My 25 year old son had senior pictures done almost 8 years ago. I make six figures a year. I could afford 3 prints of the images from the photoshoot. My daughter who is now 21 had a photoshoot when she was 16 (5 years ago). I could afford the CD version which cost me about $1,500. Of course, this was in addition to paying for their college preparatory school at the time, so I was watching pennies.
But it shouldn’t be hard to capture those memories in such a beautiful, professional way. I know, I know – there are cheaper photographers. I went with the good ones and they didn’t disappoint. But not everyone can do that. My son’s was in a studio. My daughter’s was all around town, and we rushed for the golden hour, perfect lighting, perfect weather. We stood there as a truckload of teenage boys drove by yelling “You’re beautiful!” Which was funny to her, but to many, that kind of public posing and picture-taking is intimidating.
I am SO happy to learn that AI Photoshoots are now a thing. This is still a wide open untapped business! No cameras. No in person meetings. I’ve done one for myself. It turned out pretty great. I personally created from my own image, a “future me” who has her own specific property and of course, has lost weight.
It was my author photoshoot and a way of leveraging my vision board in a digital manner. There are so many reasons people want Photoshoots using AI – including for pets, career headshots, senior pictures or family photos, engagement announcements, influencer content, product shots for brands and more.
Today I was on a FB feed and saw a thread pop out at me where the lady said she was booked 8 weeks solid for AI photoshoots. That was cool, but what blew my mind were the comments. There were a lot of them – half begging her to do their own photoshoot, and half begging her to learn how to start their own AI photoshoot business.
And her shots were amazing. People get confused, thinking you have to still go take pictures of people. You don’t. They send you images and you use AI to conduct the photoshoot. Do they want it to look like they’re vacationing on a tropical beach? Done! Working as an executive in a corner office of a 100-story skyscraper? Voila! You put them anywhere they ask, and they LOVE it.
Not only for the discounts they get compared to an in-real-life photographer, but the possibilities. This is a profitable digital business idea. Low barriers (you pay for the AI tools you use and let the payments level you up). And AI does most of the work for you!
“But if it’s so easy why don’t they just do it themselves?” Building a blog is easy, but people still pay people to do it. Coloring your hair is easy, but we go to a salon. Cooking is easy, but we book those reservations. Why? Because they don’t want to! They want the results – fast – and for someone else to do it.
Finding buyers is so easy, too. In my Start an AI Photoshoot Digital Business: From First Client to Scaled Studio eBook (which has private label rights to it so you can sell it as a PDF to others), I show you how to get seen by moms, professionals, career-minded people, influencers and more. This business goes viral because people share their pictures and others ask how and where they had it done!
If you want to learn the business side, my book (put your name on it) is just $10 and I have a $5 optional prompt library for the photoshoots. I also talk about where to sell the AI photoshoot packages.
This 67-page, 26,778-word PLR includes the following:
– The AI Photoshoot Business Snapshot
– Target Clients and Niche Menus for an AI Photoshoot Business
– AI Photoshoot Offer Ladder and Pricing
– The Legal, Ethics, and Policy Basics of Running an AI Photoshoot Biz
– AI Photoshoot Tool Stack Overview
– Step-By-Step: Client Workflow SOP
– Making the Most of Your Interaction with AI Photoshoot Tools
– Lookbooks and Prompt Templates By Niche
– AI Photoshoot Portfolio in a Week
– Easy Marketing That Fills the Calendar
– Scaling Your Photoshoot Business Without Burnout
– AI Photoshoot Metrics to Track
– Templates and Copy You Can Drop In
– Quality Control Checklist Before Delivery
– AI Photoshoot Troubleshooting
– Roadmap: First 30 Days to a Successful AI Photoshoot Business
– AI Photoshoot Toolkit to Create
Now I want to tell you some of my thoughts about AI photoshoot businesses. Look in the Photoshop request groups on Facebook. People are begging others to do things your AI photoshoot business can do easily. It’s easy to get slants from that in addition to the ones I teach you to specialize in.
I’ve seen people ask for them to be put in a group of friends because they don’t have any in real life. I’ve seen people want professional birthday images for milestones like sweet 16. You can specialize or go broad. Or both! You can have a broad business and a variety of branded micro AI photoshoot businesses, like a pets one, one for family shots, and career headshots and so on.
You can have different social media accounts and cross-promote them like collabs. On your family picture account, you might one day shout out your account for those who need business-based images for their website, social media accounts, and more.
You’ll start to get booked up fast and then you’ll need to do two things: increase what you charge (I talk about pricing in the eBook), and outsource or use chatbots for some of the tedious time-consuming tasks, like customer onboarding. A chatbot can handle that.
For your customers, they’re getting less expensive professional shots that might not otherwise happen, and MUCH faster than usual photographers. For companies with products, they can send pics of their items and you can design an entire photoshoot for them so they can buy the shots for a gallery on their own media and marketing accounts.
For example, you might have a start-up beauty brand want you to do a photoshoot of their lipstick line. They send you normal pics and AI makes it look like it’s jumping off the pages of Vogue! You can put it on a model and have her holding the lipstick – all AI generated. But a fraction of the cost a professional photographer would charge.
This can be a side hustle or full-time gig for you. The income is consistent – people have milestones and picture needs constantly. In that FB post I saw, people were clamoring to hire the original poster. And the other half wanted to buy her course on it. She’s winning doubly!
Now besides the AI tools I mention in the course, which you can start out on basic or free plans with (depending on the tools) and leveling up, there are a few things on Amazon you might eventually want to upgrade to.
They are:
- High-Speed External SSDs: Store thousands of raw client photos and AI-generated images. Fast drives enable quick upload/download and backup of large image files, essential for efficient deliverables and keeping client assets organized.
- Photo Print Test Packs: Use test photo papers to check color and detail output from AI-edited images before delivering final files for print or e-commerce. This helps ensure consistency and client confidence in tangible products.
- Ergonomic Mouse and Keyboard: As your business grows, hours of digital work require comfort and precision. High-quality, programmable devices support quick workflow shortcuts and smoother navigation in AI editing software.
- Graphic Tablet: Perfect for fine touch-ups, annotation, and adding a creative human layer to AI-processed images. These can add subtle manual adjustments, overlays, or signatures for client branding.
- Monitor Calibration Tools: Devices like colorimeter kits help ensure screen colors match output results. This keeps color consistency for clients’ digital images, especially for product, fashion, or branding work.
- Label Printers: Needed for efficiently tagging client USBs, printed deliverables, or asset packs, maintaining an organized fulfillment process for high-volume AI photo businesses.
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you purchase through my links at no extra cost to you.
This is something you can be a pioneer in when it comes to digital careers. And the features and capabilities AI is coming out with daily to enhance this process are incredible!
Tiff 😉
