AI Family Photos: Why Real Photography Still Matters

Recently I came across a Facebook post from a “mom in Midwest” that had some fellow photographers both in head-scratch mode with others in the sky-is-falling responses. I thought about it for some time and decided that an article on AI family photos would be a topical subject to tackle.

The Debate: Should We Send AI Family Photos Instead?

In the post, this mom described how she uploaded photos of her family’s existing clothes to one of the AI Large Language Models (LLM), and asked it to help finish their outfits for family photos. The result: AI didn’t just suggest clothing links for her – it generated a complete AI family portrait of her family.

Her reaction? “Wait. Do we even need to take pictures anymore?!” She listed the costs associated with the typical family portrait, the stress and the payoff.

Part of her wanted to post the AI photo and call it done (her husband would love saving the money). Part of her felt something was…off.

She asked: “Are AI family photos the future or are we keeping the chaos + cookies + real photographers forever?“

Let me answer that question because it seems to plague photographers, families and some of the general public lately. But before I tackle that I’d like to talk about what’s actually happening here.

The AI Photography Threat Is Real (And It’s Already Here)

Whether that FB post was genuine (or maybe it was AI-generated itself – who knows – the writing style of the post certainly suggested the latter – my friend, Claude the AI LLM, agrees) the scenario is real. Most public-facing AI models can generate family photos that look *technically* impressive.

• The lighting? Chef’s kiss • The outfit coordination: most photographers dream of cute coordination on this level •  Everyone smiling: ☑ • No chaos ☑ •  No need for “we’ll get ice cream after” bribes ☑ • No “JUST SMILE ONE MORE TIME” mom voice, no cajoling from the photographer (or crazy behind the camera antics like some of us (cough cough) like to engage in at times of desperation) ☑ & ☑

…and the very best part? It costs you, the client family, basically nothing.

Look at that lovely image. It’s…fine. Pleasant, even. It’s technically well-executed from an aesthetic perspective, that is if we are continuing to pretend that this is actually photography not some made up scenario. We’ll start calling these images “fauxtography” because that is what it is.

The lighting is good. Everyone’s smiling. The composition works.

And yet, doesn’t it feel like something is missing? Because everything is missing.

THIS IMAGE IS NOT A REPRESENTATION OF A REAL LIFE, LIVED-IN-THE-MOMENT MOMENT.

These children? Never going to have memories of this photo shoot. No one is going to remember that moment when, during the shoot when the youngest threw their arms around mom’s neck producing the most adorable, real life moment capture that is going to be cherished forever. No one will recall how good the studio smelled that day with gingerbread and chocolate chip cookies on the plate in the waiting room. No one will be able to recall how, on the way home, they all stopped for chocolate shakes at that special out-of-the-usual-way 50’s diner that is a special occasion stopping point…there are no associated memories because IT NEVER HAPPENED. There is no joy in discovering, after all the chaos, coordination and outfit selections that these photos actually REPRESENTED and represented well.

It is fiction. It is a fairytale. It is all pretend.

What AI Can Generate vs. What Photography Actually Captures

Let’s be clear about what AI photo generators CAN do, because they do a great job for illustrative purposes (as I demonstrated above and will demonstrate in several places on this site):

• Create technically perfect, aesthetically pleasing images
• Generate people who vaguely resemble your family
• Produce unlimited variations near instantaneously
• Cost virtually nothing except for your subscription
• Eliminate the “hassle” of actual photo sessions

Here’s what AI photo generators CANNOT do:

• Capture an actual moment where you, as living breathing beings, were all together
• Show your son’s bit of gap-toothed smile at THIS specific age
• Record how your daughter leans into dad’s shoulder in that beautiful way that gets lost as daughters grow up and individuate as people
• Preserve the memory of the smells, the visuals and the actually BEING together for that session
• Create tangible, historical proof that “we existed, together, at this moment in time”

Remember Our Historical Records Discussion?

In an article we published about why photographers can’t (and shouldn’t) give away their work, we talked about humans creating visual records for at least the past 52,000 years. That article partly centered around WHY photography matters and the “we were here” nature of cave paintings, Egyptian tomb art and painted portraits passed down through generations.

We, as human beings, have an innate need to SEE our history. We need visual proof that we existed, that our loved ones existed, that our stories mattered. And photography is simply the modern expression of this ancient human need. This is why we feel so compelled to pull out our smart phone cameras during concerts to record our experiences, why social media is such a huge thing during this early part of the 21st century and why so many of us are compelled to create historical records of our families in the time, place and spaces we inhabit.

The age old question: “If your house was on fire and everyone was safely out, what would you grab?” says it all. You’d likely grab the photo albums. The framed portraits. The hard drives with your images.

Would you grab… a hard drive full of AI-generated images of people who look sort of like your family but aren’t actually them in any real moment…well…WOULD YOU?

My bet is no. You know, deep down, there is a huge difference between a real memory and a generated fantasy.

The “Perfect” Photo Problem

Here’s what that mom on Facebook was responding to, maybe even what the AI companies are banking on: we are EXHAUSTED.

