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I'm trying to figure out the genuineness of a picture showing a ladies t-shirt at a web store --whether the color choices are actually different photos or if one photo was taken & the rest of the pictures (with the different colors ) achieved through image editing.

The model is posed so exactly the same in all the pictures that it defies the possibility of it being many photos, I think. I don't know image editing so am hoping you have patience with me. Is it obvious what was done? Is it image editing that changed the color? If yes, how? Is the exact shade matched using the editing tool or maybe a photo of the article is taken & the color transported to the original photo?

The url is: http://www.rosegal.com/t-shirts/stylish-lace-spliced-hem-long-200055.html

Thanks! - I would like to know for more reasons than one. I'm thinking of buying, but also would like to know for my own information how this kind of thing is done!

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  • Its fake and poorly done. You can tell by looking at her right hand (lower left) and her left shoulder (upper right) particularly on the lime green one is very obvious.
    – Ryan
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 18:34
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    As @Ryan mentioned, this looks fake to me. This is actually a very common practice, in online sales, as it is much easier (and cheaper) to simply alter the hue of a pre-existing image than it is to take images of a model in every single color avaible.
    – Manly
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 21:40
  • In my view this practice is dishonest, lazy and unprofessional. It's dishonest because it's not really how the product will look - you can't perfectly simulate color and lighting with a simple photoshop. It's unprofessional because you can tell it's fake - if you didn't see the bad edging then you'd see that it's the same pose. Can you imagine a professional company like Victoria's Secret doing this? I can accept stores that do this when they offer "design your own" products, such as your own t-shirt design - because the product doesn't actually exist yet so you are only seeing a rendering.
    – thomasrutter
    Commented Nov 4, 2015 at 2:22
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    BTW if they added a simple disclaimer "colors simulated" or "simulated" or something to the image it would cease to be dishonest, though it may still be unprofessional ;)
    – thomasrutter
    Commented Nov 4, 2015 at 2:24

2 Answers 2

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That's definitely edited. Look at the artifacting on the lace at the bottom of the item. Your intuition is also correct: there's no way for her to be perfectly posed exactly the same way.

Changing the colour is easy enough with some photoshop magic. Easiest/simplest solution is shooting the image with a green-screen-like top and simply replacing it in PS. The next best option is to shoot a neutral (say a neutral grey), carefully creating a selection, and then just using a color overlay.

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    +1 Even the necklace has been colored...! On bigger pictures, it's also possible sometimes to see "new pixels" by looking at the channels and anti-aliasing. The OP could always look at techniques used to "debunk" the moon landing pictures or the Zapruder film to learn some tricks (hah!)
    – go-junta
    Commented Nov 3, 2015 at 20:22
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There are many different ways to figure if an image has been edited or not. Without having to even click the link I can tell you that they are edited due to the fact that you said it was exactly the same pose.

As others have mentioned, the one you linked to is very photoshopped which becomes more obvious the more experience you have at looking for these types of things.

Moving on to answer some of your questions:

Is it obvious what was done?

It's obvious enough that the color was changed, yes.

Is it image editing that changed the color? If yes, how?

Yes. There's a lot of different way of changing colors of things in photoshop. This is where simple tutorials may come in handy.

Is the exact shade matched using the editing tool or maybe a photo of the article is taken & the color transported to the original photo?

I suspect the color is usually picked without using the actual article of clothing as reference (otherwise they might as well upload pictures of it). Instead they have some idea of what it will look like and mock it up in photoshop, which is what you get here.

I will also add that most of the time photos on clothing websites that offer multiple colors or various designs are photoshopped. Threadless for instance has a set number of models and poses and then they change the shirt color in photoshop and lay the design on top. This is by far cheaper than taking a real picture of every shirt that comes through, which involves paying models, photographers, and actually printing the shirt.

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