The problem with one-image-at-a-time retouching
Classic product retouching is sequential: pick a background, render, dislike it, repeat. The real cost is not the render — it is the indecision loop. Batch proofing flips the order: you front-load twenty plausible directions, render them side by side, and spend your time choosing instead of waiting.
Step 1 — anchor the product with a reference image
Upload 1–2 reference images of the actual product (PNG, JPEG, or static WebP, up to 10 MiB each). The reference carries the product identity — shape, label, materials — so your prompts only need to describe the change: background, light, scene, mood. With a good reference, “same bottle, on a stone ledge with hard morning light” outperforms a paragraph re-describing the bottle.
- Use a clean, well-lit packshot as reference #1.
- Add a second reference only if it carries different information (a texture swatch, a logo detail) — not a second angle of the same thing.
- References are shared by every prompt in the batch, and are re-encoded server-side with metadata stripped.
Step 2 — structure a twenty-line batch
Switch the workbench to batch mode and write one direction per line, up to 20 lines. Keep the variable you are testing inside the prompt and everything else identical line to line — that is what makes the contact sheet comparable.
- Background test: same scene description, swap only the backdrop line by line.
- Lighting test: fix the scene, vary “soft side light / hard top light / golden hour”.
- Aspect plan: pick the ratio per batch from the 10 supported (1:1 for listings, 4:5 for feeds, 9:16 for stories).
Step 3 — read the contact sheet, not the individual image
Every output lands in a fixed VD-NNN/MM slot and never reorders, finished or failed. Judge directions at thumbnail distance first — the background that wins at postage-stamp size wins on a storefront. Open full-size only for the two or three finalists.
Step 4 — retry failures, export winners
Billing is success-only: blocked, failed, timed-out or cancelled slots release their credit reserve automatically, and you can retry just the failed slots instead of re-running the batch. Download each winner individually from the variants page — every image is a separate download.
Budget check: a 20-prompt × 1-output batch at 1K reserves 20 credits; even at 4 outputs per prompt that is 80 credits at 1K — with anything that did not succeed returned. Sign-up includes 20 credits and daily check-in adds 2, so the first proofing rounds are effectively free.
A workflow, not a trick
Reference in, twenty directions out, fixed slots, success-only billing, retry the failures. Run it once per SKU and your listing images stop being a bottleneck — they become a checklist.