Real fit, real scale – retouching plus size swimwear and apparel

A US based plus size swimwear and apparel brand producing 25,000 images a year needed a post production system that respected body positive values while delivering fast, consistent, commerce ready images. PixelPhant built a production workflow that preserved real body shapes, matched colorways across photographers, and cut average turnaround from 72 hours to 22 hours. Returns related to perceived color or fit fell 18 percent within three months.

Client snapshot

• Location: US east coast headquarters, global webstore shipping to North America, UK and EU.
• Annual image volume: 25,000 images.
• Peak weeks: up to 4,200 images during seasonal launches.
• Content mix: on-model product shots, studio packshots, lifestyle poolside sets, fit guide images and close up detail frames.
• Stakeholders: creative director, body diversity lead, ecommerce ops, returns team, third party photographers.

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The real problems

1. Mixed treatment of bodies. Different retouchers applied varying levels of smoothing, shadow lifting and contour work. The brand needed consistent, respectful edits, not blanket slimming or reshaping.
2. Color mismatch. Swim fabrics like metallics and water-reactive dyes appeared different across shoots, causing customer confusion.
3. Texture loss. Lycra, ribbed knits and beading lost detail with generic frequency separation.
4. Fit ambiguity. Lack of standardized fit guide images and inconsistent crop ratios made it hard for customers to judge coverage and size.
5. Slow priority handling. Hero SKUs and campaign images could not be rushed reliably when launch dates changed.
6. Finance friction. Daily micro invoices and repeat processing caused billing disputes and slow approvals.

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What we built – practical and testable

Core principles

• Preserve real bodies, do not reshape. Editing improves clarity and fit perception, never proportions.
• Keep textile texture intact. Treat fabric as a subject, not a background.
• Automation where sensible, human judgement where it matters. Complex edits always include a senior retoucher check.

Pipeline overview

1. Intake and manifest validation. Single entry point via dashboard. Required fields: order_id, sku, photographer_id, shot_type, model_id, spec_id.
2. Auto-preflight. Convert raw to 16 bit TIFF, apply camera ICC when available, auto-rotate and check resolution thresholds.
3. Spec routing. Each asset picks a retouch spec: Packshot, Fit Guide, Lifestyle Pool, Detail Close Up, or Lookbook.
4. Texture-first retouch. Frequency aware retouch stacks, selective local dodge and burn, micro-skin correction without contouring.
5. Colorway matching. Per-photographer LUTs and a brand color library drive automated color correction, followed by human softproof.
6. Live revision for hero SKUs. Creative lead can join a session, annotate and approve in real time.
7. Delivery and mapping. Multi-size derivatives, SKU mapped filenames, direct CMS sync and marketplace exports.
8. Consolidated monthly billing with deduplication by visual hash.

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Retouching SOP highlights (practical rules we follow)

• Body edits allowed: minor surface smoothing for skin texture consistency, spot healing for marks, stray hair removal, elbow crease softening, wardrobe seam repairs. No width or limb length changes.
• Body edits forbidden: waist or limb slimming, bust reshaping, height changes, bone structure alterations.
• Fit guide requirement: each model shoot must include a neutral stance full body, a back view, and a close up on stretch areas.
• Textile handling: use frequency separation only with preserved high frequency layer, avoid global blurring. Apply selective grain if necessary to match original texture.
• Lighting continuity: restore specular highlights only where natural, never create new gloss on matte fabrics.

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Photographer checklist

• Shoot at least one color reference chart per colorway.
• Capture a minimum of 3 fit guide poses: front neutral, back neutral, stretch detail.
• Provide burst frames for action or movement shots.
• Name files: MERCHANT_SKU_VIEW_SEQ (example: PSW_000123_front_001.CR2)
• Include model id and size in manifest.
• Shoot raw. No in camera color filters.

Sample manifest CSV

order_id,sku,filename,shot_type,photographer_id,model_id,spec_id

ORD-2026-004,PSW-000123,PSW_000123_front_001.CR2,fit_guide,PHOTOG-11,MODEL-09,SPEC-FG1

ORD-2026-004,PSW-000123,PSW_000123_back_001.CR2,fit_guide,PHOTOG-11,MODEL-09,SPEC-FG1

ORD-2026-004,PSW-000123,PSW_000123_detail_001.CR2,detail,PHOTOG-11,MODEL-09,SPEC-D1

Quality control checklist (pass criteria)

• Skin texture preserved across full frame, no plastic finish.
• Swim fabric color within 3 Delta E of brand target in softproof.
• Seams and hardware corrected without edge artifacts.
• Fit guide crops follow ratio rules and show required coverage.
• Background clean with no haloing after clipping.

Any failure triggers annotated rework. Reshoots are recommended when capture data is missing, for example no color chart.

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Results

Metric	Before PixelPhant	After integration (90 days)
Average turnaround	72 hours	22 hours
Revision rate	21 percent	5 percent
Returns due to fit or color	6.7 percent	5.5 percent
Reshoots required	14 percent	4.5 percent
Monthly hero SKU live within SLA	42 percent	94 percent
Finance time on invoicing	35 hours/month	4.5 hours/month

Notes: returns drop reflects better color matching and consistent fit presentation. Hero SKU SLA measures priority images published within agreed SLA.

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Notable fixes we performed

• Restored pearlescent sheen on a plus size monokini across 12 colorways by building a reflectance map and applying selective specular recovery.
• Reconciled color differences between three photographers shooting the same product by creating a per-photographer LUT and calibrating to a single brand reference.
• Reworked fit guide images for a seasonal drop and generated automated size overlays that reduced buyer confusion about coverage.