Google Labs just launched Pomelli Photoshoot, a free tool that turns any product photo into a professional studio or lifestyle shot. Pick a product image, choose a template, generate, and refine. The tool applies your brand’s visual identity (what Google calls “Business DNA”) to keep everything on-brand across campaigns. The target audience is small and medium-sized businesses that cannot afford professional product photography. I tested it. It works as described.
Yesterday I wrote about the introduction of Google’s Lyria 3 in the context of production music. Today, we’re looking at Pomelli in the context of product photography. Both AI systems are capable of delivering functional content created under pressure that serves a defined purpose. I call it “required creative.” (This is opposed to “inspired creative,” which lives in the metaphysical realm of human emotion, skill, and desire.) Product photography for an e-commerce listing needs to look professional and move inventory. It does not need Annie Leibovitz. Microsoft proved this last year with its Surface commercial, which was largely AI-generated and went unnoticed for three months while delivering a 90% reduction in time and cost.
“I only have $10,000 in the budget for this,” said the producer while negotiating $50,000 worth of work. Commercial production is a factory business. The client sets the price. Content creators live or die based on production efficiency (productivity). Using technology to eek out every ounce of margin you can is a best practice for production companies. I should know; I’ve owned a production company for 45 years.
You may love Pomelli and Lyria 3, or you may hate them. You may love or hate what they stand for, or you may have big feelings about the quality of their outputs. You are fully entitled to feel however you want to feel about this, but don’t think for a second that these capabilities will be rejected by SMBs or by professional production organizations for all but the very lowest-end work. Quite conversely: the adventure is just beginning.
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.