Every marketplace seller runs into the same wall around week three: the product is good, the price is right, but the photos look like they came from three different shops. One listing has a bright white studio shot, another has a dim bedroom photo taken on a phone, and a third is a flat cutout on grey. Buyers notice that inconsistency even when they can't name it. It reads as "small operation," and small operations get less trust at checkout.
You don't need a photographer or a studio to fix this. You need a repeatable prompt template and the discipline to use the same one every time. If you're generating images with the tool on the AI image generator homepage, the template is the difference between a coherent catalog and a pile of random pretty pictures.
Start with one "hero" setting and never leave it
Pick a single lighting setup before you generate anything. Not a category of lighting — one specific setup you can describe in the same words every time. For most small sellers, that's a soft large window light from the left, neutral grey or warm off-white background, subject centered, camera at product height.
The mistake is writing a new background description for every product. "On a marble counter" for the mugs, "on a wooden table" for the plates, "in a bright kitchen" for the bowls. Each of those gets interpreted differently by the model, and now your catalog looks like a flea market booth. Write the setting once, save it as a text snippet, and paste it into every prompt unchanged.
Describe the product in measurable terms, not adjectives
"Beautiful handmade ceramic mug" gives the model nothing to hold onto. It will produce something generic and slightly different each time. "Glazed stoneware mug, 9cm tall, matte speckled cream exterior, unglazed sandy foot, thick rounded handle, 350ml capacity" gives it constraints. Constraints produce consistency.
What worth measuring:
- Dimensions or relative proportions
- Exact colors in plain language (sage green, not "earthy")
- Surface finish — matte, satin, high gloss, raw, brushed
- Number of components or pieces
- Where the light catches — rim, bevel, edge, texture
Keep this description in a spreadsheet column next to each SKU. When you add a new product, you fill in the same fields. The template stays, only the product block changes.
Lock the camera language
Camera and lens wording is doing more work than most people realize. "Close-up" means something different on every run. "85mm lens, f/4, subject fills 70% of frame, slight downward angle" does not. Pick one lens and one framing rule for your main listing image, then a second fixed setup for the detail shot.
A workable pair for most small products: 85mm for the hero shot with the product filling most of the frame, and 50mm slightly wider for a lifestyle angle. Write both down. Reuse both. Never mix a 35mm shot into a catalog built on 85mm — the perspective shift will make the same product look like it came from a different manufacturer.
Handle the background once, not per image
If you need pure white for a marketplace, generate on neutral grey and cut out later, or specify the white background in the exact same words in every prompt. What you should not do is alternate between "white background," "clean white background," "isolated on white," and "studio white sweep." Those four phrases will give you four different shadow treatments and exposure levels.
Same goes for props. If you're using a linen cloth, name the color and the fold. If you're using a hand model, describe the sleeve. Props are the second biggest source of catalog drift after lighting.
Build a reference row before you go wide
Generate your first product five times with the template. Put the five results side by side. If they don't look like they belong to the same catalog, the template is too loose — tighten the product description before you generate product two. Fixing this on one SKU takes ten minutes. Fixing it after forty listings means regenerating forty sets.
Rate each batch on three things only: does the light come from the same direction, is the product proportion believable, and does the background read as the same physical space. Anything that fails two of three gets regenerated, not "fixed later in an editor."
Where the template breaks down
Two honest limits. First, highly reflective products — chrome, glass, polished silver — will still vary in reflection patterns no matter how tight your prompt is. Accept some variation there or shoot those items for real. Second, anything you sell in multiple colors needs one template per color, not one template with a color swap, because the model will change the shadow and highlight behavior along with the hue.
Beyond that, the template holds. Most catalog inconsistency isn't a model limitation, it's a human one — people get bored of pasting the same paragraph and start improvising by product fifteen.
The version of this worth doing
Write your template in a plain text file with three blocks: setting, product, camera. Only ever edit the product block. Keep a folder of approved images so you can compare new output against something real instead of against memory. When a batch looks off, compare it to the approved folder before you start changing the prompt — usually one block drifted and you can find it in about thirty seconds.
If you want a starting point, open the AI image generator and run your first product three times with the exact same prompt. If the three results don't match, you'll immediately see which part of your description is too vague. That's the block to rewrite, and it's usually the product description rather than the lighting.