The traditional photo studio: the historic reference
The photo studio has long been the only option for professional product photos. A photographer, controlled lighting, carefully chosen props: the recipe for quality images.
This approach remains relevant for certain uses, but it presents significant constraints in terms of cost, timeline, and scalability.
The real cost of a studio shoot
A professional studio shoot costs between 30 and 150 euros per product for simple packshots. For lifestyle photos with staging, the rate rises to 100-500 euros per product.
Add logistics costs: product shipping, studio rental, post-production retouching. For a catalog of 50 products, the total budget can easily exceed 5,000 euros.
And every catalog update means a new shoot with new costs.
AI product photography
AI represents a paradigm shift. Upload a simple photo of your product and get professional lifestyle images in seconds.
The cost is a fraction of studio: a few cents to a few euros per image. Scalability is virtually unlimited: 10 or 1,000 products, the workflow stays the same.
No logistics to manage, no photographer schedule to coordinate, no post-production delay.
Quality comparison
Studio quality remains superior for certain product types: jewelry, luxury watches, food products with complex textures. Meticulous lighting control and macro shots are difficult to reproduce with AI.
For the vast majority of e-commerce products however, AI quality is more than sufficient. Images are high-resolution, the product is faithfully preserved, and contexts are professional.
Speed and flexibility
This is where AI crushes the studio. A lifestyle photo generated in 30 seconds versus 1 to 5 days for a studio shoot. The ability to test different contexts at no additional cost.
Need to change the seasonality of your photos? Test a new style? With AI, it's a matter of minutes. In studio, it's a new shoot to plan.
The hybrid strategy
The smartest approach combines both. Use the studio for your flagship products and ad campaigns. Use AI for the rest of the catalog, variants, and quick updates.
Product Scene fits perfectly into this strategy: it handles high volumes at low cost, freeing up the studio budget for high-value images.
