What AI can do today - and what it can't
AI images (Midjourney, Flux, DALL-E, Sora) generate stock photos, composings, background graphics or generic people images in seconds. For Concept slides, background motifs or mood boards that's great.
What AI cannotYou can't use AI images of real people from your company, document an actual workshop day or capture the atmosphere of your office. You also can't advertise with AI images at a press event - the authenticity is missing.
Trust comes from truth
Applicants want to see the real team before they apply. Customers want the real product in the real environment. Press representatives want pictures that are documented. AI images do not deliver this - no matter how good they look.
Studies show: Career sites with real employee photos have significantly higher application rates than those with stock or AI images.
Where you can use AI as a useful addition
AI is a good Tool for preparation materialMood boards, concept sketches, background renderings. AI is now also established for downstream image processing (background replacement, retouching).
But that final photo of your brand should be real. Real people, real spaces, real brand.
Legal risks with AI images
AI images are subject to a legal gray area: Who owns the copyright? What training data was used? Are the faces shown recognizable? If you use an AI image commercially, you risk warnings in the worst case.
Rights and GDPR are clearly regulated for real photography
- see also Image rights & rights of use.
Where AI images are currently working for me
I use AI tools in the background - as a Tool, not as a replacement. A few concrete examples:
Background cleanup: If a cable runs across the subject in an industrial image or a crumpled plastic film is distracting, I can remove these elements cleanly with AI-supported Photoshop functions - without the image looking artificial.
Brightness and color matching in mixed light situations is now much more precise with AI tools than manually.
Skin smoothing in a discreet form: Skin tones are standardized without making people look plastic. This has been standard in headshot tradition for decades, only now the tools work faster and more precisely.
What I don't do: invent people, change poses and facial expressions afterwards or insert a generated face into a real photo. That would be manipulation and not compatible with my professional ethics.
What AI can't (yet) do in photography in 2026
Capturing real atmosphere. An AI doesn't know how happy the workshop manager is about a good joke, how a hotel employee stands up in front of the first guest, how the managing director looks when the contract is signed. These are the moments that give real photographs value.
Brand authenticity. Today, applicants and customers quickly recognize when an image looks „too slick“. An AI career site looks sterile and is more likely to deter than attract.
Legal certainty. Anyone who uses an AI image commercially risks warnings because it is unclear whether the training data was copyright-clean. Real photography has clear conditions - see Image rights & rights of use.
My tip: hybrid strategy
Use AI where it makes sense: Mood boards, concept sketches, background renderings, stock image additions. Use real photography where it's about brand, people and trust: Employees, management, customers, production environment, events.
This hybrid strategy saves money and time without destroying the brand value. If you use AI for everything, you will have a sterile, interchangeable brand in two years. Those who use AI selectively retain authenticity at a lower cost.
📌 My standard for image rights
At Schepers Photography you get the following as standard full rights of use to all images supplied - unlimited in time, unlimited geographically, for all your own media (website, social media, print, press relations, career, annual report). No extra charge, no small print. An exception only applies if, before the shoot otherwise agreed in writing This happens very rarely.
Also a Copyright attribution is not mandatory. So you don't have to name me as the photographer if it doesn't fit the layout. My experience: If a picture is good, people will ask who took it. You can find more details about my license philosophy at Image rights & rights of use.
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