I love taking selfies, but when I get too dressed up for a photoshoot, my personality disappears. I end up overthinking how to smile, how to stand, and how to transform into Chandler. A photographer friend of mine oversaw my last shoot, which was five years ago. It was time for a refresh.
But this time, the colorful cityscape of Antigua, Guatemala wasn’t an option. With no travel plans in mind, I decided to try out an artificial intelligence tool with one goal in mind: to generate a new headshot and set of professional-looking images that looked authentic, rather than a caricature of myself.
I chose HeadshotPro because I liked the natural look of the photos, it seemed to be a popular tool, and I noticed that I was following its founder, AI entrepreneur Danny Postma, on X. HeadshotPro was founded in the Netherlands in March 2023 and is used by many well-known global brands and institutions.
HeadshotPro has three pricing tiers: $29 for 40 headshots, $39 for 100 headshots, and $59 for 200 headshots. I like the fact that it’s a paid platform because free tools always seem to have their pitfalls. HeadshotPro also offers 1-3 hour delivery, which may not be for everyone, but I was curious why it wasn’t instant and what kind of results I could get.
There are no free trials or subscription fees – it’s a one-time fee, but your money will be refunded if you’re not satisfied with the results.
set up
I signed up for HeadshotPro and set up my login information. I chose the basic plan ($29) and paid with my credit card. I received an email with instructions. HeadshotPro guaranteed they would find 3-6 suitable headshots for my profile.
The tool advises that you spend at least 10 minutes working on it, make sure your photos “look fresh,” and take them in daylight or in a well-lit room. You’ll then need to upload at least 15 photos for the AI to inspect. You can use a new selfie or upload a portion of an old photo. It suggests making sure you’re looking straight into the camera, have a clean background with a good angle, your face takes up at least 20% of the image, and have a “professional expression.”
As I wasn’t in a position to take selfies, I decided to upload a mix of photos from previous shoots and more recent snapshots – different seasons, styles, hair colours and locations.
Upload a photo
Of the 15 I uploaded, only one was approved, and I didn’t know why, so I decided to upload them one by one.
I cropped the larger photo to just show the head and it seemed to work.
Most of the natural photos were too small or my head was tilted to recognize my entire face, so I found a shortcut: I clicked on my face in the People, Places, and Pets album on my iPhone. If Apple’s AI can recognize my face in photos, surely HeadshotPro can too.
There was no consistency in what was considered a “bad” photo – some photos had my whole face in them and still weren’t approved.
I also realized that my camera roll was full of photos of myself in sunglasses and that I was always tilting my head when posing, so it was a good reminder to fix my posture.
But eventually we got there.
Secondly, customization: HeadshotPro needed to know a bit more about me regarding my layout preferences.
They were asked for their name, age, ethnicity, eye color, and gender, and were asked whether they wanted their profile photo background to be a garden, marina, office, lake, cafe, kitchen, street, or bookshelf.
You can choose the style of the portrait yourself or let the AI choose it. You can also choose from a few different outfit types. The AI chose a turtleneck, which I don’t think I’ve ever worn, so I chose mine. I chose the one with the New York skyline in the background, and then I chose my outfit.
I was looking for a bohemian yet professional look, and since I wasn’t brave enough to dress my AI in an off-the-shoulder dress, I opted for a classic white t-shirt.
A quick look at HeadshotPro’s terms of use revealed that no photos are used to train their algorithms, which is a good thing!
All that’s left is to wait. It said it would take about two hours, but I received an email with the finished photo attached in just over an hour.
result
I was a little nervous about how the AI would perceive my appearance, but I was pleasantly surprised by its capabilities.
The photos I liked (about half) captured my features well, but they also accurately captured the crinkles at the corners of my eyes when I smile (from growing up in too much Australian sun), my balayage hair, and my favorite lipstick color.
As expected, there were definitely some weird looks: too much bronzer, the wrong eye color, haggard and wrinkled looks, and the wrong style.
I asked my partner which ones she thought looked like me and she picked 17. I showed her this picture and she said, “That’s my girl.”
Would you use this image as your face? Probably not, but if you did, it would be a good idea to label photos that have been altered or assembled by AI.
No matter how good these tools are, I know that’s not me. Call me old-fashioned, but I believe photography should be real, imperfections and all.
This is me, a photo taken by a photographer friend, not machine edited, I must have joked to get this shot.
Which is better? The decision is up to you.
