image quality - How can I improve these photos of porcelain tiles?

We are opening a new shopping website for bone china products. I was given some photos of porcelain tiles but they look much worse than they are in real.

I wonder if there are any basic techniques to improve the qualities of these images using Photoshop?

Here are a few samples of the images:

Answer

There are a few things that could be done to get better photographs to start with (and some things you can fix afterwards, but would be better fixed when the shots are taken):

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  photograph from directly above dead center to avoid the perspective distortion you see in these photos (with the top edge narrower than the bottom edge). This can be corrected in Photoshop to make the tiles look more square.

  
  


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  get your horizon straight too (this can also be corrected in Photoshop).

  
  


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  there are some very obvious reflections (or shadows?) of the photographer in the bottom right quadrants of the photos. I don't think you can fix this in Photoshop, but you could fix it with lighting in the original shots (light from the side, avoid light from behind the camera).

  
  


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  I think the photos could also use some contrast (and saturation), which is fixable in Photoshop.