Ghost Mannequin Photography Made Simple

Mannequins allow your products to hold their shape, which can make product images seem more professional and consistent — thereby increasing their desirability to customers.If you’re in the apparel business, you’ve faced the challenge of demonstrating a product’s fit without breaking the bank or distracting your customer. Customers need to see the shape of a product, and flat or folded displays don’t provide the necessary level of detail. Your product photography must show the products being worn, but models are expensive and mannequins can be alienating.

The “ghost mannequin” effect, also known as the “invisible mannequin,” “3D mannequin,” or “hollow man,” is a simple and powerful post-production technique for apparel product photography that solves the showcase problem. The ghost mannequin effect allows you to take multiple photographs of a product on a model or mannequin, and then combine the photos to remove the model or mannequin in post-production processing. The result is a lifelike image that keeps the focus firmly on your product.

How To Use Ghost Mannequin Photography Effects?

Selecting and Posing a Model or Mannequin One of the most common fashion photography processes uses models or mannequins to showcase each product’s unique shape and fit.

Retailers sometimes opt to photograph their products being modeled, remove the models, and make the mannequins seem invisible later in Photoshop.

For smaller retailers who do most of their image editing themselves, removing models and mannequins can be a complex technique to master.

How to Do Ghost Mannequin Photography?

Let watch the below invisible mannequin clothing photos & see the step. Here the first one is covering the body & front view; the second one is an interior view. The final effects are the two images in one place in a human shape without a dummy in the third picture.

This remarkable transformation is known as Ghost Mannequin Photography.

Here you capture the two different photos & the ghost mannequin effect is generated by image post-production. If you want to avoid the post-production steps or hassle, you can take professional ghost mannequin services. They can provide you a similar high-quality photo.

Clothing photography ghost mannequin is an easy way to show the detailed view of your garments product—the opportunity to represent the 3D view that also allows displaying the backside of the clothing. Look at the below images & realize how easily customers can visualize your product & which increases traffic to your site.

The question is how to develop your photographic skill to capture the mannequin photo & what is the plan & strategy you need to follow. Read through the article to get the best idea & necessary guidelines for Ghost Mannequin Photography. Though the task is time-consuming, the success depends on practice regularly in the right way.

Design Your Cloth Photography Plan The first step of invisible mannequin photography is to photograph your product efficiently. For that, you need a dummy & wear your mannequin, clothing, or apparel items. It would help if you used a female mannequin for female fashion clothing that makes your female ghost mannequin photography marvelous. If it is a male item like a shirt, use a male mannequin.

Now start capturing the front, back, neck joint & inner view to create the invisible ghost effects. The feature you want to highlight must be cover in your shoots. The detailed view of your clothing makes your post-production image editing steps smoother.

You can avoid reflection if you choose a white or single color mannequin that makes your editing part simpler. Besides, as the background color is also white, it is easier to cut out the dummy. A static mannequin is best for ghost mannequin photos. You should frame the mannequin as if the faces are out of the frame in full sleeves clothing that makes your photo more realistic.

It would help if you were careful about the product size. Before starting a photography check, the size fits the mannequin; otherwise, pick the right size or alter the tailors’ clothing. Fit garments can display the exact beauty of your product. Give attention to positioning the full sleeves so that the client can see them correctly.

The studio setting is a pre-condition of the Ghost mannequin process to derive a high-quality product photo. There is an alternative. If you want to avoid studio settings, you can outsource Clipping Path Services & Background Removal to fix all the studio problems & attach necessary adjustments to make your photo appealing.

Starting Ghost Mannequin Photoshoot

Low-quality product photo is risky for your business. To derive good quality photo lighting, camera setting is also essential. These all are depending on the specific product you are capturing. For example, you are capturing tops; then you need to place the camera direct to the chest; in the bottom, shoot, place the camera to the heaping side. It would help if you avoided shooting the product photo too low or too high to cause your apparel’s improper outlook.

