AI production · how a job runs
What an AI product photo workflow looks like at an agency, step by step
A well-run AI photo job moves through eight stages: brief and quote, brand intake, reference photos, casting, a shot plan, renders, selection and fixes, then finishing and delivery. The first five settle the product, the person and the cost before most of the renders run, which is where a mistake costs the least to fix.
100 Creatives makes its images in Overs, an AI photo tool built by our founder, Abhi Chawla. Both are brands of 2587689 Alberta Ltd. Where this page describes a tool step, it is an Overs step.
The short version
Approve four things before the bulk of the renders run: the written quote, the brand rules, the character sheet for anything worn or held, and the shot plan with its estimated cost. After that, expect most renders to be thrown away. In four campaigns we built by hand in 2026, it took 361 renders to get 45 keepers, about 8 per usable photo, with the easiest job at 3.2 and the hardest at 13.6.
Eight stages, and what you approve at each
| Stage | What happens | What you see or approve |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Brief and quote | Scope, placements, counts and dates are agreed | A written quote with a fixed total |
| 2. Brand intake | Visual language, model preferences, colorways and export specs are written down | The brand rules: hex colors, light, lens, grain, styling |
| 3. Reference photos | Every side of the product that will show is photographed cleanly | The reference set for each product |
| 4. Casting | A character sheet is made for anything worn or held | The character sheet, before any campaign photo |
| 5. Shot plan | Each photo gets a placement, its references in order, and a model | The plan and an estimated cost |
| 6. Prompts and renders | A prompt is written per photo, checked, then rendered | Nothing yet. This is the production work |
| 7. Selection and fixes | Keepers are picked, drift is fixed, single photos are remade | The batch for review |
| 8. Finishing and delivery | Type is set on a copy, sizes are cut, motion prompts are written | Final files per placement, with clean versions |
1. Brief and quote
The brief names the product, the placements, how many finished images each placement needs, and the dates. At 100 Creatives it becomes a written quote with the full scope and a fixed total, valid for 30 days, and nothing is charged until you approve it. Our guide on how to brief an agency for AI creative lists what to send.
2. Brand intake
Before production, the brand gets written down in terms an image model can use. Our intake covers visual language, model preferences, colorways and export specs. A good intake reads the website, the existing photos and the brand guidelines, and records the colors as hex codes along with the light, lens, grain and styling. In Overs, the tool we make our images in, that is the research, brand rules and visual DNA steps.
3. Reference photos
An image model can only copy what it can see. Every side of the product that will appear in a photo needs a clean reference: front, back, sides, the label flat and straight, and close-ups of texture or hardware. Our trousers prompts told the model to match the weave of a fabric close-up reference exactly whenever one was provided.
4. Casting
For anything worn or held, the person gets locked before any campaign photo. A character sheet shows one model from several angles and in close-up, wearing the exact product on a plain background. On our surf job it took 20 attempts. The kept sheet used 5 references and a four-line prompt, while the longest prompt and the attempts with up to 8 references all failed. In Overs you approve the sheet once and every later photo with a person uses it. Ask any agency to show you the character sheet before the campaign photos.
5. Shot plan
The plan lists each photo, the placement it serves (store page, feed ads, editorial, hero, banner or billboard) and the reference pictures it needs, in order. Our hand-built canvases fanned out to about ten shots, and in Overs a set is 5, 8, 10 or 12 photos. You see the plan and an estimated cost before anything renders. The estimate counts one render per photo, so budget for retries on top.
6. Prompts and renders
Each photo gets its own prompt. The prompts behind our kept photos ran about 140 to 200 words on Nano Banana models and about 300 on GPT Image. The Nano Banana ones opened with the subject and a pointer to the reference image, named the background with a hex color, described light falling on a surface, listed the palette with hex codes, and gave one sentence to camera and lens and a separate one to grain. The renderer is a choice with a price, from $0.0336 a render on Nano Banana 2 Lite to $0.211 on GPT Image 2 at high quality (Google and OpenAI published prices, September 2026).
