GoKawiilArtie Beaty / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
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ZDNET's key takeaways
AI can turn casual photos into polished portraits.
Prompt tweaks control lighting, style, and wardrobe.
Results rival traditional corporate headshots.
The first time most of you posed for professional headshots was for school photos. You got dressed up (as best you could when at grade school, high school, or college), posed in front of a featureless background, and tried to smile.
I missed my high school yearbook photos because I skipped my senior year. But I couldn't avoid my undergraduate yearbook in engineering school. After that, I think I posed for professional photos three or four times, once for a book jacket, and a few times for corporate photos.
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In each case, the photographer was expensive, and the experience was difficult. The most productive headshot was when I went to a Sears Photo Studio (remember it?) with my wife, and she and the photographer chose appropriate backdrops and cajoled me into a memorable photo. They demonstrated the patience of saints.
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