How to create consistent product catalog images with the same background?

Quick Answer

Lock the background once and reuse it. In Nightjar, set the Background to a fixed scene image or a specific hex color in the Create form, then save the whole setup as a Recipe. Apply that Recipe to every product so the scene, lighting direction, and output settings stay the same and only the product changes.

Why catalog backgrounds drift

When AI generates a fresh background for every product, the table moves, the light shifts, the colour temperature creeps, and the catalog reads as a stack of one-off experiments instead of one shoot. The fix is to stop describing the background in words for every image and start treating it as a fixed input.

The workflow

1. Pick the background once

Nightjar separates the scene behind the product into a reusable input called a Background: either a custom hex colour for a clean studio sweep, or an image of a scene (a podium, a marble counter, a styled tabletop) selected from your team's stored images, called the Library. Choose the one every product should live in.

2. Build the first image in Create

In the Create tab, upload the first product, set the Background to your fixed colour or scene image, and pick a Photography Style: Nightjar's reusable visual direction that controls camera, lighting, mood, and colour. Generate. Iterate until the result is on brand.

3. Save the setup as a Recipe

Once the first image lands, save the configuration as a Recipe: a Team-owned saved Create-form setup that captures the Photography Style, Composition, Background, custom directions, and output settings (aspect ratio, resolution, format, image count). The Recipe does not save the product image itself, only the controllable direction.

4. Apply the Recipe to every other product

For the next product, upload the new image and apply the Recipe. The Background, lighting style, and output settings load in one click. The only thing that changes between images is the product. Apply it again for the next SKU, and the next, until the catalog is done.

When to use the Edit tab instead

If the background you want to lock is itself a photograph of a real scene you cannot recreate from a Photography Style, the Edit tab has a Product Placement shortcut: a pre-filled prompt that takes a product image and a scene image and composites the product into the scene with matched lighting and shadow. Useful for one-off insertions, but for a full catalog the Create form plus a Recipe is the cleaner production path: less manual swapping per image, and the Recipe holds the rest of the brief steady too.

Because the Background is held constant inside the Recipe, lighting and shadow direction are designed to stay consistent across products, which is what makes the catalog read as one shoot.