A skill that makes Claude plan the styling for a tabletop, flat lay or still life product shoot the way a senior prop stylist would. You give it photos of your product and say where the pictures will run. It works out the camera angle that shows the label, builds a colour story around the product and tests its lightness against the background, then plans each frame in numbers: how much of the frame the product fills, where it sits, and the space left for words. It ends with a costed prop list and a card for each setup on the day.
Inside are five reference files, and they all keep the product as the hero. Every prop must do one job, such as telling a scent note, giving scale or leading the eye, and every shot has a cap on props. Ingredient and scent props are checked against the label, because a picture makes claims too. Surfaces, kit and prop house rental terms carry prices checked on 17 October 2026 with their sources, and the image specs for Instagram, Shopify, Amazon and Pinterest are dated. A worked example follows an invented candle brand from brief to review.
Claude cannot take the photographs or make the images itself. For a real shoot it plans the set. For an image tool it writes a styling paragraph per shot for you to paste, and hands over to the Product Photo Shoot skill if you have it. Prices change, so treat the dated figures as a starting point and get quotes for florists and rentals. Measure the product before you start, attach the ingredient list or scent notes, and paste your test shots back for a review with one physical fix per problem.
Claude skill · version 1.0
Still life styling
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In the download · 7 files
- SKILL.mdThe method Claude follows: six stages from brief to review, the ground rules, an output template for each stage and the never list.
- README.mdHow to install it in claude.ai or Claude Code, how to start, and the licence.
- references/surfaces-and-color.mdThe colour story method, the lightness test with code, a guide to surfaces and backgrounds, and dated prices for boards and paper.
- references/composition-patterns.mdCamera angles, hero size by shot type, eleven composition patterns, scale rules, copy space and dated image specs for Instagram, Shopify, Amazon and Pinterest.
- references/props-and-sourcing.mdThe six jobs a prop can do, caps per shot, the claim check, buy, rent or make rules, prop house terms, the stylist kit and budget levels from dated prices.
- references/set-check.mdSet cards, the build loop, checks before every frame, the styling paragraph for image tools, and the review checklist with verdicts.
Install it and begin
01Install it in Claude CodeTerminal mkdir -p ~/.claude/skillsunzip ~/Downloads/still-life-styling.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/# Start it with /still-life-styling. If this is your first skill, type /reload-skills once.On claude.ai there is nothing to unzip: upload the zip as it is. Every step is on Install and use a Claude skill.
02Your first message to ClaudeText Use the still life styling skill. I have attached photos of [PRODUCT]. It measures [HEIGHT AND WIDTH]. The pictures are for [WHERE THEY WILL RUN]. They will be made by [WHO SHOOTS IT, OR WHICH IMAGE TOOL]. My budget for props and surfaces is [BUDGET]. Start with the brief and tell me what is missing.Attach clear photos of the front, the back and the label, plus the ingredient list or scent notes. Any props you already own can go in the same message.
Worked example
A styled set, from product to prop list
- 01Find the face that carries the brand: a front label, a printed top, or both.It sets the camera angle. A front label rules out an overhead flat lay before any prop is chosen.
- 02Build the colour story from the product out, then test its lightness against the ground.A gap of 20 points of L* or more separates at a glance. Under 10, the product melts into the set at thumbnail size, whatever the hues.
- 03Size the hero in numbers for each shot and work out the frame on the table.A 3.1 inch jar at 30% of the width of a 3:4 frame needs a frame of about 10 by 14 inches, which tells you which board to buy.
- 04Give every prop one job and cap the count per shot.A hero tabletop shot carries two to four props at phone size. A prop with no job, or the same job as another, comes out.
- 05Check each ingredient, scent or material prop against the label.A lemon beside a serum tells buyers there is lemon in it. If there is none, the prop goes.
- 06Price the list from dated figures or real quotes, and mark the rest as estimates.Surfaces and kit carry prices checked on 17 October 2026 with their sources. Florists and rentals need quotes.
- 07On the day, place the hero first, then add one prop at a time with a test frame after each.Props added all at once hide each other's faults. Stop when the next one adds nothing.
What to do it with
- ClaudeFree tier, paid above it
A language model that writes, edits, reads long documents and runs tools, including agents that work inside a codebase.
Bad at It is agreeable by default, so it will improve a bad idea instead of telling you it is bad. Ask it to argue against you and the quality of the answer changes.
- Claude CodeSubscription
An agent that reads a whole repository, edits files, runs the tests and explains what it changed.
Bad at It is fast enough to make a large mistake quickly. Work on a branch, read the diff, and never let it push. Watch the starting mode: on Pro, Max and Team plans it opens in auto mode, which Anthropic's own list says may read a .env file and send the key in it to the API that key belongs to. Switch it off.
Why it matters
Ask a chat for flat lay ideas and it piles on dried flowers, books and linen until the product disappears. This skill makes Claude decide what stays off the table. It sizes the product in the frame, caps the props for each shot, cuts any prop that has no job or that hints at an ingredient the product lacks, and checks that the product still reads at thumbnail size.
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing