How to Keep Product Color Consistent

On set

• Shoot a color target in the same light as the product, and again whenever the light changes.
• Keep the physical product or a sample available for the retoucher.
• Watch for colored light bouncing off walls, floors and nearby props onto the product.
• Keep the camera and lighting as consistent as you can across a set.

In post-production

Match to something physical if you can, viewed under controlled light on a calibrated screen. If that isn't possible, use a brand color standard such as a Pantone number, or one approved image that everything else follows.

Match the product first, then build any creative look around it, and keep that look away from the product itself where accuracy matters. Color correction vs color grading explains why that order matters.

The colors that cause the most trouble

• Saturated reds, blues and greens, which cameras and printers both struggle to hold.
• Fabrics that change color under different light, which can look right in the studio and wrong outdoors.
• Black and white products, which pick up color casts and lose detail easily.
• Metallic and shiny finishes, whose color depends on what they reflect.

Across screens and print

You can't control every phone, so aim for correct, standard files: sRGB for the web, and the printer's CMYK profile for print. Some saturated colors can't be printed at all, so it's better to find that out with a proof than at the printer. How to prepare retouched images for print covers the details.

For the same image in many sizes, see one campaign, every format. Our color correction and commercial retouching pages cover how we can help.