Okay, so I got this idea stuck in my head the other week. Don’t even remember why, maybe saw something online, maybe just too much coffee. The thought was, could I actually make one of those, you know, “sexy man photo” type images using AI? Not because I needed one, just… could it be done? Like, convincingly? Seemed like a weird challenge to test out these tools everyone’s talking about.
First thing, I fired up one of those AI image generator things I’d messed with before. Just typed in the obvious, like “sexy man photo”. Yeah, that was a mistake. Got back some truly bizarre stuff. Like plastic dolls, guys with weird proportions, uncanny valley nightmares. Clearly, just asking wasn’t gonna cut it. The AI seemed to have a very limited, kinda cheesy idea of what that even meant.
So, I figured I had to get more specific. Had to really direct the thing. Started thinking about what actually makes a photo like that work. Lighting is a big one, right? Mood. Maybe a certain expression. I began adding terms like “dramatic lighting,” “shadows,” “cinematic,” “thoughtful expression,” “realistic skin texture.” You know, trying to guide it away from the plastic look.
Getting into the weeds
This is where it got time-consuming. I spent a good few hours just tweaking prompts. Added things like “candid shot” to make it less posed. Played with different virtual camera angles and lenses. Then there’s the negative prompts – telling the AI what NOT to do. Stuff like “ugly, deformed, cartoon, illustration, bad anatomy, extra fingers” became my best friends. Seriously, the number of times AI messes up hands is crazy.
It was a lot of trial and error. Generate four images, hate three and a half, save the maybe-okay one. Tweak the prompt slightly. Generate again. Repeat. Sometimes I’d get something close, but the eyes would be dead. Or the background would be nonsense. Or it would just look… fake. Too perfect, maybe? Like it had no soul, if that makes sense. It’s hard getting nuance out of these things. They’re powerful, but kinda blunt instruments.
I also started thinking about the whole process. Kinda weird, right? Generating images of people. Felt a bit strange, ethically murky ground maybe. But I was already down the rabbit hole, focused on the technical puzzle of it.
The results, kinda
After maybe an afternoon of messing around, I got a few images that were… alright. They looked reasonably realistic. The lighting was decent. The vibe was closer to what I guess I was aiming for. Not perfect, definitely not something you’d mistake for a top photographer’s work, but they didn’t immediately scream “weird AI junk” either. Which felt like a small victory, I guess.
Looking back, it was a weird way to spend an afternoon. But I learned a lot about how specific you need to be with these AI tools. It’s not magic, you really have to wrestle with it to get something decent. And even then, it often lacks that little something. Anyway, that was my little experiment. Don’t know if I’ll be doing it again soon, but hey, now I know how hard it is to get an AI to make a decent-looking dude.
