Kimmo

Meet Kimmo – a loyal customer of mine, who recently asked for an update to his portrait. Below, you’ll find a series of six portraits—each showing the same image, but with different edits. I’ve always preferred shooting portraits in natural light, and up until last year, I had a favourite spot in downtown Helsinki. Perfect lighting, ideal atmosphere—it was my go-to. But, as luck would have it, the location fell victim to reconstruction. Lucky me, I found a new spot with nearly identical conditions. It’s not quite the same, but close enough that I don’t grumble too much.

The session went well, but I was itching to add a bit more creative flair than the usual black-and-white treatment. I dug deep into the archives, finding inspiration in classic film stocks like Kodak’s Tri-X 400 and Fuji’s Reala or Portra. Luckily, Totally Rad has plugins for Lightroom that mimic these film styles perfectly. I applied a few of those presets, added my own tweaks, and voilà—portraits with a little extra something.

But here’s the thing: in the midst of editing Kimmo’s portraits, I couldn’t help but reflect on the rise of GenAI-generated imagery and how it contrasts with traditional photography. Sure, GenAI can nail the technical details—it can serve up an image that’s pixel-perfect, right down to the last eyelash. On the other hand, text-to-image AI-generated portraits often feel off. Sometimes you get extra fingers, a distorted head, or something just feels unnatural. Those images may be flawless at first glance but lack that genuine human touch.

This contrast really made me appreciate what traditional photography captures that AI can’t. GenAI can perfect pixels, but it’s blind to those fleeting, beautifully imperfect moments that reveal true humanity. You know, those seconds when someone’s mid-laugh or when their expression subtly shifts—that’s where the real magic lies. It’s in those raw, unpolished details that no algorithm could ever dream of replicating.

When it comes to portrait photography, it’s these imperfections that make people captivating. Flawless images might be technically impressive, but it’s the quirks, the rough edges, that truly give a person character. Perfection can be a bit dull. So, in each of these portraits, I’ve tried to balance technical finesse with a bit of that real-life unpredictability. Some shots might seem a bit rough around the edges, but that’s exactly where the personality and humanity shine through.