Hydra 19 AI Product Photography for Brand Launch

Hydra 19 was gearing up to launch their brand, but had a visual problem: they had solid mockups but no professional photography to build their brand around.

The only real product reference I had to work with was an early packaging sample that didn't even match their mockup colors. I essentially had to reverse-engineer a polished, e-commerce-ready product image from very little source material before anything else could move forward.

They needed eight high-quality images for their website and for marketing purposes: a mix of lifestyle shots showing the product in use and clean e-commerce product photography.

The project kicked off with a moodboard from their team outlining the visual direction. From there, I developed a detailed shot list covering scenery, composition, lighting, and styling for all eight images. Nothing moved to generation until the shot list was fully approved.

The Hydra 19 team was hands-on throughout. They had input on every detail:

Character appearance and skin tones

Outfits and accessories

Type of water bottle and sneakers

Backgrounds and environments

Lighting direction and mood

This level of collaboration meant more back-and-forth, but it ensured every image felt like theirs.

Every image went through Photoshop as a final step. AI generation still struggles with text accuracy on labels and packaging, so all branding, product text, and fine details were manually corrected to ensure everything was fully readable and on-brand.

4 website hero images in 16:9 format designed to anchor their homepage and key landing pages

4 social media images in 4:5 format optimized for Instagram and paid ad placements

All eight images were delivered in 4K, blending lifestyle and product photography to give Hydra 19 a launch-ready visual library built entirely through AI, no photoshoot required.