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Can you use AI to recreate a lost photo?

Aaronf

Aaronf

Bizarro Aaronf
I played around with an image generator last year but it was cartoonist images, steampunk stuff and anime etc. I didn't think anything of it until recently as I didn't think I would actually be contemplating AI to help me.

To cut a long story short, I split up with long term gf last year but stupidly at the time deleted a lot of photos of us together in anger, I now regret it of course. I think even if something ends badly, you don't lose the right to remember the happier times. I'd just like to recreate one memory of us together that I can keep but how realistic are these AI image generators?

I'm no expert but I think I can tell a lot of AI images on the net or social media, it's either a piece of someone's nose is missing, their eyes are in the wrong place or parts of the face are squashed together! Any suggestions of a good one or the best to use and I'm guessing they're not free or you have to register?

Thanks in advance :)
 
They can make extremely realistic images now, but I doubt it's going to do anything for you, I'm afraid.

If I was trying to do what you're doing, I'd go the opposite way and make it vaguely similar, rather than try to make it the same. The closer to 'realistic' you get the picture, the more obvious it's going to be that it's not your memory, IMO.

If it was a low-detail sketch or similar, with a similar scene then it might remind you of the real image, instead of trying to be the image.
 
Fez909 said:
They can make extremely realistic images now, but I doubt it's going to do anything for you, I'm afraid.

If I was trying to do what you're doing, I'd go the opposite way and make it vaguely similar, rather than try to make it the same. The closer to 'realistic' you get the picture, the more obvious it's going to be that it's not your memory, IMO.

If it was a low-detail sketch or similar, with a similar scene then it might remind you of the real image, instead of trying to be the image.
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Thanks, I understand. I didn't think of it like that, in terms of trying to make it perfect almost would actually make the memory even more unobtainable? I'll give it a bash just to see but doubt it will like my prompt! I usually end up using about a thousand words when ten might suffice and that's in general 😫 I like the idea of a sketch instead and something to remind me of the time rather than trying to construct it again.
 
Shippou-Sensei said:
If you had a bunch of photos of you both and the location to train the AI you could probably get something fairly good but that would require a fair bit of time and effort.
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I've got the time atm but a sustained effort of anything that requires my input can burn me out. I've got some photos left but they're all gatherings or including other people. The location is easy as it was on Blackpool promenade so hopefully that will be standard.
 
I would like to say I'm more answering from a technical perspective rather than ethical.

Ethically I'd say don't do any of this.

Go do something completely different.


Edited to add.

Sorry I accidentally overwrote my old post instead of typing a new one.
Originally this was just me asking if photoshop was ethically worse than using AI.
 
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Bing isn't as clever as I gave it credit for lol

We would have been walking down towards the Pleasure Beach & South Pier but behind us the tower has been on the left almost in the sea or a couple it was in the middle of the road! 😆
 
Shippou-Sensei said:
You would probably do a better job by nicking a few pics off Facebook and photoshoping them

Shatner and I at Blackpool
View attachment 461637
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Haha love it! Hope you had a nice time :D

This has a few things that are off the mark but I was impressed overall. It took a fair bit of rewording the prompt but it has understood a chunk of it. Clothes and hair are ok, I did actually think I can't make them exactly as they were.

EDIT: deleted photo, important to admit it was wrong but also take ownership of such.
 
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Morality question: where is the line here? Recreating photos you know existed is crossing a few lines, but where is beyond the line? You two in a destination you didn't actually visit? A photo of her alone in your bed? A photo of her naked? Committing a sex act? How far do we allow this to be "acceptable", and how far is "unacceptable"?
 
Aaronf said:
Haha love it! Hope you had a nice time :D

This has a few things that are off the mark but I was impressed overall. It took a fair bit of rewording the prompt but it has understood a chunk of it. Clothes and hair are ok, I did actually think I can't make them exactly as they were.

