Can I prompt "in the style of" a famous photographer?

In the US the prompt alone is not infringement, because copyright does not protect style as such. The output can still copy a specific photo, the Copyright Office notes that some AI companies instruct their systems not to imitate living artists’ styles, and a copycat look can read as derivative to your audience. Describing the light, lens and palette gets you the look with less risk.

Is a competitor’s ad fair game as a reference?

Looking at it for ideas is fine. Uploading it puts their photographer’s expression, and often their trademarks, into your input, which raises copyright and trademark risk at once. Describe what you admire in words and leave the file out. See logos and trademarks in AI images.

Do I need permission to use my client’s photos as references?

In effect, yes. The client may not own them either if an outside photographer shot them. Ask the client to confirm in writing that it owns or has licensed the photos for AI use, since the tool’s terms make you promise the same.

Can you use other people’s photos as AI references?

Checked September 24, 20266 min read

Short answer

You can take ideas, moods and general styles from other people’s photos: US copyright does not protect style as such. You cannot copy their specific expression, and uploading someone else’s photo to an image-to-image tool makes a close copy far more likely. Use references you shot, own or licensed for AI use. Stock licenses often forbid it: Getty Images’ April 2026 license bars AI use of its images beyond internal search and permitted editing.

What copyright protects in a reference photo

The US Copyright Office wrote in July 2024 that copyright does not protect artistic style as a separate element of a work, because protecting style would clash with the rule that ideas are free to use. What it does protect is the photographer’s own creative expression in a particular image. Copying that expression without permission can infringe, whether you trace it, repaint it or have a model regenerate it. For what you can own in the result, see who owns AI-generated images.

OpenAI’s Terms of Use and Midjourney’s Terms of Service both make you promise that you have the rights to what you upload, so the responsibility sits with you. For what else the tools’ terms say, see can you use AI images commercially.

How you use a reference changes the risk

How the reference is used	What the model does with it	Risk	Safer practice
A mood board you look at, then describe in words	Nothing; the model never sees the images	Low	Write the mood, light and palette as text
A board uploaded to a tool that reads its mood	Reads the images, and may borrow objects or layouts	Medium	Use images you own or licensed, and keep logos, products and faces off the board
Someone else’s photo used as an image-to-image or composition reference	Starts from that photo, so layout and details carry over	High	Do not do it without a license that covers AI use
A prompt asking for the style of a living photographer	Imitates the look, and can drift toward copying known images	Medium, plus reputational risk	Describe the light and lens instead of the name
Your own product photos	Copies your product, as intended	Low	Check who owns the photos if a freelancer shot them
Stock photos	Depends on the license	Check first	Read the AI clause in the license
Photos of real people	Carries their face and body into the output	High, under publicity and data protection law	Get a signed release; see AI images of real people

For turning a board into words a model can use, see how to use a mood board with AI.

Photos you paid for may not be yours to feed a model

In the US, copyright in a photo belongs first to the person who took it, unless it is a work made for hire or the rights were transferred (17 U.S.C. § 201). If a freelancer shot your product, check that your contract transfers the copyright or licenses the photos broadly enough to use them as AI inputs and to make new images from them.

Stock licenses are stricter. Getty Images’ license, last updated April 2026, says you may not use its content for any machine learning or AI purposes, apart from internal archiving, search and sorting of creative images and editing the license already permits. It adds that those allowed uses do not include training, fine-tuning or other data ingestion. Using a licensed Getty photo as a reference to make a different image is not on the allowed list. Read the AI clause of any other stock license before you upload.

What the courts have decided so far

The main cases are about training models and about outputs. None of them answers whether a brand’s use of a particular reference photo is allowed.

UK: Getty Images v Stability AI [2025] EWHC 2863 (Ch), decided November 4, 2025. Getty dropped its training claim for lack of evidence that training happened in the UK, and dropped its output claim after Stability blocked the prompts in question. The judge rejected the claim that the model itself was an infringing copy, because it does not store or reproduce the photos. Getty won a narrow trademark point over watermarks in some early model versions. On December 16, 2025 the judge gave Getty permission to appeal the infringing-copy point. We found no Court of Appeal judgment on the National Archives’ case law service on September 24, 2026.
US: the artists’ case against Stability AI, Midjourney and others (Andersen v. Stability AI, N.D. Cal.) was still in pretrial proceedings, with a request to change the schedule filed September 21, 2026.
US: in Disney and other studios’ case against Midjourney (C.D. Cal.), the hearing on Midjourney’s motion for judgment on the pleadings was moved to November 23, 2026.
US: Getty Images’ case against Stability AI, refiled in the Northern District of California in August 2025, was open.

These cases concern what AI companies may do. Your exposure as a brand turns on what your final image looks like and what you uploaded to get it.

A safe way to work with references

Build boards from photos you shot, own, or licensed with AI use allowed.
Keep third-party images for looking at, and describe them in words for the model.
Keep other brands’ products, logos, faces and readable text off any board you upload.
Never upload someone else’s photo as an image-to-image or pose reference without a license.
Compare each output with the references side by side. If it could pass as a version of one of them, remake it.
Log where every reference came from.

Reference log

Reference file name:
Source (own shoot, freelancer, stock site, client, other):
Copyright owner:
License or contract, and date:
Allows AI input? (yes/no, and the clause):
People shown, and releases on file:
Brands or logos visible:
Used for (mood, composition, product accuracy, face):
Uploaded to (tool and model):

Questions people also ask

Can I prompt "in the style of" a famous photographer?: In the US the prompt alone is not infringement, because copyright does not protect style as such. The output can still copy a specific photo, the Copyright Office notes that some AI companies instruct their systems not to imitate living artists’ styles, and a copycat look can read as derivative to your audience. Describing the light, lens and palette gets you the look with less risk.
Is a competitor’s ad fair game as a reference?: Looking at it for ideas is fine. Uploading it puts their photographer’s expression, and often their trademarks, into your input, which raises copyright and trademark risk at once. Describe what you admire in words and leave the file out. See logos and trademarks in AI images.
Do I need permission to use my client’s photos as references?: In effect, yes. The client may not own them either if an outside photographer shot them. Ask the client to confirm in writing that it owns or has licensed the photos for AI use, since the tool’s terms make you promise the same.

Where Overs fits

Overs reads a mood board for its feeling (light, mood, energy) and applies that to your product in your brand’s style instead of copying what is in the pictures, and a dial sets whether the board or your brand’s look leads. The board images are still uploaded and read by an AI model, so use ones you have the right to use.

Free for 40 photos a month. The AI that makes the photos is billed separately, on your own key, with no markup from Overs.

Start free How it works

Sources

Checked on September 24, 2026. Prices, specs and rules change; follow the links for the current versions.