From the mannequin you already shot, to a model
If your product photos are a headless form against a wall, you are most of the way there already — and you are in the best possible starting position for this.
A mannequin shot is the easiest input there is. The garment is already worn. The drape is real, the sleeves fall where they fall, the length is the actual length. Nothing has to be invented: the form is replaced by a person and everything else stays.
Dressing an empty figure from a flat lay is the hard version of this problem. You do not have that problem.
Send one mannequin shot and see
No account, no card. One photo in, one catalogue frame out.
New accounts start with 50 credits — about 10 shots — and the first model is free.
What the mannequin cannot do
It shows the shape honestly, which is why you bought it. What it cannot show is the thing your customer is actually deciding about: where the bib sits, how long the ties hang, how the hem moves, whether a hat reads well on a head rather than on a stand.
So keep the mannequin shot on the card. Put the other one next to it.
The back view you do not have
Most shops photograph the front. If you shoot front and back on the form, both come back on the model. If you only have the front, say so — we will tell you honestly whether the back is worth attempting for your item, rather than inventing one and hoping.
The garment has to come back as the same garment
The fear with anything generated is that the item quietly becomes a different item. So every frame is compared against the photo you sent and corrected until the colour difference sits below the point where an eye separates two shades — and we read which colour belongs on which part of the garment from your photo, rather than leaving the engine to work it out.
Try it on your hardest piece
Not your simplest one. Pick the piece with the embroidery, the double waistband, the busy print — the one you would expect this to fail on. If it survives that, the rest is easy. If it does not, you found out for free and nobody wasted a month.
Questions
Does the mannequin have to be full length?
No. Bust forms, head forms and dress forms all work. A head form for hats and fascinators is one of the best cases there is, because the item is large in the frame.
Can you keep my background?
We can put the item on a clean background or into a scene — and you describe the scene you want in your own words, per shot. Your own studio wall, a kitchen, a street, a plain sweep: whatever you write is what you get. The item itself is what stays fixed.
How many photos do you need per item?
One is enough. Two — front and back — is better.
Do ghost-mannequin cutouts work?
Yes. A clean cutout on white is a good input, for the same reason: the garment already holds its shape.
Two photos, ten minutes, nothing to cancel
If it does not convince you, you have lost an upload.