It seems 2020 is truly the year that Machine Learning AI-powered image editing applications head into the mainstream. With Adobe’s Sensei AI growing more and more powerful, Skylum’s Luminar AI Applications, and many more hitting the market, it was only a matter of time before even more companies find a way for AI to help make a lot of the photo/video work automated and streamlined.

In that light, this week German company autoRetouch has released its ghost mannequin feature. Promising to reduce hours of post-production time down to mere seconds. Its ability to streamline non-creative image editing in bulk is “something even Adobe Photoshop is still two years behind on, giving more time back to editors for creative manipulation.”

This ghost mannequin effect accounts for 25% of apparel images seen on eCommerce today, but is traditionally a labor-intensive manual process, even with Photoshop. This new technology will cut a massive amount of bulk image processing time for fashion and apparel brands-from days to minutes.

If you’re not sure what “Ghost Mannequin” means, it’s a photo of clothing with an “invisible person” in it. Meaning it looks like someone is wearing the clothing, but you can see through them to see the inside of the product(s). This lets you see the way an outfit will form/fit on a body without actually needing to show someone wearing them. Typically this is achieved by photographing a model in the clothing, then taking images of the insides(inside out) of the products, and then compositing them together in a rather painstaking process, leaving you with a floating/ghost worn image.

According to the press release (see below), this new software will let you upload 2 images of the same item (Worn and an inside out shot), and the software will automatically remove the mannequin/model and composite the inlay leaving you with the seamlessly merged “ghost mannequin” final image.

[Related Reading: Is Artificial Intelligence Ruining Photography or Are You Close Minded?]

Read the full press release below;

  • Next-generation AI-powered image editing technology now fully available globally for fashion, significantly reducing image manipulation time

  • Early look at first bulk editing technology to seamlessly merge two raw images while removing physical bodies for effort-intensive neck joint/ ghost mannequin effect

STUTTGART, Germany, November 23, 2020 — autoRetouch – the AI-powered image editing platform – expands access out of beta globally for incredibly fast bulk product image editing. Powered by artificial intelligence more sophisticated than other leading image editing software, autoRetouch is available for fashion brands, retailers, photographers, and creatives, speeding up the effort-intensive and often creatively unrewarding process of editing product photography. Further, autoRetouch has released a first look at its patent-pending Ghost Mannequin feature; the first one-click photography manipulation technology that merges two images, both product and inlay shot, while digitally removing all unnecessary background within the images.

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Non-creative image editing effort reduced from hours to seconds

By 2023, global growth in e-commerce is expected to reach $6.542 trillion. Physical retailers have taken a drastic hit to in-store shopping as a result of the pandemic, forcing all brands to lean into eCommerce. Speeding up digital photography processes for entire SKUs has become an imperative. Editing software has advanced only so much– all commercial image editing software currently available is still mostly built around individual image workflows and cannot process multiple images at once.

“Current image editing software are great– but they’re two years behind where they should be for today’s quick turn retail needs,” said autoRetouch co-founder and CEO Alex Ciorapciu. “When working with hundreds of products, brands wait days to weeks on editing- meaning lost revenue from potential sales. Previously bottlenecked ROI due to reliance on outdated image editing technology can easily be avoided by using autoRetouch ad hoc for instant bulk image editing whenever needed. What used to take 5-15 minutes in manipulation work per image, from background removal to basic skin retouch, can now be done in seconds.”

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With autoRetouch, anyone from tech novices to photo editing experts are able to simply define workflows (the automated process sequence in which images are edited) and automatically retouch any kind of fashion product images in bulk. In a workflow, they can define their image editing components to create an end-to-end editing sequence that can edit hundreds of apparel images at once. autoRetouch’s smart components are customizable and the software offers an industry-leading PSD export functionality that allows users to always retain full control of the final image outcome.

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The deceptively difficult invisible model/mannequin photo effect

25% of fashion retail images are ghost mannequin shots, meaning the model’s or mannequin’s body which the product is displayed on has been digitally edited to be invisible or transparent. An industry first, autoRetouch’s patent-pending Ghost Mannequin AI component will allow users to upload two images of the same product (product and inlay shot), automate the removal of physical bodies while retaining the shape for a completely transparent figure, and merge the two shots seamlessly thanks to the powerful AI. The ghost mannequin feature offers automation of complex editing that was never before possible, across any platform, without any significant amount of manual effort.

“Manual ghost mannequin manipulation typically takes at least ten to twenty minutes of expert manual editing,” continues Ciorapciu. “Multiply that by 500 sets of images, you end up with at least 83 hours of work. autoRetouch is the first and currently only software in digital image editing that automates that process, creating turnaround in minutes.”

The Ghost Mannequin feature is currently available as a demo and will be generally available for customers in early 2021.

[Related Reading: Luminar AI Uses Human-Inspired Artificial Intelligence for A Faster Editing Experience]

Pricing & Availability

Customers can create an autoRetouch account for free and try the service with up to 10 images. To process additional images, credits are available for purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis. The price to process one image is currently $0.10. For more information please visit www.autoretouch.com or find updates and tips on, Twitter, Youtube and LinkedIn.