Jos Avery, an Instagram photographer who claims to have a collection of photorealistic human portraits, has become one of the most popular content creators on the platform.
With over 26,900 followers, he regularly posts his art to captivate viewers, especially those who have a soft spot for art.
While he does not actually tell people the secret behind his creations, the artist claims that the subjects of the photos are not real humans.
Avery Admits Using AI to Create Machine-Generated Portraits
According to a report by Ars Technica, Avery confessed in an interview that he usually uploads human-finished portraits on his Instagram account. However, he discovers that about 95% of his followers have no idea about his secret.
"[My Instagram account] has blown up to nearly 12K followers since October, more than I expected. Because it is where I post AI-generated, human-finished portraits. Probably 95%+ of the followers don't realize. I'd like to come clean," Avery wrote in January.
Avery came "clean" to clear the doubts of his followers about his works. Despite relying on AI, he clarified that it still needs skills to make them photorealistic.
As such, he makes use of an image synthesis tool dubbed "Midjourney" which mixes up all the available AI outcomes. After choosing the best combination among the possible parts, he will proceed in retouching the pictures through Adobe Photoshop.
The AI-powered Midjourney app will require users to subscribe before they proceed in generating text-to-image prompts. Of course, it will come with a fee they need to pay monthly or yearly.
To get a more synthesized version of the photos taken from tons of examples online, an artist can use this AI tool. Once they master the trick behind Midjourney, they can now produce the most impressive portraits that resemble real humans.
At first, Avery thought that his whole gimmick would only focus on deceiving people into thinking that his illustrations are inspired by real people. However, he later concludes that it has to be changed, thus becoming his artistic outlet.
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Diving Deep Inside Avery's Image-Creation Process
Ars Technica wrote in its report that Avery shared how he artistically produced magical results from multiple random images.
The Instagram artist said that he handpicked the best AI images and chose the most ideal parts that will be included in the computer-generated human pictures.
Avery added that he has been generating 85 images out of more than 13,000 examples. These pictures will be combined into a single image that will be posted on his account.
Aside from Photoshop, the artist also uses Adobe Lightroom to make the most out of them. Avery's aim is to make it look like a photo captured by a photographer.
In fact, he meticulously edits the necessary details to make it more real-life looking and not just taken by a computer or machine.
Avery is not only creating connections with people through AI-generated images. He also crafts a unique story for each of them, as if they have different background dramas to tell.
