Should I Use AI Headshots For My Branding Photos?

No. I don’t agree with using AI to create your branding or headshot photos. There are some obvious and even subtle changes that happen when you put your photos through an AI image generator.

I’ll be honest, I’ve actually never put my own photos through any AI image generator. Even those “fun” or silly trending prompts to make yourself into a Christmas wonderland set or turn you into a renaissance princess.  No thanks, I'll pass.

Why have I never done any of these AI image generators? It’s not because I’m scared of losing clients to this technology, it’s because I think it is very dangerous to our mental health and our self esteem.  

Let me go back to high school and this book I read. It is now a Netflix movie, but I don’t think it fully captured the skewed self perception of this world. The book is called Uglies by Scott Westerfield and in truth when I first read it I didn’t like it because of how self absorbed and obsessive she was about her appearance. However, this book has always stuck with me, it has impacted my opinion of heavy altering makeup, my editing style (I do have a clause within my contract that I will not alter the body in post processing) and my personal opinion of never doing the photo trends with AI.

The book takes place in a dystopian world and within the cities everyone is brainwashed to believe that they are ugly if they aren’t symmetrical, with enlarged eyes and lips to symbolize innocence. The cities have 2 zones, the zone everyone wants to be in is the “pretty zone” and you can’t go over to that side until after you’ve had a perfecting surgery on your total body after the age of 16. If you’re not pretty and under 16 then you are in the “ugly zone”, where you’re taken away from your pretty parents and educated/brainwashed. These kids are given and encouraged to put their image through software where they can alter their appearance. They can change their eye color, enlarge their eyes and lips, make their face symmetrical, and become “perfect”.  The talk on wanting to be "pretty", life will get better once I'm "pretty", "I'm ugly"... it's a lot!

Does that sound eerily familiar? A book that was published in 2005 and here we are 21 years later using this fanciful imaging technology on ourselves. 

Have you noticed that when photos go through AI, they don’t look the same? Your face is altered and your body is altered. They may be small changes, but what are these little changes doing to our psyche? We already see most models being chosen to fit specific dimensions and ratios. Even those models have their bodies altered to this truly unobtainable body. And now we are putting our own images through AI and being changed into something also unobtainable. 

I saw this comparison to dog bodies that made perfect sense. If you have a corgi body you can’t diet and workout to a greyhound body. That is unrealistic. At what point will science fiction become our reality? Many of these books and movies that create future possibilities, could become reality if we aren’t careful of how we use them. 

My opinion is that using AI for our photos, be it headshots, branding or even fun photos to laugh at is very damaging. Those photos are lies, they are fake and they aren’t authentically you. People don’t relate to perfection, they relate to imperfection and the real. 

While it may be the easy or a cheap way to go and create an AI headshot or branding photos for your business, don’t do it. Find a local photographer offering a cheap headshot option or even use your phone with great window light to create a headshot of yourself, until you can make the investment.  I will recommend cell phone photos and stock photos over AI generated photos.

There are always options in any budget to get authentic photos of you and your business taken. Skip AI generated branding, headshots and portraits.

What are you thoughts on AI photos? Do you think this could have a lasting and damaging impact on our self esteem?