Working Together –
Process, Rights & FAQ

AI content is strongest when you need volume, speed or things that are hard to shoot: many format variations, seasonal adaptations, campaign visuals without travel and location costs, or scenes that would be complex to stage. A classic shoot is often the better choice when a specific real person, a real product hero shot with legal relevance, or an authentic documentary feel is essential.

In practice, the best results are often hybrid: real photography or footage combined with AI-generated elements and extensions. This saves valuable production time and resources, allowing me to invest more energy into creative concepts, lighting, and visual ideas.

I work across both disciplines and can advise honestly on the most efficient route for your specific project.

Yes, and it's often my recommendation. With 14 years of commercial photography across action sports (Wethepeople Bike Co, Bombtrack Bike Co), the pet sector (Purina Pro Plan, Fressnapf, zooplus) and portrait work (including Deutsches Theater Berlin), I bring a photographer's eye to AI production – I see AI as a tool, not a replacement.

Hybrid productions combine real footage or photography with AI-generated scenes, casts or extensions. This keeps the authenticity of real imagery where it matters and adds the flexibility and scale of AI where it helps.

Animals have been my specialty for many years – with international campaign and packaging work for brands like Purina Pro Plan, Fressnapf and zooplus, and an award-winning background in pet photography. That experience matters in AI production: I know how animals actually move, stand and behave, how fur reacts to light, and I immediately spot the anatomy and behavior mistakes AI models typically make. The result is animal imagery that holds up to the eye of a pet brand's audience – arguably the most critical audience there is.

AI also solves a real production problem in this category: difficult animal shots. Action scenes, multiple animals in one frame, rare breeds or complex set situations mean stress for the animal, trainer costs and unpredictable shoot days. With AI, exactly these motifs can be produced animal-friendly – no animal has to perform on set. For brands, that's not just more efficient, it's a genuine animal-welfare statement.

Both. Product photography has been part of my commercial work for many years – from bike industry campaigns to packaging shoots for international pet brands – so I approach product content with a photographer's standards for detail, material rendering and brand consistency.

There are two ways in: Hybrid product shootings, where I photograph your products properly (lighting, angles, detail shots) and use those images as the controlled base for AI production – new scenes, backgrounds, seasonal variations and formats, all built on accurate product representation. Or reviving your existing product photography: if you already have product images you hold the usage rights to, they can get a second life – placed into new environments, animated into motion assets, turned into reels and social clips, or adapted into complete campaign asset sets. Instead of reshooting your whole catalog, your image archive becomes production material.

The one requirement: cleared usage rights for any existing material we build on (see the usage rights question above). For product content this is usually straightforward – most brands own their product photography outright. The result is faster and significantly more cost-efficient than a new shoot for every campaign, while the product itself stays accurate – which is exactly where pure text-to-image approaches tend to fail.

Every project starts with a briefing: campaign goals, brand guidelines, references and formats. From there I develop the visual direction and, if needed, the AI cast. Production runs in defined stages – cast development, cast fitting (outfits with attention to fit and detail), compositing (placing models into scenes, with or without art direction), followed by post-production and retouching up to final delivery, including crop adaptations for every channel you need.

Coming from 14 years of commercial photography, I run AI productions the way I run photo productions: structured, art-directed and reliable. You get review rounds at defined milestones, and the number of iterations is agreed upfront – so quality and timing stay predictable.

Yes – that's the core of my work. I build AI casts and scenes to match existing campaign aesthetics: lighting style, color grading, casting direction and art direction. I've produced AI content for international brands like Purina Pro Plan and zooplus where consistency with existing brand worlds was the key requirement.

Beyond single images, I develop reproducible workflows: once a cast and look are established, they can be reused across campaigns and formats – which makes scaling content significantly more efficient than starting from scratch every time.

That depends on length, complexity and the number of scenes – but as a rough guide: a short campaign clip (15–30 seconds) typically takes a few production days from approved concept to delivery, including revisions. Longer formats or productions with custom cast development need more lead time for the development phase.

I work with current-generation tools (Seedance 2.0, Kling and others) and combine them with classic post-production in After Effects and DaVinci Resolve, so the final result is delivery-ready – not just a raw AI export.

