Guide: picking model combos for product photos

Aug 2025

For clean catalog shots, favor providers with strong geometry and texturing. Start with a neutral studio setup, simple background and soft key light. Add a brief negative prompt to avoid reflections or warped edges. A single material descriptor (“brushed aluminum”, “matte ceramic”) is usually enough.

For lifestyle photos, run the same subject through 2–3 models with different lighting and color science. This widens your choice of mood while keeping the product consistent. Anchor the description with 1–2 adjectives and a camera angle. Try one warm, one cool and one neutral look to cover the bases.

Hero renders benefit from mixing one highly stylized model with one photoreal model. Choose composition from the stylized output and surface detail from the photoreal — then upscale the winner. If your brand leans premium, use shallow depth of field and add a soft rim light for separation.

Consistency across a full catalog comes from reusing a small set of anchors: background color, light type, lens choice. Save these as preset tokens so the team doesn’t reinvent the look for every SKU.

When in doubt, generate more angles than you think you need. The incremental cost is low and the review process is faster when stakeholders see options side‑by‑side.