AI photos or a real photographer: an honest comparison

What a photographer gives you that we cannot

A record of something that happened. If the point is to remember a day — the ceremony, the people who came, the expression on someone's face at a particular moment — no generated image substitutes for that, and it would be dishonest to suggest otherwise.

They also give you direction. A good photographer notices that your shoulders are tense, moves you six inches into better light, and gets an expression out of you that you cannot produce on command into a phone camera.

What generated photos give you

Cost and iteration. A pre-wedding shoot in most cities runs several hundred to a few thousand, plus a day of your time, plus travel to the location. You get one set of results and one chance at the weather. Generated photos cost tens of dollars, take under a minute, and you can try eight different settings before deciding you preferred the first one.

They also work retroactively. If the trip is over, the venue is booked, or the person you want a photo with lives on another continent, there is no shoot to schedule.

A rough decision rule

Book a photographer when the photograph needs to be true — the wedding itself, a family record, anything documentary. Generate when the photograph needs to be good-looking and the occasion is hypothetical: save-the-dates, dress previews, anniversary gifts, profile pictures, the shot you meant to take on holiday and forgot.

Plenty of couples do both, and use the generated set to work out what they want from the real one.

The cost, concretely

Our packages start at $29 for 32 photos and run to $59 for 100 at 4K. There is no subscription and credits do not expire. Your first generation is free, which is the honest way to find out whether the likeness works for your face before any of that matters.