The creator behind the AI photo booth says it's still better to have a headshot taken by a real photographer.
Generation Z is said to love AI-generated headshots. After all, they are very cheap and take less time than the traditional method.
But Nicholas Rhodes, who founded OutSnapped and is a successful events photographer, explains. Peta Pixel That while AI can be a lot of fun, there are several reasons why a photographer should do professional headshots.
“I think a headshot is a situation where you have to be pretty honest about who you are, and the AI is going to misrepresent that,” he explains.
“We all want a silver bullet that makes life easier and cheaper and better. I don't think an AI headshot hits that.
Rhodes has a patent-pending AI photo booth that is the first of its kind in event photography. A photo is taken and fed directly into an AI program that will render the images of those people in any order. Whether it is in the style of the Dutch painters or a custom setting related to that particular group.
Rhodes, who runs the successful photo blog Niki Digital, believes that this kind of fun portraiture is a better use for AI, rather than using it for “a headshot that looks like you.”
“It's about using the right tool for the right job. You wouldn't use a sedan and to tow another car, you'd use a tow truck,” he explains. Peta Pixel More than Zoom
“A lot about taking your portrait is about the interaction between the photographer and the subject. It's the photographer's job to capture an amazing image and make that person feel amazing, feel confident, feel beautiful, Feel beautiful, any of those things.”
Ethical issues
Rhodes points out that if someone uses an AI headshot on a dating website, it's “ethically questionable” because it's not actually you. And that's before the inherent biases found in AI technology.
“One of the reasons I don't recommend artificial headshots is because the AI is built on all these biases,” he says. “So that's probably something that's made you insecure your whole life because of the society that's shown in the pictures.”
They say there's false advertising around AI headshots because people only share one good one after going through 50 terrible ones.
“So people think AI headshots are great, then they try it themselves and it doesn't work,” says Rhodes.
“For example, we'll do these C-suite events, which are mostly bald white men in America and the AI will give them hair. Some of them will think it's very funny and they'll change their dating profiles. Will joke about updating and others will be very angry.
Rhodes says that AI images can make people feel insecure about themselves and that he's seen “weird” instances where a person looks at their AI image and declares that it's nothing like them but the room. Everyone in me would say they look exactly like that.
“And it's very painful,” he adds. “Our experiences are supposed to make you feel good and have a good time. And as a result, I feel like it's a poor experience.
AI is only going to improve.
While the pitfalls of AI are clear and numerous, the technology will only continue to improve and Rhodes believes we're headed for a world where AI headshots will replace photographers.
“I think AI will replace a lot of things, and this is just one of them,” he says.
“I don't think it's ever going to replace the human touch of a photographer, but AI will look at a profile picture, a side shot, whatever, and give you this default output of what it thinks you should be.” What should it look like.”
Rhodes also predicts that society will expect less and less reality from an image.
“People under 30 are probably less afraid of AI and want to play with it because they've already done Facetune filters, AR stuff. Those are things they've grown up with.”
Image credit: Out snap.