In this article I'm going to show you how you create product photos using AI for free.
This method can save you thousands of dollars and countless hours of wasted time organizing photo shoots and setting up the shot.
With AI, this is all done for you in seconds, no setup required! Just bring a photo of your product (doesn't have to be anything fancy) and it will handle the rest.
1. Take a photo using your smartphone (or from the internet)
This is the easy part.
Any modern smartphone will take a photo good enough for this guide.
Something to consider here is the angle of the proto. When generating a new image the background will be repainted but the subject will remain, as its seen in this image.
Two common angles are:
- angled from slightly above as shown in the image to the right
- birds-eye-view, looking down on the subject from above
These will produce different kinds of photos, I would recommend taking both and you can experiment too see which produces the best results later.
You should also make sure the product is reasonably well-lit. You don't have to use any professional kit for this, just make sure you have a good view of the subject (no dark shadows etc.).
2. Upload your photo to Snapshot
To do this step you'll need to sign up to Snapshot.
You'll need a Shopify store to work with Snapshot. Snapshot is a Shopify app that integrates directly into your Shopify admin.
The free plan offers 80 free images/month with no need to enter any credit card details, its all handled by Shopify.
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Generated with Snapshot AI
Once you've signed up, click "Start Generating" where you'll be prompted to select which product you want to create a new photo for.
On the next screen you'll be able to either upload a photo from your phone/computer, or select an existing photo on your Shopify product.
You'll be asked to adjust the frame of the photo, this will be the shape of the final photo (don't worry, you'll be able to move the subject around in the next step if its not exactly where you want it).
Your photo will be uploaded and processed, once ready click on your new image.
3. Adjust the subject of the image
After clicking your image you'll be taken to the page where you can customize how your image will look.
The first thing to do is to set the location of your subject.
You can move and resize the subject as you wish. In the example below I've moved it off-center to create a unique photo.
4. Choose your theme (or create your own)
This is the fun part.
Now you can choose how you want your new image to look.
As mentioned in Step 1, Snapshot gives you 2 positioning options with generated images: 3D view; or birds-eye-view.
In general, the position of the subject in your uploaded image should match the position you select here, but you can experiment with what looks good.
Snapshot comes with a wide range of pre-built themes. These themes have been hand-crafted by the Snapshot team. Just pick something that looks good and click generate.
If there's a theme that you'd like to use but you don't see it available just click the "Request a theme" button and we will generate the theme for you, free of charge.
Once you've selected all the right options click "Generate images" and your generation will start.
If you've got experience with generative AI you can also define your own image generation settings in the "Advanced" tab.
This exposes more options to you such as prompt, negative prompt, and sampling steps to give you more fine-grained control over the generations.
But don't worry if you don't know what they are, the themes are enough for most people and, as mentioned, we will create some for you for free if required.
Once your images have finished generating you'll be able to see them in the results card. You get 4 different images per generation and can click to enlarge them.
You can see some more examples of images generated with Snapshot here.
5. Attach image to your product
Each generation costs 1 credit and will give you 4 different images to choose from.
Once you've found one you like you can select it to be added to your product.
I decided to go with the "Beach" theme for this product.
The final step is to add it to your Shopify product.
Again, this can be done with a few clicks. Just select what size image you want and press submit.
After a few seconds the image will be added to your Shopify product.
Below you can see the final photo on the Shopify product.
So we've gone from a regular photo taken with a phone, to a professional-quality shot with just a few clicks using Snapshot.
Claim 80 images per month for free now with Snapshot.