Where it helps

We use AI on the work around the picture

Planning and paperwork. Turning nine client emails, a brand deck, and a call transcript into one clean, complete shot list. Iterating concepts before we build a set. Rewriting our own studio documents and blog posts.

Retouching. The AI-assisted tools in Photoshop are very good at the work retouchers have always done by hand: removing a stray crumb or a c-stand, extending a surface to fit a wider crop, cleaning up a background, improving a sky. Same result, less time, no invented food.

That efficiency is the point. Every hour we save on logistics is an hour that goes back into the creative part of the shoot, which is what you are actually paying for on a tight budget, a long shot list, and a hard deadline.

The lines

Where we stop

We will

Build shot lists, decks, and copy with AI, always human-directed and human-edited
Use AI retouching to remove objects, extend surfaces, and clean backgrounds
Rebuild an out-of-season prop from a real stand-in we shot on your set to help you stay on budget
Swap a surface or background when the real build is out of budget, or when you want another iteration after the shoot
Animate a still we photographed for you, at your request, as an optional extra deliverable

We will not

Generate the food. It is the subject, and it gets photographed.
Generate a whole scene or campaign and hand it to you as photography

The job we turned down

We said no to a generated food campaign, and we would say it again

Craft. Generators still cannot make food look real or appetizing, and they cannot hold a look. A pumpkin comes out heirloom in one frame and Halloween in the next. Consistency across a shot list is the whole job.

Cost. This is the part that surprises people. We can shoot spaghetti in our studio faster, better, and cheaper per hour than we can prompt, cull, and repair it. Saying no cost us the booking. That is how you know where the line actually is.

The exception

Set dressing, disclosed

The only generated elements we have ever delivered were set dressing, never the food. Produce that was out of season, where overnighting it from another continent was not in the budget: we placed real stand-ins deep in the background, shot them soft and out of focus, and used those frames as the source. A cement surface became dark wood when the client wanted another iteration after the shoot, rather than rebuilding the set and shooting it again.

Both stayed out of the hero. Both supported real food shot on a real set. And in both cases the client asked for the result and knew exactly how we got there.

We always follow a client's position on AI, and we build quotes from the specific needs of your job.

Motion

Most of our motion is made on set

The motion we deliver is far more often stop motion and video we create during the shoot itself. Clients love that we can physically make both with their products, in the same session, with the same styling and the same light.

So far the only Kling animations we have delivered were to help a client get more video of pouring their drink on set. They loved that we could use Kling effectively, and it came as an extra on top of the real footage rather than in place of it.

For AI pipelines

If your team works with AI, we shoot for that too

Some clients need product photographed on white to hand off to AI artists who will build the set around it. We shoot specifically for that, using a focus stacking process that keeps every pixel sharp front to back, so the file holds together when someone else composites it. The better the source, the better whatever comes next.

The crew

Nobody on the call sheet gets replaced by a prompt

We hire local people and train them ourselves. Retouching is done in house by our own team, with an offshore partner we have worked with for years handling the heavy lifting on high-volume jobs. What AI takes off their plates is the mundane work that never belonged to anyone: reconciling scattered emails, formatting a shot list, chasing a spec. What that buys is more time on set, more takes, and fewer rushed calls at the end of a long day.

Our studio has to be sustainable for the people in it and affordable for the clients who need campaigns out the door. Using AI carefully is how we hold both.

Questions we get

Straight answers

Are my images made with AI?: Not made with it, no. What you get are photographs of real food, shot in our studio or on location.
Is AI used anywhere on my job?: Most likely in planning and in retouching, the same way spot healing and cloning have always been used. Never to create the food.
Can you generate an image for us instead of shooting it?: Almost always no, and we will tell you why in plain numbers. Then we will show you what we can shoot for the same money.
Where do we tell you what we are comfortable with?: In the RFQ. Set your position on AI there and we bid and shoot to it.
Can you turn our stills into motion?: Yes, if you want it. We animate from the photograph we shot for you, you approve it, and it comes as an add-on rather than in place of anything. Most often we shoot real stop motion and video during the shoot itself, because it is far better and it is part of the organic process. The animated photos are something fun and extra, delivered only when we see fit.
Which AI tools do you use?: Claude, ChatGPT, Adobe Photoshop, and Kling. These are commercial products from large companies, so their terms govern how material moves through them and our policy follows theirs.
Can we use AI on the images you deliver to us?: Yes. You are licensed to use the images for anything legal.