How do I generate AI product photos in bulk for many SKUs at once?

Quick Answer

Bulk AI product-photo production has two practical paths in Nightjar. In the web app, organize each visually distinct item as a reusable Product, save the photographic direction as a Recipe, and submit a separate Generation for each Product; for automation, use the public API to orchestrate those Generations from your own catalog system. Selecting several Products in one Generation creates a group image containing those Products, not separate images for each SKU.

How should I organize many SKUs before generating product photos?

A Product is Nightjar's reusable record for one visually distinct sellable item. It can combine several Product Photos with a factual description and physical dimensions, giving each later Generation more evidence about the item than one loose upload provides. Treat different colorways or styles as separate Products; size-only SKUs may share a Product when their imagery is identical.

Create Products manually from uploads and existing Library Assets, or paste a supported public single-product page and review the staged details before saving. A Product Source Link is a reviewed snapshot, not a live catalog sync.

Multiple Products can be selected in one Product Photography Generation, but every selected Product is a joint subject in every output. Use that for an intentional group shot. For one image per catalog item, submit separate Generations.

How do I generate many SKU images in the web app?

The web app is a repeated per-Product workflow. It does not expose a CSV importer or a catalog-wide command that creates a separate Generation for every selected item.

1. In Products, create or review the Product for each visually distinct item.
2. Open Generate, choose the Create tab, and select the first Product.
3. Set the photographic look with a Photography Style and choose a flat color or a saved Background. Use Framing for a product-only image; Shadow is available with a flat color. When a Fashion Model appears, use Pose and Camera Distance. Set the aspect ratio, resolution, format, and output count.
4. Select Save as recipe. A Recipe is a Team-owned saved Create-form setup that keeps those ingredients, controls, written refinements, and supported output settings. It excludes Products, Additional Photos, and the Single shots/Photoshoot choice, so select the subject and output mode separately.
5. Create the images, inspect the completed Assets in the shared Library, and approve them against the real product.
6. Select the next Product, apply the Recipe, and submit the next Generation. Repeat only after changing any item-specific direction that should not carry across the catalog.

A Single-shot Generation can request multiple candidates for one Product. Photoshoot is a cohesive four-image output choice inside Product Photography. Both expand the options for the selected subject; neither is a multi-SKU batch command.

How do I automate a bulk product-photo job through the API?

Use the Nightjar API documentation when your catalog needs programmatic orchestration. API Access is included with an active paid Subscription, but the API does not accept a CSV or a Recipe ID. Your integration owns the catalog loop and sends the saved direction through reusable resource IDs and Generation request fields.

1. Read the source catalog in your system. Upload and finalize any missing image Assets, then create or update one Product for each visually distinct item.
2. Store the shared Photography Style, Background, Pose, Fashion Model, output settings, and other direction in your integration.
3. Submit one asynchronous Product Photography Generation per Product with a unique idempotency key. An API Product ID supplies its Main photo; add important detail views explicitly through Asset IDs within the five-input limit. Reusing the same key for the same request returns the original admission instead of duplicating work.
4. Read the Team's effective API concurrency limit before dispatching work. Keep in-flight Generations within that returned limit, and honor Retry-After with backoff when the API returns a concurrency or rate-limit response.
5. Poll each accepted Generation until it is terminal. Save the Asset IDs from completed outputs, inspect every output slot, and send approved Assets into your separate publishing workflow.

How are Credits, failures, and review handled in a bulk job?

At current documented rates, each completed 1K or 2K Product Photography Single shot costs one Credit, and each completed 4K Single shot costs two Credits. A Photoshoot requests four related images for two Credits total: if any output completes, the full two-Credit set charge applies; if every output fails, the charge is zero. The planned amount is reserved when a Generation is admitted. Single shots settle per completed output; a partially successful Photoshoot is not prorated.

One API Generation can partially succeed: a completed Generation means at least one output became an Asset, while a failed Generation means every output failed. Nightjar's built-in visual review can retry obvious eligible failures at no extra Credit cost, but it is not a substitute for human approval. Review product shape, color, text, logos, and channel requirements before publishing any catalog image.