Shoe Colors Online vs Real Life

Shoe colors online vs real life is one of the great difficulties in online purchasing, not only in achieving perfection as the brand but deciphering reality as the customer. In photography, lighting is the key to perfection. It is 70% of the battle in achieving a great photograph. If the lighting (or camera setting with that lighting) is not right it is very hard to capture the true color of something, especially certain shades of leather.

All different types of lighting will also give a different interpretation of something. In most cases, there are these main types of lighting: Daylight, Sunlight, White Light, Yellow Light, Low Lighting (think your house), and Strong Lighting (think hospitals) which can apply to both white and yellow lighting. And the same shoe (even black) will look different in all of those lighting. Knowing this is important when buying shoes online.

For example, presented here is the same shoe taken in daylight (cloudy, not sunny), strong white light, and low white light. So there are three lights shown here and of the six common ones previously mentioned, there are three missing which will give other interpretations. Leathers, especially crust-colored or museum calves have a lot of undertones that come out (show greater) with daylight/sunlight and can go unnoticeable in low lights. They can be especially distorted in yellow lighting which alters many shades of leather, particularly browns, blues, and the various shades of burgundy tones which are all quite common in footwear.

It can be disappointing opening a box of shoes and feeling the color is not what you thought it was when looking at it online. That is the most difficult aspect of shoe colors online vs real life: a customer disappointed. And nobody wants that. Apart from photography and lighting, this can happen just because leather is a natural product. One hide to the next is not always the exact same tone/shade. Unfortunately, this is simply a part of the risk of buying online. And it is not just shoes for that matter. Clothing too.

Much disappointment happens when people open their new shoes in yellow low-lit lighting, especially at night after getting off of work. When comparing that scenario to the outside ‘Hero’ shot they saw online and/or the highly lit white background lighting, they often see a darker color upon unboxing and feel disappointed. And I get it. Your mouth drops at first when it looks four shades darker inside. One would think this common sense, but you must judge your shoe colors with true outside daylight as this will give you the most accurate interpretation of what the shoe color really is.

And if the online hero shot looks dark, judge the shoe in equal darkness, if it looks like a sunny day shot, judge it on a sunny day (as the sun can drastically change a leather color). Also note, if shot in the sun, chances are that will be brighter than its reality for most scenarios as Sunlight is the strongest light. For a white background only shot the closest color is usually strong white light. But understand what setting was used that attracted you to the shoe and try to mimic that setting when you get your shoes so that you see their true colors and not be let down under false pretenses.

Shoe colors online vs real life are especially tricky without certain types of leather. Suedes can be really tricky as the suede absorbs false lighting and is often very vibrant in daylight. It can look night and day even on your own feet, looking at it with your own eyes! For leathers, I noticed that darker oxblood/burgundy colors can also have this challenge. It is so hard to get the right shade of oxblood in a studio shot setting, but then looks amazing outside. It can be frustrating for the photographer and disappointing for the client.

And we won’t even get started on camera settings, different phone pixelations, and natural saturation settings (iPhones and Samsungs show completely different colors). There is more vibrance and saturation on iPhones. Less so on an Android. Two things that are important to judging a shoe’s color.

When buying online and looking for a very specific shade/color, my suggestion is to always ask the maker to take a picture of the exact pair before sending it out or even before purchasing.

—Justin FitzPatrick, The Shoe Snob

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