Permanent Photography jobs

Job Title: AI Prompt Engineer / AI Image Artist

Job Type: Full Time

Job Set-Up: Remote

Work Hours: Pacific Standard Time (PST)

JOB DESCRIPTION

Photoreal Generations, Matte Painting, Retouching, Upscaling & Background Plates for Live-Action Production

We are seeking a full-time Prompt Engineer / AI Image Artist specializing in photorealistic image generation, matte painting, photo retouching, image upscaling, and background plate creation for live-action production, commercial work, branded content, and VFX-driven projects.

This role is for someone who can create and refine imagery that feels grounded, cinematic, and production-ready. The ideal candidate understands how to match live-action footage and still photography, including lensing, lighting, perspective, atmosphere, scale, color, depth of field, grain, texture, resolution, and overall photographic realism.

This is not a general prompt-writing role. We are looking for someone with a strong visual eye who can generate, retouch, upscale, and refine images that can be used as believable backgrounds, set extensions, matte paintings, clean plates, hero stills, and visual development assets for live-action workflows.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Create photorealistic AI-generated images, matte paintings, background plates, and environment concepts for live-action projects.
• Perform high-quality photo retouching, cleanup, restoration, object removal, beauty work, product cleanup, and image polishing.
• Upscale and enhance images while preserving detail, realism, texture, grain, sharpness, and natural photographic quality.
• Develop prompts and image-generation workflows that match supplied footage, still frames, storyboards, mood boards, and creative briefs.
• Generate realistic interiors, exteriors, landscapes, cityscapes, skies, architectural spaces, set extensions, and environmental variations.
• Match live-action plates in lens, camera height, perspective, lighting direction, time of day, color temperature, atmosphere, texture, grain, resolution, and overall photographic quality.
• Produce multiple creative options quickly while maintaining high standards of realism and production usability.
• Use reference images, frame grabs, client/director feedback, and existing photography to refine outputs across multiple rounds.
• Create clean plates, background extensions, sky replacements, environment alternatives, retouched stills, upscaled images, and compositing-friendly assets.
• Collaborate closely with creative directors, directors, VFX supervisors, compositors, editors, producers, and post-production teams.
• Prepare generated, retouched, and upscaled imagery for downstream use in Photoshop, Nuke, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, ComfyUI, or other production tools.
• Maintain organized prompt records, reference materials, versioned outputs, and project folders.
• Stay current with emerging AI image tools, upscaling tools, retouching techniques, models, workflows, and production methods.
• Help develop repeatable internal workflows for photoreal AI generation, image enhancement, retouching, upscaling, and live-action integration.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Strong experience creating photorealistic AI-generated imagery.
• Strong photo retouching skills, including cleanup, masking, paintover, object removal, restoration, beauty retouching, product retouching, and image finishing.
• Experience with image upscaling and enhancement tools, with a strong understanding of how to preserve realism and avoid over-sharpened or artificial results.
• Demonstrated ability to create and refine imagery suitable for live-action, VFX, commercial, or cinematic use.
• Strong understanding of photography, cinematography, composition, lighting, perspective, lensing, atmosphere, resolution, grain, and realism.
• Experience with AI image-generation, retouching, and upscaling tools such as Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Flux, ComfyUI, Magnific, Topaz, Runway, Ideogram, Adobe Firefly, Photoshop, or similar platforms.
• Strong Photoshop skills, including cleanup, masking, paintover, compositing, retouching, color matching, and plate preparation.
• Ability to take direction, interpret visual references, and iterate quickly.
• Strong attention to visual continuity, scale, physical realism, texture, photographic detail, and final image quality.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced production environment with multiple active projects.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to document prompts, workflows, and iterations clearly.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Background in matte painting, photo retouching, VFX, compositing, concept art, photography, cinematography, commercial production, or post-production.
• Experience working with live-action footage, frame grabs, background plates, production stills, product photography, or campaign imagery.
• Familiarity with ComfyUI, ControlNet, IP-Adapter, image-to-image, inpainting, outpainting, upscaling, face/detail enhancement, and reference-based generation workflows.
• Experience preparing AI-generated, retouched, and upscaled assets for use in Nuke, After Effects, Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve, editorial, or finishing pipelines.
• Understanding of color pipelines, grain, aspect ratios, image sequences, resolution requirements, delivery specs, and final output quality control.
• Ability to generate consistent environments or visual styles across multiple shots.
• Experience with advertising, film, television, branded content, music videos, product campaigns, or cinematic visual development.

IDEAL CANDIDATE

• The ideal candidate is both technically curious and visually sophisticated. You should understand that successful AI imagery for live-action production is not simply about creating a beautiful image — it must feel like it belongs in the shot.
• You should be able to study a live-action frame or still image and identify what needs to be matched: lens, perspective, lighting, color, depth, grain, atmosphere, camera angle, production design, resolution, texture, and physical logic. Your work should avoid the overly polished or artificial look often associated with AI imagery and instead feel photographic, grounded, and believable.
• You should also have the finishing eye needed to retouch, upscale, and enhance images without making them feel synthetic, overprocessed, or disconnected from the original source material.

PORTFOLIO REQUIREMENTS

Applicants should provide a portfolio that includes:

• Photorealistic AI-generated environments, backgrounds, or cinematic images.
• Matte paintings, background plates, set extensions, or environment concepts.
• Photo retouching examples, including cleanup, object removal, product cleanup, beauty retouching, restoration, or image finishing.
• Upscaling or image enhancement examples, preferably with before/after comparisons.
• Examples showing live-action integration, before/after work, or plate matching, if available.
• Prompt examples or workflow breakdowns, if available.
• Relevant Photoshop, ComfyUI, Stable Diffusion, Flux, Midjourney, Topaz, Magnific, Nuke, After Effects, or compositing work.

Benefits:

• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Opportunities for promotion
• Paid training
• Promotion to permanent employee
• Work from home

Application Question(s):

• Can you describe your experience creating photorealistic AI-generated images for commercial, film, or marketing projects?
• What AI image-generation tools do you use most often?
• What is your experience with ComfyUI, ControlNet, IP-Adapter, inpainting, or outpainting workflows?
• Describe your experience using Photoshop for retouching, object removal, cleanup, and image enhancement.
• Can you share the link to your portfolio showcasing AI-generated environments, matte painting, retouching, image enhancement, compositing/live-action integration, workflow examples, and proficiency in relevant AI and post-production tools?

Work Location: Remote