Production · 18 June 2026 · 8 min
What product photography costs — and how AI changes that
Studio, model, photographer, retouching. Classic product photography adds up fast. This is how the cost stack breaks down, and what changes when you bring AI in.
Ask ten online shops what a series of product photos costs and you'll get ten different answers. Fair enough, because the line items vary widely: studio or location, model, styling, photographer, retouching, planning. For an average set of twenty images you're easily between three and six thousand euros in the Netherlands, excluding travel and reshoots. AI product photography changes that bill — but not in the way most people think.
Where the money in a classic shoot really goes
The biggest share rarely sits with the camera itself. A studio day is a few hundred euros, a photographer about the same. The big totals are in styling, model, catering, transport and retouching afterwards. Together that quickly becomes a multiple of pure camera time.
On top of that, there is something harder to put on a spreadsheet: turnaround. Two weeks to plan, a week waiting on selection, another week for retouching. In that window your campaign is standing still.
How AI changes the equation
AI product photography mostly removes the fixed costs. No studio rental, no model booking, no travel day. What's left are the hours we put in: working out the brief, generating imagery, selecting and finishing.
For a set of twenty images you end up in the same range as one studio day — only with more variation and the ability to publish within 72 hours. See our packages for current flat rates per volume.
When the maths really tilts
Not for one shoot a year. There the difference barely matters. The maths tilts the moment you need new visuals every month: a seasonal campaign, a product launch, a market variant in another language or setting.
At that tempo classic production climbs into tens of thousands of euros a year. With AI product photography those variants stay part of your steady monthly rhythm.
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