Understanding Ghost Mannequin Photography

Invisible Ghost Mannequin Photography is the multitude of multiple photos that are acquainted with the composite photo or image manipulation. The first snap you should take on the body part. The second one flat or inner view of your garments that are taken by using the dummy. It would help capture more pictures to display any particular angle or highlight features like the company logo or stickers.

Two images can create ghost mannequin photos, but you added more photos that are necessary to make your product photo-worthy. It depends on the clothing shape, feature & angle how much is covered by your photograph.

Some products do not need mannequin-like watches and bracelets, but they need to combine multiple photos to display the product’s actual look. That is not a Ghost mannequin process but a very similar one.

The ghost mannequin photography is the best solution for apparel owner to display their products. It removes your image’s distractions & solves all your problems by attracting more clients & increasing your sale.

If you hire an expensive model, but the ghost mannequin photography gives the same result at the lowest price. It would help if you had a one-time investment to buy a mannequin.

A ghost mannequin is also known as an invisible mannequin or 3D view, etc. To create this effect, you need to combine two or three of your product photos & remove the mannequin in post-processing steps. That brings a realistic, live product photo that attracts more customers. This process helps to bring focus on your clothing & highlight the product.

Still, have you any confusion about how to do ghost mannequin photography?

Non-professional model or mannequin photography

For both small and large online retailers and brands. Why? Because some customers find non-professional models and certainly mannequins distracting, yielding a lower conversion rate. Like already mentioned, utilizing both is the optimal solution. Using one or the other with perfect consistency is, for most retailers, sufficient.

One certainty, people need to relate themselves with the product, imagining using the product, wearing the product,….Personal experience through visualization does not come cheap, or does it?

Ghost mannequin effect for your product photos

Hopefully, you already realize that laying out your apparel products flat on some tables will raise many questions for your customers by lacking the user experience of not imagining wearing the product in its 3D form.

Personal experience through visualization does not come cheap, or does it? It does; with just a limited budget, a static mannequin, a co-worker, or even a friend, you can create a 3D effect for your product images. It is mainly referred to as the “ghost mannequin” technique and widely spread under the term “invisible mannequin.”

Ghost mannequin effect using static mannequins

The variety of available mannequins is limitless. Choosing the right one for the job will undoubtedly make image editing easier. Unfortunately, it’s also dependent on the product your shooting, so one-mannequin-fits-all is a bit optimistic. Below you’ll find some general pointers for choosing the one that fits your needs the most.

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If you have access to mannequins, then use the ones that are lifelike and static. Depending on your product collection, you may choose to purchase a mannequin with or without arms, hands, or legs. For some, movable limbs can create flexibility and makes the image editing job easier and more efficient. Positioning the limbs out of the frame, avoiding overlap is also a great advantage. White, non-reflective mannequins would be our preferred choice in most cases, certainly when shooting on a white background, making the mannequin removal part easier in most cases.

Ghost mannequin effect using non-professional models

If your co-worker or friend is willing to assist (and to some extend in shape), you can accomplish the ghost mannequin effect just as easily as for a static mannequin. Photograph your model wearing the product and make sure a static position is maintained during the shoot, and no limbs are in front of the product. This photo serves as the base for the 3D effect. Next, you will need to fill in the missing parts of the product. This will depend on the product at hand. For instance, the blazer image at the top of this blog post shows two input images and the final product image. The first image provides the base for the 3D effect, and the missing parts are extracted from the second image. What’s missing: the inside of the neck, the inside of the blazer, and the inside of the tail. As such, the second image reveals all these missing parts used to assemble the resulting product image.

We certainly understand that sometimes things can be tricky, and You must capture more than two images. Many examples of different apparel products could be presented, but you can trust our expertise. But because we like informing everybody on how this technique relates to taking your images, below are two examples of ghost mannequin photography and the resulting product image.

Example: T-shirt

So a T-shirt, or just a shirt for that matter. You are again starting by photographing your model and a second more detailed photo of the missing details.

So it’s pretty apparent, the inside of the neck is missing. Once these two photos exist, the image editing part kicks in, combining both images into one beautiful product image.