7. Selection and fixes
This is where the tries go. Across our four hand-built campaigns, 361 renders produced 45 keepers. Gummy supplement ads took 3.2 renders per keeper and trousers in a studio 3.6, while brownie food ads with motion took 12.0 and one surf model carried across studio, cliff and ocean scenes took 13.6. Fixing one photo shouldn't mean redoing the set; in Overs you remake a single photo with a note, and every attempt is kept.
8. Finishing and delivery
Words go on last. In Overs, a separate typography step sets a headline, subline and button on a finished photo and keeps the clean version, so you get both. Each placement gets its own size: Meta's feed calls for 1440 x 1800 at 4:5, and Stories and Reels for 1440 x 2560 at 9:16 (Meta Ads Guide, checked September 2026). At 100 Creatives, video ads are made with AI video tools and art-directed by the team. Overs makes stills and writes a motion prompt per photo for a video model such as Seedance or Veo. Our batches come back in 48 hours, and revisions within 48 hours.
Five workflow questions to ask any agency
- Will I see the character sheet before any campaign photo?
- Which image model makes the final photos, and why that one?
- How many renders do you expect per keeper for a product like mine?
- Can I have the prompt, model and reference pictures behind each photo I approve?
- When one photo drifts, do you remake that photo or the whole set?
For a fuller vetting list, see what to look for in an AI product photography agency. For what to check once the batch arrives, see how to review AI creative from an agency.
Run the same workflow in Overs
The tool stages above, from brand intake to the render, run in Overs as ten steps you can watch: research, brand rules, visual DNA, art direction, product analysis, casting, shot planning, prompts, a quality check and the render. Brand rules are applied last, so they have the final say. It is what our team uses for images today, and nothing is charged until you say yes to the plan.
At our average of 8 tries per keeper, a usable photo costs $0.27 to $1.69 in AI fees. A 30-photo set comes to about $36 to $118 on Overs, including the $29 Pro plan and about $0.20 of planning per run, against $2,026 at soona's published studio prices, per Overs' guide to what a product photo shoot costs.
Overs is our sister product, made by 100 Creatives' founder. Try Overs free at www.overs.studio. The free plan makes 40 photos a month, you pay the image model a few cents a photo on your own OpenRouter key, and Overs adds no markup.
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Frequently asked
questions
What is the workflow for AI product photography?
A typical AI product photo job runs in eight stages: brief and quote, brand intake, reference photos, casting, shot plan, prompts and renders, selection and fixes, then finishing and delivery. The early stages settle the product, the person and the cost before most renders run. The later stages are where the tries go, about 8 per usable photo in our own hand-built campaigns.
What should I approve before an agency renders the full set?
Four things. The written quote with a fixed total, the brand rules the images will follow, the character sheet for any product that is worn or held, and the shot plan with its estimated cost. At 100 Creatives nothing is charged until the quote is approved in writing, and in Overs nothing renders until a person says yes to the plan.
What is a character sheet in AI product photography?
A character sheet is one AI model shown from several angles and in close-up, wearing the exact product on a plain background. Once approved, it is sent as the first reference for every photo with a person, so the face and body stay the same across the set. On one of our surf apparel jobs, the kept sheet took 20 attempts.
How many photos are in an AI product photo set?
It depends on the placements. Our hand-built campaign canvases fanned out to about ten shots each, planned against the uses the brand needed, such as a store page, feed ads, a hero image or a billboard. Each photo is then cut to the sizes its placements need, so one photo can become several files.
Which AI image models are used for product photos?
It varies by job. Our four hand-built 2026 campaigns used Nano Banana and GPT Image models. At the providers' published September 2026 prices, a render costs from about $0.034 on Nano Banana 2 Lite to about $0.21 on GPT Image 2 at high quality, so the choice of model is also a choice of budget.
How long does an AI product photo job take with an agency?
At 100 Creatives, creative batches come back in 48 hours and revisions within 48 hours, once the quote is approved and the brand intake is done. Casting can add time, because the character sheet has to be right before campaign photos start. On one of our surf jobs it took 20 attempts.
Want us to run
the whole workflow?
Send your product, the placements you run and your dates. You'll get a written quote with a fixed total, from $4,000, and batches back in 48 hours once it's approved.