Removing wrinkles from clothes in a photo means smoothing creases and folds in the fabric so the garment looks freshly pressed, while keeping its seams, buttons and the way it hangs on the body. In this example, a man in a light blue dress shirt stands on the lawn at a garden wedding, with guests and an old stone house behind him. He put the shirt on straight from the packet, and three or four sharp horizontal folding lines run across his chest and stomach in the photo his family wants for the wedding album.
What changed in this photo, and what stayed the same?
- Smoothed: the horizontal creases across the chest, stomach and cuffs.
- Kept: the collar, button placket and buttons, the cuffs, his face and smile, and the lawn, guests and house behind him.
- Slightly changed: the fabric surface, which looks a little smoother than the original weave. Ask if you want more fabric texture kept.
Which creases should be removed and which should stay?
Not every fold is a wrinkle. Packaging creases and ironing marks are sharp, straight lines that have nothing to do with how the body moves, so they are removed. Soft folds at the elbows, around a tucked-in waist or where the shirt bends with the body are kept, because a shirt with no folds at all looks like it was painted on. The editor follows that rule fold by fold.
When are clothing wrinkles harder to remove?
- On patterned fabric, such as stripes, checks or florals, the pattern has to line up across every repair.
- On shiny fabric, such as satin, each crease also changes the highlights, which have to be rebuilt.
- When a crease changes the outline of the garment, the edge of the clothing has to be redrawn too.
What should you send?
The original photo, and a note if some folds should stay. For group photos, say whose clothes to fix.
Related clothing fixes: remove lint from clothes and fix a slipped strap. For a graduation gown with packaging folds, see remove package creases from a graduation gown.
Photos
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wedding.jpg
1 credit ($8)
1 photo to edit
Instructions
Ben's shirt came straight out of the package. Can you smooth the creases?
Private: recreated on our own images, not customer photos
The before/after shown here is recreated on images created or licensed for this site — never a real customer's photo. Your upload is seen only by the editor working on it, and the edit comes with free revisions within 14 days of delivery if anything needs adjusting.