View attachment 461638
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She's blatantly checking out a flock of seagulls soaring over the pier while he's got his eyes on some other kind of birds. Maybe amend the prompt slightly.
 
Saul Goodman said:
I'm bookmarking this page, and I might start a thread at the end of 2025, with a poll to determine the weirdest thread of the year. I know it's only January but this one will take some beating.
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I dunno, it's already got some stiff competition from Danny's toilet seat thread.
 
In all honesty, I'd fuck all the AI shit off and try running some file recovery software on the hard drive you deleted the original photos from.
 
PR1Berske said:
Morality question: where is the line here? Recreating photos you know existed is crossing a few lines, but where is beyond the line? You two in a destination you didn't actually visit? A photo of her alone in your bed? A photo of her naked? Committing a sex act? How far do we allow this to be "acceptable", and how far is "unacceptable"?
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These are important and fair questions
 
I was looking at old photos today. And thinking how many digital photos I've lost or never printed.
But old fashioned photos pre digital cameras...they're still there..
I wish I had printed off more photos from the past20 years or so
 
skyscraper101 said:
It always amazes me how it can get things like zips, fabrics, and even fingers so wrong.
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I hadn't really noticed this but have now you mention it.
PR1Berske said:
Morality question: where is the line here? Recreating photos you know existed is crossing a few lines, but where is beyond the line? You two in a destination you didn't actually visit? A photo of her alone in your bed? A photo of her naked? Committing a sex act? How far do we allow this to be "acceptable", and how far is "unacceptable"?
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I think what I've done you could argue is around the line, making one of somewhere we hadn't been would be a bit weird so crossing the line. The others I hadn't given any thought to as they are just wrong, even with those things happening - I wouldn't have taken any photos of them in the 1st place and none of those would cross my mind. It's strange they would cross anybody's mind although valid when brought up to question.
Petcha said:
She's blatantly checking out a flock of seagulls soaring over the pier while he's got his eyes on some other kind of birds. Maybe amend the prompt slightly.
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I won't be redoing it altogether, I regret starting it even though I clearly stated my reasons.
Dystopiary said:
If that's really her likeness and she hasn't given her permission for it to be on a public thread, I'd say that's a potential breach of privacy Aaronf.
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I didn't think of this, I'm going to reach out to her about the origins behind this. We've messaged at Christmas and we've both had our birthdays since we split but very brief pleasantries etc. There was one other occasion where one of her best friends got married and I passed a message on through a friend sending my best wishes, apart from that we've had no contact but it wouldn't be a shock or out of the blue for me to reach out and say hello. Also neither of us have started new relationships, I did ask through a friend again out of curiosity recently. It's not a great likeness as it's AI but it's not a million miles away from what she looks like either. In hindsight I shouldn't have posted it but did after not thinking.
pesh said:
In all honesty, I'd fuck all the AI shit off and try running some file recovery software on the hard drive you deleted the original photos from.
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I'm going to broach the subject with my ex first and will still probably admit what I've done. If she still has the photos of various things then I think honesty will be the best policy, if she is happy to send them then great, if not I will accept it and not try to recover them myself.
Saul Goodman said:
I'd move on with my life, and hope that my ex never found this thread.
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I think this is probably the best course of action, I can only blame my own self impulsiveness and not the influence/curiosity/pull of AI. It's not about me now and I should have realised that earlier, it's about her.
Aladdin said:
What's coming out of your ear Aaronf ?
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I don't know, I did notice that. It's like a similar ear ring even though it has my ex's ear ring wrong, also I don't have that scar there, they should have been on my arms. That's just a couple of things that out of the ones that aren't accurate.

I appreciate everyone's input and apologies didn't reply earlier as fell asleep after being up for the best part of a day again. I realise I shouldn't have used AI at all but got pulled into it again, it's fine for the other reasons people might use it for and creating images but not for things like this where other people are involved. I will be honest with my ex depending on how that goes and appreciate the point of morality being raised as it made me realise when whatever part of me should have to start with didn't.
 
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