’t put your best foot forward.