Poses: How to Put Your Expert in Any Photo

Poses, which used to be called visual presets, start from a real picture: a post's link or a screenshot. ppl.studio reads out its pose, framing, light, outfit and background, and keeps the picture. When you use the pose, any of your AI Experts is recreated in it. Only the person changes: the face, hair, skin and build are your Expert's.

What a Pose Is

A pose is two things kept together: the picture, and a written description of it. The description has a title, a line on what it looks like, the clothing, the background, and a prompt for the scene. The Workbench follows the prompt and uses the picture as a reference.

When you generate, the picture is recreated with your Expert in the person's place. These stay the same:

• The pose and body position
• The framing, camera angle and distance
• The light and the setting
• The outfit and the props

Your Expert's face, hair, skin and build come from the Expert's own photo, never from the person in the picture.

Make a Pose from a Post or a Screenshot

Open Poses in the Plan section of the menu and click New pose. You can start from a link or from a picture.

From a link

Paste the post's link into From a post. A pasted link is read straight away. If you type it, click Read. These links work:

• TikTok: the video's cover, or the first picture of a photo post.
• YouTube, Shorts included: the video's thumbnail.
• Pinterest and other pages: the preview picture the page shows when it's shared.
• A direct link to an image: the image itself.

Instagram and X often hide their pictures from links. When a link gives no picture, you're told so. Add a screenshot of the post instead.

From a screenshot

Click Choose image and pick a screenshot or a photo. It's read as soon as you choose it. Crop it to the photo first, so the app's buttons and captions aren't part of what's read. Any picture works, including a photo you made earlier on the Workbench.

Check what was read

The title, description, clothing, background and prompt fill in. Change any of them before you click Add pose. The prompt matters most: it's what the Workbench follows. A pose read from a link shows where it came from on its card, for example “From tiktok.com”. You can edit a pose or delete it later from its card.

Pick a picture with one person, clearly visible. That gives your Expert a clear place to take. Reading a picture uses Gemini; without your own Gemini key, there's a daily limit on reads.

Start from the Library's Poses

The Poses page has two parts. My poses are the ones you added. The Library holds ready-made poses that everyone can use for free. They work the same way as yours. You can't edit a Library pose. To change one, add your own from the same picture.

The Library is a good place to start when you don't have a picture in mind yet.

Use a Pose on the Workbench

1. Click “Use this pose” on any pose's card. The Workbench opens on its Poses tab with that pose picked. The tab lists your poses and the Library's, so you can switch without going back.
2. Pick the Expert, and a product if the photo should have one. The product goes into the scene the same way as with any other prompt.
3. Choose what the pose brings. By the Generate button, under From the pose, there are two switches: Its clothing and Its background. Both are on when the pose has them. Turn one off to leave that part of the pose out of the prompt.
4. Edit the prompt if you want. The pose's prompt fills the prompt box. Change a line to change one thing, such as what the Expert holds.
5. Generate. The photo is saved with the Expert's photos and in your gallery.

Put an Expert in a Pose from Their Profile

If you start from the Expert, open their profile and click Put in a pose. The Poses page opens for that Expert, and each card's button names them, for example “Put Mia in it”. Clicking it opens the Workbench with both the Expert and the pose picked. You can also add a new pose from a post there first.

New to Experts? Create your first AI Expert first.

Use a Pose for a Copy the Moves Still

The Recast page puts your Expert into a short clip, in one of two ways:

• Replace the character: your Expert replaces the person in the clip. The clip's scene, camera and sound stay, so a pose's scene isn't used.
• Copy the moves: your Expert does the clip's moves in their own scene, from a still photo. Only the movement comes from the clip. The face, clothes and scene come from the still. The clip is silent, so you add the sound when you post.

A pose gives Copy the moves its scene. There are two ways to use one:

• On the Recast page: make a photo of the Expert in the pose on the Workbench first. It then shows with their other pictures under Who goes in. Pick it, choose Copy the moves, and start the clip. A head-to-toe photo with the hands free works best, because anything the Expert holds moves with them.
• In the Character in a Trend workflow: under “The still they move in”, choose In a pose and pick one. The Expert is photographed in the pose first, in its scene, outfit and framing, with the hands free. Then they do the moves.

Keep a Campaign Consistent with One Pose

Every photo made from the same pose has the same framing, light and setting. That makes a pose a simple way to keep a campaign looking like one shoot. Keep the pose and change one thing at a time:

• One pose, several products: a set of photos that sit together on a product page or in a feed.
• One pose, several Experts: a fair test of which face your audience responds to, with everything else held.
• One pose for the photos and the clip: use it for the Copy the moves still too, so the video matches the photos.

To hold a campaign to a photo you already made, save that photo and add it as a pose from a screenshot. For a larger set, the batch workflow covers making many photos in one go. When the campaign has run long enough that the photos stop working, start a new pose from a new post. The creative refresh playbook covers when to change.

When a Photo Style Is the Better Tool

Poses and photo styles both set the scene, but they start from different places.

Use a photo style when you don't have a picture in mind and want a common scene, such as Mirror Selfie, Golden Hour or Cozy Home. A style is also the better choice when you want to adjust the scene option by option. Use a pose when you've seen the exact photo you want.