Yes – workflow development is a dedicated service. Instead of delivering only final assets, I can build reproducible production workflows: documented processes for cast consistency, scene generation and format adaptation that your team can run with, or that we operate together for ongoing campaigns. This is the most efficient setup for brands with recurring content needs – the initial development investment pays off with every following production.

Here's the honest answer most providers won't give you: under German and EU law, purely AI-generated images are generally not protected by copyright – copyright requires human creative authorship. That has a practical consequence for brands: classic exclusivity like with commissioned photography can't simply be promised for pure AI output. Anyone who tells you otherwise hasn't done their homework.

How I handle it: usage rights for the final assets are defined contractually per project – channels, territories, duration – just like in commercial photography. My production process (concept, art direction, compositing, retouching) involves substantial human creative work, which strengthens the legal position of the final assets, and I document every production step. I work with established AI tools under their commercial licensing terms.

Just as important: what goes INTO the production. I never use reference images without cleared usage rights – uploading a protected photo into an AI tool can itself constitute a copyright infringement under German law, regardless of what the output looks like. For animal content, I work with my own extensive image database, built over years of pet photography, where I hold all rights. If you provide reference material, I'll ask you to confirm you hold the editing rights – that protects both of us.

Yes, this is becoming mandatory – and it's something I plan into every production. Under Article 50 of the EU AI Act, transparency obligations for AI-generated and manipulated content apply from August 2, 2026. Photorealistic AI-generated people in advertising are likely to fall under these disclosure rules: audiences must be able to recognize that the content is AI-generated.

For brands, this is not a threat – it's a workflow question. I advise on labeling concepts as part of the production: where and how the disclosure is placed so that it meets the legal requirement without hurting the creative. Synthetic casts that are clearly built as brand characters, cleanly disclosed, are a safe and increasingly normal part of campaign work – major brands are already doing it.

Two more safety principles I work by: my AI casts are purely synthetic and not modeled on real people (which keeps personality rights and deepfake issues out of your campaign), and reference material only enters a production when usage rights are cleared. If you want, we can walk through the compliance side of your specific project in a short call.

For product campaigns, the products themselves or their photographic references are provided by you as the client. Since you own the trademark, design, and image rights to your products, we can safely use them as the base for the AI environment or composite.

For animal content, I also bring my own extensive, fully cleared private archive containing thousands of pet photos built over 14 years of professional pet photography. If you provide specific pet photos or other reference materials for us to work with, we just need to ensure you hold the edit and commercial usage rights. This guarantees a legally secure, clean production without third-party copyright concerns.

Generally, no. The EU AI Act’s transparency obligations (Article 50) primarily target photorealistic AI-generated content depicting people, places, or events that could mislead the public into thinking they are real. Pure product renderings, AI-generated backgrounds, or creative product modifications do not fall under this mandatory labeling rule.

However, consumer protection laws still apply: the AI generation must not mislead consumers about the actual characteristics, functions, or performance of the physical product. If we use AI to enhance a real product, we ensure that the product’s representation remains authentic and legally compliant.

Ideally: your brand guidelines (logo, colors, typography, do's and don'ts), visual references or existing campaign material, a short briefing on goals and target audience, and the final formats and channels. If an AI cast should match existing talent or a previous campaign, reference imagery helps a lot.

Don't worry if you don't have all of this ready – part of my job is turning a rough idea into a workable production plan. A 30-minute call is usually enough to scope a project.

Without a concrete brief, flat rates are difficult – iteration depth and quality requirements make a big difference. My pricing is day-rate based, with separate rates for concept and workflow development versus execution, compositing and post-production. Token/credit costs for the AI generations are billed based on the scope of generations and revisions.

For a specific project, I'll always give you a transparent estimate upfront – including a defined number of revision rounds, so there are no surprises along the way. A short call about your project is the fastest way to get a realistic quote.

Yes. AI production is location-independent by nature, and I've already delivered projects for international clients fully remote – from briefing calls to final delivery. I'm based in Cologne, Germany, work in English and German, and am used to async collaboration across time zones with structured reviews and clear milestones. For hybrid productions involving real shoots, I'm available for productions on location.