Imagery
Why every AI face looks plastic, and what to do about it
Generators default to flawless skin, perfect symmetry and model proportions. That is how something meant to be a drama comes out looking like a perfume ad. Four techniques for getting a human face instead.
By: Noah CalderGrading, visual style, look
If you have ever generated a person, you know the feeling: the image is technically faultless and still wrong. The skin is too smooth, the eyes too even, the posture too assured. You cannot say what is off. You just know you don't believe it.
The problem is not your prompt. Image generators are trained on a diet heavy in advertising photography and retouched portraits, so „beautiful" is where they start. Say nothing else, and that is what you get.
- perfect symmetry
- flawless, smooth skin
- an advert smile
- one eyebrow higher, a scar through it
- a heavier eyelid, tired eyes
- visible pores, fine lines
- a lopsided smile
1. Describe the asymmetry
No human face is symmetrical: one brow sits higher, one eyelid is heavier, the mouth pulls to one side. The generator smooths all of that away, because what it learned was the average, and averages are symmetrical.
Don't ask for asymmetry in general („asymmetrical face"). That just gives you deformity. Name exactly what is uneven.
slightly heavier left eyelid, one eyebrow set higher, faint scar through the right brow, uneven smile
2. Give the face age and tiredness
Skin alone gives away age: pores, fine lines, uneven tone. Generators treat all of it as a defect and remove it. You have to ask for it back, and not at makeup-artist level but at documentary level.
visible skin pores, weathered skin, faint under-eye shadows, no airbrushing, no beauty retouching
This is the fastest-acting change of the four. One line in the prompt, and the image immediately becomes more believable, and the story more serious.
3. Dress them badly
Clothing gives as much away as a face. By default the AI dresses everyone in clean, well-cut, well-fitted things. In life the collar is creased, the jumper is too big and the shoes are worn.
- „ill-fitting shirt": it doesn't sit right, because it isn't his size
- „worn collar, small stain on the sleeve": used, not new
- „sleeves pushed up unevenly": pushed back mid-movement, not arranged
4. Give them a posture and a bad habit
Most characters look empty because they are simply standing there. A dropped shoulder, an elbow on the desk or a pencil held in one hand says more about someone than three adjectives will.
A bad habit is the shortest route to character: someone who bites their nails, keeps adjusting their glasses or jiggles a leg becomes a person on the spot.
What not to do
| Instead of this | Write this |
|---|---|
| ugly, imperfect | a specific feature: „faint acne scars on the left cheek" |
| realistic, photorealistic | the shooting conditions: „shot on 35mm film, natural window light" |
| asymmetrical face | which part: „one eye slightly narrower than the other" |
| old man | age and state: „late 50s, tired, three-day stubble" |
The pattern is the same throughout: a general adjective gets translated into an average, while a specific description gets carried out. The more precise you are, the less it decides for you.
One line that nearly always helps
If you take one thing from this piece, make it this closing clause. It doesn't beautify anything. It stops the generator sliding back into its advertising-photo default.
no symmetry, no airbrushing, no glamour lighting, no perfect skin, documentary grit
Sources
- Miller, E. J. et al. (2023): AI Hyperrealism: Why AI Faces Are Perceived as More Real Than Human Ones, Psychological Science
- Nightingale, S. J. and Farid, H. (2022): AI-synthesized faces are indistinguishable from real faces and more trustworthy, PNAS
- LAION-Aesthetics: selecting the best-looking images from LAION-5B
- Stable Diffusion v1-4 model card (Hugging Face): fine-tuned on the laion-aesthetics v2 5+ subset
Common questions
Why do AI-generated faces look like plastic?
Image generators are trained on a disproportionate amount of advertising photography and retouched portraits, so by default they produce a pretty, flawless face: smooth skin and perfect symmetry. If you ask for nothing else, that is what you get. It is not your prompt's fault, and specific wording can override it.
How do I get realistic skin in an AI image?
Ask for the very things the generator treats as flaws: visible pores, fine wrinkles, uneven tone, shadows under the eyes, and add that there is no retouching. Ask for a documentary level of detail, not a glamour look. It is the fastest change you can make: one line in the prompt, and the image is instantly more believable.
How can I make an AI face asymmetrical without it looking distorted?
Do not simply write asymmetrical face, because that tends to produce distortion. Name exactly what should be lopsided: a heavier left eyelid, one eyebrow set higher, a faint scar, an uneven smile. The generator turns a general adjective into an average, but it carries out a specific description.
What can I add at the end of a prompt to avoid the glossy ad look?
Put a short exclusion line at the end, for example: no symmetry, no airbrushing, no glamour lighting, no perfect skin, documentary grit. It does not beautify the image. It stops the generator from sliding back into its default advertising-photo look. If you take only one thing from the article, make it this.