If you’ve ever seen the 1997 movie Face Off, don’t worry - we’re not about to go all sinister on you. The face swapping trend is great fun for those who enjoy social media - and now it’s even easier and more sophisticated. Image manipulation has come a long way in recent years and now AI is
lending a big hand to face swapping technology; allowing ordinary people the kind of digital tools that were once only available to professional and skilled editors.
It’s gonna be really complicated, right? Nope. Thanks to advanced tech, AI face swapping apps use neural networks specific to facial recognition and transplantation. This processes the face swap while automatically retaining qualities like lighting consistency, spatial coherence and textural continuity - for a much more natural - and convincing - result.
How does it work? This clever tech uses facial landmark detection, spatial mapping algorithms, texture synthesis and environmental adaptation to quickly and easily create your image.
For the layperson, this means that you can wow your friends with your fabulous face swap without any special skills or experience.
If Your Face Doesn’t Fit - How Can You Benefit?
If you’re looking to use face swapping for personal use but you don’t have any fancy technical skills, don’t worry - you can still get great quality and fast results. In addition, you can benefit from that ability to do a number of things.
Enhance Personal Photography
We can’t all be Annie Leibovitz with lots of super-sophisticated cameras and editing equipment -- and the great news is that you don’t need to be! You're able to fix your photos quickly and easily and even deal with common issues like closed eyes or awkward expressions. Got some old pics where everyone looks great apart from one person (especially if it's you!) Well, there are a growing number of online apps out there, and a great example is
ai swap face which allows you to fix these annoying issues yourself to turn the "not so good" into photos you'll want people to see.
Making memories, but better - As well as making your pics more perfect, you can also use this technology in other ways. You can add somebody to a photo - for example if an elderly relative was unable to attend a wedding. And you can also have a little hypothetical fun by creating imagined family portraits which give an idea of what your future children may look like. Now, there's a thought!
Expressing yourself - If you’re mad about memes or go gaga for gifs, this technology is right up your street. You can make your own creative images to share on your social media as well as personalizing other content.
Perfecting your pics - We all want to look our best in our photographs and these apps allow you to tweak your appearance, and things like hairstyle, skin tone and clothing will make your social media shine. You can also save cash by updating your ID photos and creating placeholder images for projects.
Using this technology enables you to smooth and fix all the things that can sometimes ruin an otherwise perfect picture; helping you to express yourself the way you want to without any hassle or expense.
Getting the Most Out of Your Images
So, we’ve talked about some of the great things that face swapping technology can do, we’ll now dig deeper into how to get the best results.
- Image resolution - For the most successful and natural looking results, you’ll want to use high resolution images of at least 1080p. (That's 1080 pixels high, and usually 1920 pixels wide, in case you didn't know...)
- Facial angles - Where possible, all facial angles in the picture should be within around 15 degrees of one another - for example looking up, down or straight ahead.
- Expressions - For consistency, it’s always best if everybody in the photo has similar expressions; for example, smiling or laughing.
- Lighting - A similar lighting direction will make your image more natural.
Keeping these things in mind will help you to ensure that you get the best out of photos whether you’re looking to frame them or share them on the ‘Gram.
Getting ‘Appy for Personal Projects and Workflows
Casual creativity - If you love your social media but wish you could get more out of it, face swapping apps can help you to do just, that by developing and customizing your visual stories, sharing them with friends and creating professional looking profile pictures.
Personal projects - Greeting cards, invitations and celebration items like banners can be expensive, but now you can create and personalize your own unique stationery at a fraction of the cost.
Entertainment - Ever wondered what you’d look like as a blonde or fancy seeing a picture of yourself at the Grand Canyon? These things and more are child’s play for this technology; allowing you to play with countless fun scenarios.
Whether you’re looking to update your passport pic or turn yourself into a meme, you really don’t need to be arty or to have any fancy technical skills.
The tech does it all for you!
From Pretty Good to Perfect Pics
Most of us have the occasional “if only” photograph - one that would be perfect “if only” Robert didn’t have his eyes closed or “if only” Rachel wasn’t making a rude gesture. As well as fixing these things, you can use face swapping apps to update photos by replacing unflattering expressions or to tweak weight or height issues.
You can also tap into the tech to see how you might look with a different hair color or style or in a particular type of outfit - without having the hassle of trying it on for real!
Picture This - Creating Scenarios for Personal and Home Improvements
- Creating visual references for personal styling decisions
- Developing before/after scenarios for home improvements
- Improving visual communication in personal correspondence
By allowing the technology to fix these common issues, you’re free to focus on your content rather than tackling tricky editing.
Use Responsibly!
While AI face swapping is a lot of fun there are
some dos and don'ts to keep in mind and we’ll take a look at some of these now.
Is it OK to post this?
Before you get too carried away and start posting your pics, first take a closer look to ensure that your photo doesn’t include unsolicited images of children or vulnerable people. You’ll also want to consider the emotional impact of your altered image - what may seem funny to you might be upsetting to somebody else. As a courtesy, you should always, where possible, ask the permission of others before posting photographs of them online.
Transparency and disclosure
We all know that there are lots of people on social media who are, perhaps, less than honest - and you don’t want to be that guy or gal. To keep your image tweaking fun, it’s good practice to be clear and transparent when posting images that have been altered rather than trying to pass them off as authentic.
Staying appropriate
While your AI powered creations are great for your Facebook feed, they should never be used for formal documents such as passports and driving licenses. And before going ahead and using an image, always take a moment to consider whether it’s appropriate culturally and have a think about any possible misinterpretations.
When you fail to stay mindful when using altered images, this can lead to anger, upset and damaged relationships as well as tarnishing your own reputation.
A Snapshot of the Future
Achieving fantastic photographs is becoming easier than ever and, as this technology advances in leaps and bounds, regular users can look forward to lots of improvements. For example; more intuitive interfaces, improved tweaking of lighting and partial facial occlusions such as glasses, shadows and hair ... and extended capabilities for video.
As well as the fun stuff like memes and gifs, this will mean that we can all produce sophisticated, professional looking photographs to make those treasured memories even more special.
Conclusion
Until recently, editing photographs online was fiddly, tricky and produced less than perfect results for those without technical prowess - but those days are gone. AI face-swapping technology is leveling the playing field by providing easy to use tools for editing, enhancing and making changes to our favorite photographs.
Take the plunge, have fun, and you'll surprise yourself with how much you can do!
