How to review AI images as a team
Give every image one of three verdicts: approve, changes or kill, each with a written reason. Decide in advance who owns which call: the creative director for concept and craft, brand for the rules, legal for claims and likeness, the client for final sign-off. Review in fixed rounds, and write notes a model can act on, such as "move the key light to camera left", instead of "make it pop".
Three verdicts, each with a reason
| Verdict | Use it when | The reason must say | What happens next |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approve | The image does its job and passes the checks | What makes it right, so the next shot can copy it | It moves to the next round, or to delivery |
| Changes | The idea works, and one specific thing is wrong | The one change, and what must stay | It is remade with that note, in two to four versions to compare |
| Kill | The idea does not work, or the fault is too deep to fix | Why, in words the next brief can use | It is dropped; if the reason repeats, it becomes a rule |
"Kill" on its own teaches the next round nothing. "Kill: the jar floats, no contact shadow" gives it something to check. Approvals need reasons too: "approve, this is the light we want for the whole set" turns one good frame into a rule.
Who decides what
| Role | Decides | Leaves to others |
|---|---|---|
| Creative director | Concept, craft, which frames go forward | Legal claims; the brand rules themselves |
| Brand manager | Whether the image follows the brand rules and the never-do list | Taste calls inside the rules |
| Legal or compliance | Claims the image makes, people and likeness, other brands’ marks, disclosure | Look and feel |
| Product or category owner | Product accuracy: label, parts, colors, size | Styling |
| Client, on agency work | Final sign-off | Craft notes after a round has closed |
| Producer | Rounds, deadlines and the review log | Creative calls |
One owner per call stops two notes from canceling each other out. When the creative director and the brand manager disagree, the brand rules decide. If the rules are silent, the brand manager decides, and the rules get a new line.
Review in rounds
- Round 0, cast and look. Approve the character sheet and two or three test frames before the full set renders. A wrong face or wrong light here costs every photo after it.
- Round 1, craft. The creative director reviews the full set: approve, changes or kill. Most changes happen here.
- Round 2, brand, product and legal. Only frames that passed round 1. Each owner checks their own lines on the QA checklist for AI images.
- Round 3, client. Present the frames that survived, with the reasons they survived.
- Final check. Crop, file size, spelling of any text, and that the delivered file is the approved version.
Time-box each round and do not reopen a closed one; a late note goes in the log for the next campaign. Plan the reviewers’ hours as well. In our own campaigns it took about eight renders to get one keeper (see how many renders per usable photo), so round 1 sees far more images than the client ever will.
Notes a model can act on
A note on an AI image turns into a prompt, so write it as one: one change, where it happens, and what must stay. OpenAI’s prompting guide for GPT Image 2.5 gives the same pattern for edits: say "change only X", list what to preserve, and change one thing at a time. Google’s guide suggests follow-ups of the same kind, which keep everything the same and change one detail.
| Note that does not work | Note a model can act on |
|---|---|
| Make it pop | Raise contrast on the product only; the background stays as it is |
| More premium | Replace the glossy counter with matte stone #D9D4CC and remove the second prop |
| The lighting feels off | Move the key light to camera left; keep the shadows soft and falling right |
| She looks weird | Keep her face from the character sheet; fix the left hand, five fingers, thumb on top of the bottle |
| Too busy | Remove the lemons and the cloth; keep the glass and the can |
| Can we make it warmer? | Warm the light, and keep the can its true tea amber #C8893A |
| Not on brand | Background to chalk #F2EEE6; drop the teal grade; add fine film grain |
| The product looks wrong | The cap is black on the real product, not gold; match reference image 2 |
| Make it more real | Add a soft contact shadow under the jar, fine grain, and less shine on the label |
| I don’t love it | Kill: the idea does not show the product in use |
Record decisions so the next round learns
Log every verdict in one place; a shared sheet works. Use one row per image.
REVIEW LOG Campaign: ________ Round: ________ Date: ________ Image ID | Shot | Verdict | Reason | Note for the remake | Decided by | Model and settings | References used | Prompt version Example row: LAUNCH-07 | Lifestyle, kitchen | Changes | Light comes from overhead; our light is camera left | Move the key light to camera left, keep everything else | Creative director | Nano Banana 2, 2K | Character sheet v2, product front | P07 v3
After each round, sort the log by reason. A reason that appears twice becomes a line in the brand rules or the never-do list. The prompt, model and references behind every approved image go into a keepers folder, so the next campaign starts from what worked. AI tools sell this loop as brand memory; a log gives you a copy you can read.
What legal looks for
Pictures make claims. The US FTC judges an ad by what its words and pictures convey together, and advertisers need proof for implied claims as well as stated ones. An AI image of fuller lashes or a bigger portion makes a claim the same way a sentence would, so legal reviews it against the claims lines of the never-do list and the category rules. For the US rules in detail, see FTC rules for AI product images.
Questions people also ask
- How many people should review each image?
- One owner per question rather than one vote per person. A small team can run every round with two people, a creative lead for craft and a brand owner for rules, product and claims, and call in legal for claims, people and other brands’ marks.
- Should clients see AI images before they are final?
- Yes, after your internal rounds and labeled as drafts or routes. Say which frames are AI-made and which are final. See how to present AI concepts to a client.
- Can a retoucher fix a face or a hand by hand?
- Yes, as a final retouch on an approved image, as long as the retouched file is the one delivered and logged. For anything bigger, remake the image from the character sheet with a note, so the fix carries over to the next shot.
Where Overs fits
In Overs, each photo gets one of three choices: approve, ask for changes, or reject with a reason. A shared workspace records who decided and keeps comments beside the photo, and a client review file (one HTML file) brings a client’s decisions back into Overs. Approvals and rejections become brand memory for later photos.
Free for 40 photos a month. The AI that makes the photos is billed separately, on your own key, with no markup from Overs.