Products and labels

The client's photos are the product. Generate only what they can't give, keep it pristine, and build every label that must be read.

The order of sources [proven]: the client's physical product photos come first; then the packaging artwork and brand book; then the brief's words. Ask early for six phone photos on plain white (front, back, both sides, top, three-quarter) in even daylight, the product filling the frame. A weak photo is replaced by a better one, never upscaled.

• The default reference [best available, not yet validated]: the client's photos, only the views the shot shows (usually one, at most two), plus the label close-up only when the label faces the camera.

• A product sheet only when no physical product exists (artwork only), the photos are unusable, or one image must carry the whole object.

• Views from one good photo: one edit pass per view, the photo as Image 1, each view checked at full size against it, the label area left blank for the client's artwork.

• A texture anchor when the material is a hero (cream, a hair mask, liquid, fabric, loose tea): a separate macro in the treatment's light, the approved product reference as Image 1, naming the state, viscosity and translucency; one back or side light; stopped down so the texture is sharp in depth. Each state is its own reference.

• Always pristine (decided): no wear, fingerprints, dents, residue or signs of use on the client's product or its label, in any sheet, plate or frame, whatever the film's lived-in look. A state the treatment writes (closed, open) is a clean, perfect version of that state. Wear belongs to the people and the place around it.

• Craft lines: a controlled reflection strip placed away from the label; fingers support the sides, never the front; every product has a contact shadow or a visible support, never floating; glass shows its wall thickness, edges, refraction, liquid level and meniscus. Light in the shot comes from the location, never from the sheet.

Labels are built, not trusted to generation [proven]:

• Exact Arabic, legal, dense or mixed Arabic and Latin text: generate a correctly shaped blank label area, and the client's artwork goes on later as its own layer (flat on a held frame, or tracked in finishing). This is the default.

• Simple Latin text may be generated from quoted copy with the artwork attached as the text's owner, then read letter by letter at full size. After two failures, it moves to the blank-label route.

• A label is never corrected by a model text edit. Any Arabic the client will read is typed out exactly as it appears, character by character, and compared with the approved copy, and the key lines are checked by eye at full size.

{Image 1 is the client's {photo | artwork}: it gives the shape, proportions, colours and {the label design and text | nothing about text}.} A product sheet: three studio photos of the same {product}, side by side on light-grey seamless, 16:9. {Height and width in cm; its size against a hand}. {Material and finish}. {Colours by name}. {Closure and mechanism}. It has no {features it lacks}. {Label: "exact copy" with its lines, weight and position | a correctly shaped label area left completely blank}. On the left, the front square-on with the label area facing the camera; in the centre, the {back | side} square-on; on the right, a three-quarter hero view at about 40 degrees from a slightly low eye-level camera. Same scale and ground line. Soft, even light from one large source at the front left, a gentle contact shadow beneath each view; the product reflects the light and gives off none. Product photography, no props, no hands, no camera reflected. No other text anywhere.

Example: the Shaybar tin, before its artwork is final

A product sheet: three studio photos of the same tea tin, side by side on light-grey seamless, 16:9. No physical tin exists yet and the artwork is still in design, so this sheet carries the whole object. A round tin 12 cm tall and 8 cm wide, about the height of a hand from wrist to knuckles. Seamless steel with a satin deep-teal finish, a fitted lid with a rolled edge in brushed brass, a thin brass band 1 cm above the base. It has no handle, no window, no ribbon, no embossing. On the front, a smooth matte-cream rectangular label area, 6 by 7 cm, centred, left completely blank with no print. On the left, the front square-on with the blank label area facing the camera; in the centre, the side square-on, plain teal; on the right, a three-quarter hero view at about 40 degrees from a slightly low eye-level camera, the lid's brass edge catching a narrow highlight. Same scale and ground line. Soft, even light from one large source at the front left, a controlled vertical reflection strip on the right side away from the label area, a gentle contact shadow beneath each tin; the tin reflects the light and gives off none. Product photography, no props, no hands, no camera reflected. No text anywhere.

Sources

• Google's Nano Banana Pro prompting tips; kaye.creatives (post) (built label moments); Higgsfield Academy (views from one photo).