Choosing an image type

Most image disappointment is a type mismatch. The image is fine and it is the wrong kind of image for where it is going.

The three that cover most work

Packshot. Product, clean ground, nothing else. For listings, grids, and anywhere the product needs to be identified in under a second.

Lifestyle. Product in use, in a real setting, usually with a person. For ads and pages where you are selling the outcome rather than the object.

Hero. Wide, atmospheric, product often small in frame. For the top of a page where the job is mood, and where text will sit over it.

Steps

1. Name where the image is going before you write the brief.
2. Pick the type from the placement.
3. Generate, then view the result at the size it will actually appear.
4. If it fails at that size, change the type rather than the brief.

What to watch for

Hero images used as ads are the single most common mismatch. In a feed the product is too small to register and the mood does not survive the crop.