Kind & Co - Still(s) Blowing Clouds
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Retouching
| Photography
| Creative
| AI
Kind & Co. Hero Image: From Macro Still to Smoking Motion
After photographing the full cannabis strain lineup for Kind & Co., I created a hero image for one of their in-house strains—and gave it motion to extend its use across digital formats.
The base of the image is a macro photo of cured flower I had previously shot and focus-stacked. That was "unstacked" to get just the right amount of focus and fall-off on the edges, then composited into an ethereal background generated in MidJourney.
Original AI generated background image straight from Midjourney
The original image was a great starting point: abstract enough to accommodate the scale shift from product to environment, and with a built-in focal point—a large central box—that I replaced with the flower. When there are obvious scale discrepancies all pieces need to play with both side a little. Is it a big flower or a tiny room of boxes?
Before/after showing original Midjourney image edited to remove box and bring nug into scene
From there, I moved into Photoshop. First, I removed the original focal object (the box) and positioned the cannabis flower into the scene. I adjusted lighting, balanced the shadows and highlights, and blended the flower into the surrounding smoke to seat it naturally in the environment.
Before/after showing the blending of the nug into the environment
With the composition in place, I began layering in branding. The Kind & Co. logo was added to the side boxes, and a text-based version was built out as a faux-3D asset using simple Photoshop layers; no need to fire up Blender for this one. I also added more smoke and dust effects to add layers and depth to the atmosphere and direct the eye around the image.
Before/after showing full blended nug and environment with the final details and branding added
Finally, I brought the static image into After Effects to animate the smoke, creating a cinemagraph effect where the smoke subtly billows from behind the flower—bringing a sense of life and real dimension to the hero image.
Final image with subtle smoke motion
This one’s a mix of old-school craft and new-school tools: a focus-stacked macro shot meets an AI-generated set piece, all tied together with Photoshop, and a puff of After Effects. It’s a reminder that when each method does what it does best—AI setting the scene, photography grounding it in reality—you get more than the sum of the parts. Hybrid flower, hybrid workflow. High-impact image.
See the full layer-by-layer breakdown below.
Full Layer walk through
