AI photos or a real photographer: an honest comparison
We sell one of these two things, so treat this accordingly — but the answer genuinely depends on what the photos are for, and there are cases where you should book the photographer.
5 min read
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. The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study, drawn from over ten thousand US couples, puts the average wedding photographer at about $2,900, and a standalone engagement or pre-wedding session typically runs $300 to $1,500 — plus a day of your time, travel to the location, and one chance at the weather. Generated photos cost tens of dollars, arrive in minutes, 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 (₩39,000) for 32 photos and run to $95 (₩129,000) for 100 at 4K. There is no subscription and credits do not expire. You can see real, unretouched example photos across the site before you buy, and a failed generation never costs a credit. For scale: a single engagement session typically costs more than every package we sell combined.
32 photos for $29 — one-time
Upload two selfies, pick a scene, get four editorial photos per credit. No subscription, credits never expire.
Try it →