The “Real” Me?
100% AI, but extremely accurate.
For a while now, I was thinking I needed to update my profile pictures. The last professional photo shoot was in June 2018, and it was time for an update. I'm now 30 pounds lighter, and that changes some of my look, but otherwise, I've not “aged aggressively” in that time, or so I think. Others may think I've ug'd-up a lot since then. It's hard for me to be objective.
I look like a smug Bond villain in this one.
I'd be the first to admit, I take a horrible picture. I'm one of these guys who wants accuracy but doesn't want to scare a clock into stopping either. I'm always in search of that "nice" picture and never liked the idea of a glam photo or something that didn't at all look authentic.
A professional sitting with a photographer all the way to Nashville is expensive, time-consuming, and not at all comfortable for me. I don't like anything about the process. Even then, unless you get a great photographer, the portraits end up looking like something from bad album covers.
A Facebook ad came up for a company that did AI headshots based on a composite of other photos. I went to the site, read the directions carefully, and I uploaded 20 recent photos, of which about a third were selfies I took with my iPhone. My goal was accuracy, so I did my best with my selfies, and I hunted for pictures from CES without my glasses. Luckily, the people I was with took a few, so I felt that the upload was a reasonable cross-section.
This one makes me look like a VC who just ripped off a startup.
I waited for the process to be complete, and it took about ninety minutes in all. I then received 100 surprisingly good headshots.
Of the 100, I'd say that over half were in the ballpark, but so many show me with the wrong body type - all looking even thinner, with a much longer neck. There were about ten that were close; some looked even better than me, and most of them were far better dressed than I normally look.
It came down to four I liked out of a hundred that I thought were fairly accurate. I then sent them to friends without comment, and all were fooled. Everyone thought I recently sat for a photo shoot. Not one said they looked fake in any way, even though these pictures are 100% AI.
There was one interesting outcome, and that was it demonstrated a lot of different ways I could dress that are well outside my comfort zone. For example, there is this beauty of me in a hat. I only wear hats when I'm in the sun.
I did put down the ones where I thought, nope, I don't look that good on my best days. I even debated not using an AI-generated photo at all, but then as I thought about it, even if I sat for a photo shoot, what they send me is always "Photoshopped," as they say. The whole idea is to look good and if they are accurate enough to fool my friends, then I guess I’m there.
I look like I just fell out of a bank. Actually, I look like my dad after he was out gardening.
Overall, I'm impressed. Yes, some of them are absolutely terrible and make me look like Adam Schiff, with a neck like I'd been hung once before. Most had the wrong body type, or some other element that was off, such as a facial expression I can't possibly make. Then there were some with me wearing clothes that would never be me. I'll skip those embarrassments.
I do think this is the future of portrait photography. I think it will only get better, and this is surprisingly good. In fact, what I really see happening is the merger between the two. Pro photographers will use this same AI to make their work look even more outstanding. But, like I said, is that what I really want? Accuracy still matters to me.
I am going to use this last photo for some situations. I do dress like that once in a while. Japan is still formal when I'm there, and I don't go without a suit and tie. This is still the expected attire with some clients.
So, in the end, I've come full circle. I started this process as a complete skeptic, expecting something that looks more like an AI cartoon of me, and instead, I was pleasantly surprised. This will do. This is me…sort of.