AI Dating Photos: A Dating Photographer’s Honest Experiment
Introduction
I’ve spent the last few months making AI dating photos for myself and friends, and actually going on dates using mine. It’s been mildly hilarious, so I figured I’d share the shenanigans.
For context, I’ve been a dating photographer for nine years and was a massive AI skeptic. Then someone showed me his AI dating profile pics. They looked fake, but made me slightly insecure about my livelihood lol. So I thought fuck it, let’s see what this thing can do.
Here’s what I tried, how I made the photos, and what happened after a month of using them on Bumble.
My AI profile looks like this.
Finding an AI Tool That Could Get My Likeness Right
I started with web-based tools, where you upload your photos, pick an AI image model, and describe what you want. In my tests, Google’s Nano Banana made realistic photos, but struggled to get my face and body right.
I made two pics for a friend this way, though. He mixed them with real photos, crushed it on the apps, and eventually got a girlfriend. He reported no major issues on dates despite the slightly off likeness.
That got my attention, but I wanted photos I’d feel comfortable using myself.
I even learned to rent a cloud GPU and train open source models. Massive time sink for worse results in my case. Eventually, I settled on ChatGPT for better face and body accuracy in my experiments. Google got demoted to editing duty.
The goal was to beat my real dating pics, which already worked. I wasn’t trying to fake a billionaire playboy lifestyle. Just get photos that could’ve happened in my life if a friend caught a good shot.
The vibe was: “I go out doing cool shit with friends, and these were already in my camera roll.”
My Six-Photo Dating Profile Template
Before generating anything, I decided what the full profile should look like. I wanted variety, with each photo showing a different side of me.
This was the template:
A flattering close up portrait.
A candid cafe or restaurant shot.
A full body travel or activity photo.
Something unique or interesting about you.
A candid social photo.
Another hobby or daily life photo.
Feel free to use this template to generate your own AI dating profile pictures in ChatGPT. Pick settings and activities that actually fit your life.
How to Create AI Dating Photos With ChatGPT
Here’s how I’d start: open a new chat and upload one or two close ups of your face, selfies work, plus a full body photo that clearly shows your build and proportions. Avoid baggy clothes.
If you want a smiling photo, include a reference of your actual smile. Otherwise, the AI has to guess, and in my experience, that’s where likeness can go to shit.
Once you’ve uploaded your face and body photos, tell the AI what you want. For example:
Use the uploaded photos as my identity reference. Generate an iPhone snapshot of me wearing [outfit], doing [activity], at [location]. Keep my facial features and body proportions consistent with the reference photos.
In my experience, AI image models tend to give you a polished, professional photography look unless you steer them otherwise. Fine for your bumble main photo, but it can make your dating photos look staged or “too AI.”
That’s why I include something like “generate an iPhone snapshot of me” in the prompt, especially for photos two through six in the template.
Still not a magic bullet, though. ChatGPT gave me the best results I’d seen, but plenty of the images were trash and completely unusable.
What Made My AI Dating Photos Look Fake
Some fails I kept running into:
Face or body proportions were visibly wrong.
Fingers looked melted or anatomically wrong.
Everything looked too clean, almost like a computer render.
Objects or people in the background looked off.
The shot still looked staged instead of candid and effortless.
Unfortunately, this is where I kept hitting the tools’ limits. It became a numbers game. Even with a good prompt, I had to generate images over and over until something met my standards.
Being a photographer, I’m also extra picky and ruthlessly bin images with even minor AI mistakes.
It took me anywhere from 15 minutes to two or three hours to get one image I was happy with and thought would do well on dating apps.
My photography background made screening the images easier. If you don’t have an eye for this stuff, get a few friends to check your pics. Ask whether they look like you, as well as whether they look real.
Putting the AI Photos on Bumble
I was also paranoid about the apps detecting the images and banning my account.
Before uploading, I ran the photos through Photoshop for editing, including adding grain and noise to make them look more like real camera photos. I also stripped the embedded metadata.
Whether any of that actually helped with detection, I can’t say.
It took me one or two days of tinkering to put together a full AI dating profile that looked “real” and represented me accurately.
I figured fuck it, let’s see what happens, made a new Bumble account, and went about my life.
My Results: 100+ Bumble Likes by the Next Day
So, the million dollar question: what happened next?
I checked the next day and was sitting on 100+ likes.
No ban either. At the time of writing, the account has been up for over a month and is still doing well.
Of course, some of that might’ve been the new account boost, but it still went way beyond my expectations. I was matching with very attractive girls back to back.
Okay, being decently handsome and tallish for my dating market probably helped too haha.
This was a personal experiment, so I can’t separate the effect of the photos from the new account boost or other factors. But the early results were enough to make me keep testing.
Did My Dates Think I Looked Different in Person?
Getting matches was one thing. Actually meeting them was the part I was nervous about.
I’d compared my real and AI photos side by side like a psycho and checked with a few close friends. But I kept worrying I’d show up and get called out for looking different or for using AI pics.
So far, I’ve had a busy month of multiple dates every week. Partly because I’m a horny dirty old man, partly because I wanted to see if this AI profile could actually replace my real one.
After a month, I’m comfortable saying it’s worked very well for me.
I haven’t had any issues with my account or anyone calling out my photos in person. Matches have consistently turned into dates, followed by second dates, third dates, and intimacy. And I’ve been able to be selective about who I keep investing time in.
Nobody calling them out doesn’t prove nobody noticed anything. But the expectation mismatch I was worried about hasn’t shown up in my experience so far.
Also attaching a real vs AI photo A/B comparison below, as you can see the likeness is quite close.
Are AI Dating Photos Worth It? My Take After a Month
For me, yes. But getting photos I was comfortable using took a lot of trial and error.
The biggest challenge was getting images that were flattering, looked believable, and still accurately represented my face and body. A great looking photo wasn’t useful if it didn’t actually look like me.
If you’re trying this yourself, start with clear reference photos, build some variety into your profile, and be ruthless about rejecting images with bad likeness or obvious AI mistakes.
The irony is that, as a professional dating photographer, I might retire my old profile. By my own estimate, this AI one has been getting me roughly twice the results.
That’s one guy’s experience, but it’s a pretty funny outcome for someone who started this whole thing as an AI skeptic.