Fun With AI

It's a new habit that serves a few functions, mostly, for fun.

A couple of years ago, just before my birthday, I decided to start taking some decent self portraits. About five years ago, I actually hired a photographer to take headshots of me and when I received them, I told myself that I could probably do as good a job.

Not to besmirch that photographer but the photos were fairly simple and there didn't seem to be much post-processing in the final results. I like to remove blemishes from portraits or any other mark that detracts from the subject, and this photographer liked to show me as natural as possible.

But to take photos of myself also called on using some equipment that I didn't have at the time, and over the years I've slowly been building up my photography gear so that I can take better portraits: better lighting, a backdrop, and remote triggers.

Two years ago, I shot myself with a pleasing background: a painted Korean screen that hangs on our living-room wall. Last year, I removed a large picture from one of our plain walls and used a softbox on a stand plus a second speedlight for better light and no shadows on that plain wall.

This year, I felt I had the equipment I needed. I now have a collapsible screen that can give either a black or white background. So for my most recent self portraits, I placed the screen behind me, used the softbox to my immediate left, and used natural light from our glass door in the kitchen. My camera was placed on a tripod, on our kitchen island about a metre or so away from me. And I had a remote trigger for a two-second shutter delay.

The setup worked well.

In post processing, I applied some touchups to my face to get rid of pimples and other unsightly marks and moles. Let me tell you, nothing makes you realize how old you are until you start touching up your own portrait.

I applied a vignette effect and softened the photo a bit, and on some portraits I transformed the image to black and white. You can one of the photos from my shoot in this past Tuesday's blog post.

Self portrait in AI, 2022.

But one other thing I've started doing to my self portraits, when I use them as my avatar for social media, is to run them through an AI editor. I started doing it for fun, with my first selfie, but when I didn't really like my photo from last year, I did it to try to make myself look better.

It didn't really make me look any better but for the first half of last year, that's what I used as my avatar.

This year, I don't mind my self portraits so much. I like them more than the portrait I paid for several years ago. But because I've seen what AI can do to a decent photo, I tried running them through it again.

Just for fun.

I didn't give the AI tool any parameters other than the photo. Not that I could do anything else with the tool that I used, which is accessed on a Web site: it simply has you upload a photo and it does its own thing.

The first result was really good, so I took it and am now using it for my profile pic for work, for some of my social media accounts, and even the picture of me for this blog.

But when the AI tool finishes cranking out your picture, it also offers several other takes, and the results were hilarious. So, for fun, I took another photo from my recent shoot—one with my glasses on—and ran it through AI.

My photo, with basic edits.

AI transformation of the same photo.

These ones had me in stitches. There's me, looking like I'm on the set of The Bachelor...

I choo-choo-choose you!

Another AI edit has me as a business-casual jet setter. I like how it's shed some weight off me. My head is still big (it really is huge) and they've cleaned up my hair.

Damn, I look good!

I don't know if I'd ever use AI for modifying any of my other photos, beyond what I've controlled in some of my enhanced photos. Even then, I was still in control of the changes.

But it's fun to play with AI. Happy Friday!