How to Prepare for an AI Photoshoot: Clothing, Hair, Make-up and Framing

People prepare for an ordinary photoshoot: they choose clothes, do their hair, plan the look. Almost nobody prepares for generation — the assumption is that any photo from the gallery will do. Yet preparation here is cheaper (a phone and five minutes) and matters just as much.

What the model repaints and what it keeps

This distinction governs the whole preparation.

• Repainted: clothing, background, light, pose, angle. All of it comes from the scene, and the contents of your source barely matter.
• Carried over: face shape, features, skin tone, hair type and texture, glasses frames, prominent jewellery near the face, beard and moustache.
• Carried over partly and unpredictably: hair length (a scene may restyle it), headwear, large tattoos inside the frame.

Hence a simple rule: prepare the things that carry over. Choosing a shirt for a future business portrait is pointless — the scene will replace it anyway.

Hair

Hair is the second most important detail after facial features, because perception latches onto the silhouette of the head before the eyes. The model reproduces hair type: density, curly or straight, colour, hairline.

Practical notes: keep hair off the face so it does not cover brows and cheekbones; avoid elaborate styling the model will try to interpret; and if you are aiming for a business look, do not submit a source with hair wet from the shower — the hair type is read wrongly.

Make-up

The logic here is counter-intuitive. Moderate daytime make-up helps: it defines the contours of eyes and lips, and the model reads the features more accurately. Heavy evening make-up hinders: strong shadow changes the apparent shape of the eye and dense foundation erases skin micro-texture.

Beauty filters are a separate matter: they are not make-up but a change of facial geometry. A filter enlarges the eyes and narrows the chin — and the model will reproduce those altered proportions.

Clothing in the source

Since the scene supplies the clothing, requirements are minimal, but two points remain. First, neckline and shoulder line: if the scene implies a jacket while your source has a wide neckline, the neck-to-shoulder transition sometimes comes out unnatural. A neutral t-shirt or shirt is the safest option.

Second, large prints and lettering near the face. They fall inside the model's attention and occasionally leak into the result as odd patterns on the clothing.

Glasses, jewellery, accessories

Glasses carry over, so the decision is simple: if you wear them constantly and want to be recognised, keep them — but watch for glare on the lenses. If you want a frame without glasses, take them off for the source; the model removes them less convincingly than you can.

Large earrings and chains are often distorted: fine detail near the face is a known weakness of generation. For a clean result, take them off.

Framing and distance

1. Shoot at arm's length or slightly further, but not through zoom — digital zoom eats detail.
2. Frame to the chest: the face occupies the upper third with a little margin at the edges.
3. Camera at eye level. From below it enlarges the chin; from above, the forehead.
4. Look into the lens or slightly past it, but not away.

What you don't need to do

You do not need to prepare many photos "just in case" — three good frames beat twenty random ones. You do not need to retouch the source before uploading: any processing removes information rather than adding it. And you do not need to match clothing to a particular style: the scene will dress you its own way regardless.