Exhausted by what? Life? Sort of…we are exhausted by many things in life but exhausted in this sense refers to the idea of “YET ANOTHER HOLIDAY CARD TO SEND TO 200 OF OUR NEAREST AND DEAREST”. Factors include:

• Coordinating outfits for everyone
• The chaos of getting kids (and maybe spouse) to cooperate
• The stress of “making it perfect” so that all will “oooh and aaah”
• The hassle of scheduling and showing up, on time, with no crumbs or food stuffs on Littles faces

Now AI…in its greatness potentially promises to eliminate all of that. Your job is just to upload a couple of pictures, describe what you envision and boom – THE PERFECT family portrait. No tears. No tantrums. No photographer to pay.

But here’s what you’re trading for that convenience:

• You’re trading reality for fantasy. 
• You’re trading memories for algorithm. 
• You’re trading the historical “we were here” for “this could have been real but it never happened.”

Those chaotic family photo sessions? The bribes, the cajoling, the seemingly endless negotiations, the “please just cooperate for ten more minutes”? That’s part of the memory too. Your kids will remember the cookie bribe. The silly faces dad made behind the photographer. The way everyone couldn’t stop laughing when someone in your group let out a little toot (it was dad, let’s all admit it was dad…)

The AI photo? Nothing happened. No memory. No reality.

What This Means for Photographers

If you’re a photographer reading this and feeling at all threatened by the promises of AI, I get it. The unknown is always something to feel a bit wary of…especially because the technology is impressive and it’s only getting better, weirdly fast. I mean it was just in 2024 when fingers were an issue for AI to render and while still imperfect if you pay very close attention it’s passable enough…and that’s just in a year (as I write this in 2025).

But here’s your positioning, your competitive edge and the one big huge thing AI will never be able to replicate – at least not for a good long while:

AS A PHOTOGRAPHER: you’re not selling pixels. You’re selling the creation of memories. You sell an experience of being together. You sell the proof of person, place and time – the literal historical proof of existence.

If you’re very worried about AI overtaking the photography industry, maybe highlight these facts and remind yourself what you are: a historian of sorts. Twenty years from now those kids in that fauxtographed AI generated image won’t remember the AI-generated image posted on social media. But they would remember a day spent making holiday memories – the laughter, the chaos, the moment everyone finally cooperated and you got THAT shot. They’ll remember that this was real. It was a woven thread in the fabric of their lives.

What This Means for Clients (Considering AI Family Photos)

I’m not here to shame anyone for being intrigued by AI family photos. Times are tough. Professional photography is expensive. The convenience is appealing. Yes, yes and yes.

But before you decide that AI is “good enough,” ask yourself these questions:

1. What are you actually preserving? Are you preserving a historical memory of your family at this moment in time? Or are you creating a fantasy of what your family could look like if an algorithm designed you? What are you actually preserving? Are you preserving a moment of your family’s history or are you creating a fantasy made up by an algorithm?

→ Read WHY CHOOSE CUSTOM PHOTOGRAPHY

2. What will you tell your kids in 20 years? “Here’s our family photo from 2025, except, well, it’s not really us in that moment. It’s what a computer generated image of us created from moments past came up with…but yeah, it looks nice, right?”

Or: “Here’s our family photo from 2025. Remember that day? You were so cranky but the photographer made you laugh. Your brother kept making faces. Dad bribed you with ice cream. We were all together and it was chaotic and wonderful and real.”

3. What’s the house fire test? If you had 30 seconds to grab irreplaceable items from your burning house, would you grab a hard drive of AI-generated images? Or would you grab the framed portrait from your actual family photo session – the one where everyone’s smiling but your daughter’s hair is slightly messy and your son’s tie is a little crooked and it’s perfectly imperfect and completely real?

I know that you know that I already know the answer.

The Bottom Line: Real Photography Still Matters

Sure, I agree, AI family photos are impressive technology. They’re convenient. They’re cheap. They eliminate hassle. But they’re not real. They are fantasy. As real as a comic book page!

And in 20 years, when your kids are grown and looking back at family photos, the AI-generated image will feel exactly like what it is: a pretty picture of people who sort of look like all of you in a liminal space that the real humans never existed in that moment together in.

The real family photo – even if it cost more, even if it was chaotic getting everyone coordinated, even if someone’s eyes are half-closed in three shots before you got the good one – that’s the one that matters…always and forever (even if all the images have their eyes closed, listen some people just don’t do well with flash photography!)

It matters because that photo is proof. Proof that you existed. Proof that you were together. Proof that that moment – messy, imperfect, real -actually happened.

AI can generate a lot of things. But it can’t generate reality, I mean as far as we know 😉

To answer that question that Facebook mom who inspired this post questioned: “Are AI family photos the future?”

Truth? Maybe. For some people where almost is good enough it may. For some people who want the image of perfection – maybe. For people who value convenience over authenticity – probably.

But for the rest of us who understand that photography isn’t just about pretty pictures – it’s about preserving proof of our existence, our connections, our messy beautiful real lives? We’ll keep the chaos, the cookies and the real photography created by human hands, human brains, human eyes with (probably) digital tools where we can still manipulate reality just to erase an errant hair or wipe the face of a Cheetos-loving 4-year old boy.

Why? Because some things are worth paying for. One of those things is the visual, historical proof that your family existed, together, at this moment in time. Which is actually PRICELESS.

(even if it costs a whole lot more than an algorithm and a digital dream)

Are you ready to find a real professional photographer? Start here: All Photographers Are Not Professional Photographers – learn how to tell the difference.