What an AI couple portrait is
It's a painted-style picture of the two of you, made by an image model that uses your photograph as a likeness reference and renders a new image in the style you pick. Then we print it and post it.
Two things worth being clear about. It isn't a filter. A filter keeps your photograph underneath and lays an effect over the top. This generates a new image: the brushwork, the light and the surface are all made, with your photograph guiding the likeness. Nor is it a tracing. The model is working out what a picture of you in that style would look like, which is why the result reads as a painting rather than a photograph someone has processed.
How it works
The order matters: you see it before you pay.
- You upload a photo and pick a style. Wedding day, engagement shoot, kitchen, holiday - one picture of the two of you.
- We make a preview, free. Verify your email for up to three successful watermarked previews per day, so you can try a different photo or a different style without paying for the privilege.
- The preview and the print are the same picture. This is the part worth knowing. The model restyles it once, at full print size; you see a smaller watermarked copy, and the clean full-size copy is the one that is printed. A preview is worth nothing if the thing that arrives is a different picture that merely matches the description.
- You approve it, and that picture is what gets printed. The composition you said yes to is kept as the print master and cropped to the shape of the size you choose, without the watermark. We are not re-running the prompt at a bigger size afterwards and hoping for the same result - re-running gives you a different painting, not the same one larger.
- Made to order. Nothing is printed until you pay; UK delivery is free and takes 4 to 9 working days, so leave room before a date.
The four styles
- Oil. A classical oil, warm and romantic. Suits milestone anniversaries.
- Watercolour. Soft washes, light and tender. The most wedding-ish of the four.
- Pencil. A fine graphite study. Restrained and monochrome; good in a darker room.
- Pop art. Bold 1960s screen-print colour. The one people either want immediately or not at all.
How to choose a source photo
The likeness is only ever as good as the photograph you give it. In rough order of how much difference each makes:
- Both faces at head-and-shoulders distance. A full-length shot from across a room doesn't carry enough facial detail. Crop in, or pick a closer one.
- Even light. Hard shadow across one face leaves the model guessing. Soft daylight, golden hour, or anything a photographer lit will do.
- A photo where you both look like yourselves. A candid laugh usually beats a posed smile.
- Nothing covering the eyes. No sunglasses, no deep hat brim, no one half-turned away. The eyes carry most of the likeness.
- Resolution matters less than you'd think. A phone photo is almost always plenty. Framing and light beat megapixels.
What happens to your photograph
Worth stating plainly. Watermarked previews are saved for 30 days. If you upload something and never order, it is deleted after thirty days. If you do order, the approved picture is kept while the order is made and fulfilled, then released. Our privacy page is the full version.
When to commission a painter instead
Sometimes you should, and it's a different product rather than a worse one.
Commission a human painter when you want an original artwork: a one-off object with a maker, brushstrokes with a hand behind them, and something that can appreciate. Expect to brief an artist, wait, and pay accordingly.
Use this when you want something on the wall that looks like the two of you, at a price that makes sense as a gift, and you would rather see it before committing. It runs from a small print up to a large framed canvas, with a digital-only version if you only want the file. Free UK delivery on all of them.
Ready when you are
Where this sits in the list: silver at 25 and gold at 50 are the two we would frame: the names carry, and both fall on a year people mark. Both sit in the milestones, and both materials come from Debrett's British list.
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