AI Portrait Generators vs a Real Photographer - Have You Tried Both

[Grover26]

AI headshot generators have reached the point where for many professional use cases they are producing results genuinely hard to distinguish from studio photography. A decent selfie goes in, a polished LinkedIn-ready portrait comes out, at a fraction of booking a real session.

The question for photographers is where this leaves them, and for everyone else whether they have actually tried it. Portrait photography has always been partly about the photographer's eye, the relationship in the session, the direction and the atmosphere. None of that is in an AI tool.

Have you used AI portrait tools, booked a real session, or both? What did you get that one could not give you?

[Hollow Pete]

Used an AI headshot tool for my LinkedIn update last year. The result was technically fine but looked slightly uncanny when I stared at it too long. Booked a real session six months later and the photographer caught an expression I would never have thought to ask for