Use cases
See the shoot before you pay for it
Try the casting, the location and the styling on a real garment, and settle the argument before anyone is booked.
Start free
Answer first
Can you test a photoshoot before booking it?
Yes, and it is one of the cheaper ways to use this. Run the same garment through several locations and several models, look at the results, and take the winner to the photographer as a brief. The decision that would otherwise be made on the shoot day, at shoot day rates, gets made a week earlier for the cost of a few sets.
The expensive part is deciding on the day
A shoot day spent working out whether the piece reads better in a courtyard or against a plain wall is a shoot day spent on a decision that could have been made a week earlier for nothing.
Generate the options, then shoot the winner
Run the same garment through four locations and three models. Take the result to the photographer as a brief rather than a conversation.
It doubles as the mood board
The frames are on your actual garment rather than somebody else's campaign, which is a far more useful thing to hand a stylist.
Built for
Who this is for
Brands about to book
The direction is not settled, and the shoot day is the wrong place to settle it.
Creative directors
A mood board on somebody else's campaign is a weaker brief than one on your own garment.
Teams that disagree
Two opinions and no images is an argument. Two sets of images is a decision.
Agencies pitching
Show the client the treatment on their product before anyone commits.
Why this rather than a shoot
Your garment, not a reference
The test frames are the actual piece, which is what makes them decisive.
Twelve locations to try
A villa, a colonnade, a courtyard, a gallery, a clean studio, a festive interior, and more. Or describe your own.
Thirty-nine models to try
Across six segments, so the casting question gets tested too.
Then go and shoot it
This is not an argument against the shoot. It is an argument against deciding on the day.
Side by side
Against a studio shoot
| Feature | Flatlay Studio | Studio shoot |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first frame | About thirty seconds | Days, after the booking |
| Booking required | None | Model, photographer, location |
| Models to cast | 39 across six segments | Whoever is available |
| Reshoot one frame | One frame, minutes | A second shoot day |
| Colourways | Generated from the same set | Photograph each one |
| Marketplace crops | Five ratios, included | Edited by hand afterwards |
| Listing copy | Written with the set | Written separately |
The numbers
The arithmetic
What a season of catalogue photography actually takes, either way.
| Studio shoot | With Flatlay | |
|---|---|---|
| Forty new pieces | Two to three shoot days | An afternoon, in one batch |
| Lead time | Weeks, on somebody else's calendar | None. Start when the sample lands |
| A piece you forgot | Wait for the next booking | Generate it that evening |
| Six colourways | Six times the shoot | From the set you already have |
| Restock next season | Rebook, and hope she is free | The same model, on demand |
The cost that hurts is rarely the invoice. It is the pieces that never get photographed, because a shoot has a fixed capacity and your catalogue does not.
How it runs
- 01
Send one photograph
A phone shot on your studio floor, a flat lay, or a link. No lighting, no model, no booking.
- 02
Choose the shoot
Twelve locations, thirty-nine models across six segments, three resolutions. Or describe a room of your own.
- 03
It generates
Four or five frames chained to each other, so the model, the room and the light hold across the set.
- 04
Take the listing
Frames, copy, size chart, costed price and marketplace crops, ready to upload.
Questions
- Is this meant to replace the shoot?
- Not here. It is meant to make the shoot shorter and more certain by settling casting, location and styling first.
- How many variations should I try?
- Enough to make the choice obvious, which is usually three or four locations on one garment.
- Can I hand the output to my photographer?
- That is the intended use. It is a brief on your own product rather than a folder of other brands' campaigns.
- How long does a comparison take?
- About thirty seconds a set, so four options is a couple of minutes.
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