Aragon AI Review: The Future of Headshots? My Honest Review
In this digital age, how you present yourself online can either open doors or slam them shut.
A headshot on LinkedIn or your resume isn’t just a photo; it’s a billboard advertising your confidence, your approachability, and your professionalism.
But snapping a top-notch headshot can be tough. You’ve got to capture not just your look but also your spirit and style. It’s all about presenting an image that says ‘you’ at your best – confident, approachable and professional.
But pulling it off? That’s a different game.
In this article, I am going to take a deep dive into one of the headshot generators that I tested – Aragon AI headshot generator. It is an AI headshot tool that takes your casual selfies and works some tech magic to morph them into top-notch professional photos.
I’ll show you my real-life results of AI-generated headshots so you can see firsthand what Aragon AI is capable of delivering.
Whether you’re looking to amp up your LinkedIn profile picture or need a suite of high-quality shots for different purposes, let’s take a look at if Aragon AI could be for you.
***Note: This article may contain affiliate links. I’ll receive a small commission if you purchase through my links at no extra cost to you.
So, what is Aragon AI?
Aragon AI is an AI-powered headshot generator. It uses advanced technology to create top-quality professional headshots by analyzing facial features, body structure, and hairstyles.
Users simply upload their images, and Aragon’s AI models work their magic.
However, the generated images’ quality depends on the diversity and quality of the uploaded pictures. Therefore, investing time in uploading high-quality images that accurately represent you is highly recommended. (This is where I went wrong. I was too impatient and uploaded a few photos that were in the same outfit. More on this later.)
Also read: Top AI Photo Enhancers
When you click on “Get started”, the website shows you a few things to keep in mind such as what to expect – since the technology is still relatively new, it can generate weird pictures but that just is part of the experience.
How to Use Aragon AI to Generate Headshots
Using Aragon AI to create professional headshots is a straightforward process. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you get started:
Step 1: Specify Your Use Case
Begin by providing some basic information, such as your profession and the reason for needing the headshot.
While not all professions are listed, choosing one that matches your background can help tailor the background of your photos to your profession.
Again, I think this is where I made a mistake. I was looking for something that’s not overly corporate. But by choosing “Marketing specialist” and “Social Media Profile,” it mostly provided photos of me in suits. Next time, I might try using options like “Author bio” or “Personal Website” to give me that writer or a bit more creative vibe.
With that said, I think that Aragon AI could have provided a few examples of what their interpretations of each profession and headshot reason might look like. This would have given me a clearer idea.
When you get to this step, try to imagine what you want to give out as a vibe, read each option carefully and do not rush this step as it really could influence your final results.
Step 2: Provide Appearance Information
Aragon AI will then prompt you to provide simple details, including ethnicity, hair color, and eye color. These inputs play a vital role in helping the AI technology generate accurate and personalized photographs.
I think you can just answer based on your actual appearance here. It acts as an additional layer of information for the AI.
Step 3: Upload Your Photos
The quality of the final pictures largely depends on the quality of the photos you upload. So, it’s crucial to use clear, high-resolution images that truly show how you look.
To get the best results, avoid using blurry or low-quality photos, pictures with other people in them, images with different facial hair, or photos from when you were much younger or older.
Aragon AI needs at least 14 photos to create professional headshots.
Here are some of the examples of the photos I uploaded:
I think I did a good job of uploading photos of me in different angles and mostly close-up photos.
However, I should not have uploaded too many photos of me in the same outfit (I originally thought that the studio photos were more high quality, but I think that the algorithm became biased with the exact outfit and style as a result)
My Results from Aragon AI
The turnaround was really fast (less than 120 minutes) and I think this was one of the biggest advantages of Aragon AI.
You submit the seed photos, go to grab a coffee in a cafe and when you go home, boom! Your professional profile pictures are there waiting for you.
The results from Aragon AI were indeed impressive. The AI successfully generated studio-quality headshots.
Of course, a lot of them were just weird or didn’t look like me, but I would say that of all generated pics, I could use 3-4 of them for my social profiles.
Take a look at this one, which does look like me in my opinion:
Or this one, which I would use for my LinkedIn Profile:
When you really look closely at the photos, you can notice a few tiny mistakes like jewelries in the wrong place, or my eyes and lips looking a bit off.
But honestly, these photos are more than good enough for something like a LinkedIn profile picture.
Aragon offers simple online photo editing tools for you to upscale, change eye color or background. I’ve tried changing the background but it didn’t really look good afterwards. The upscale worked just fine though.
For me, the editing options were a bit too limited. Eventually, I combined it with photoshop or other mobile photo editing apps to edit my photos.
Pros and Cons of Aragon AI
Aragon AI offers several advantages, but like any tool, it has its drawbacks. Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons:
Pros:
- Studio-like, high-quality headshots.
- Variety in poses, backgrounds, hairstyles, and close-ups.
- Takes about only two hours to generate the headshots.
Cons:
- No free trial. This is also one of the biggest complaints I see in other review sights by customers. It didn’t offer a free trial to give us an idea of what we can get. I think they could at least provide a few watermarked photos before payment.
- Limited photo editing functions – we cannot even regenerate a few versions of the photos we like.
- The generated photos may not look entirely lifelike and might seem somewhat artificial.
My Personal Review: Is Aragon AI Worth it?
Overall, I would say yes it’s worth it and I would give Aragon AI a solid 4 stars.
What I liked the most:
- I like that it could capture my face in a few photos. Compared to Remini app that I used, I thought that Aragon captured my look better.
- The process was really straightforward and the turnaround was really fast: great for people who just need a quick and professional headshots.
- I liked the soft looks in the generated photos.
What I disliked the most:
- My biggest complaint would be that the photos still have that AI feel to it and look still very AI.
- We cannot choose the outfits and backgrounds beforehand – all is based on the profession and headshots usage that you use.
- There was also one thing about the dimension of the final photos. I couldn’t use the photo on linked in with a less close-up look (see below). So I think this is a detail that they can improve.
- Then, the limited editing functions also keep me from giving it a 4.5 or 5 star.
Now, let’s see how this would look on my LinkedIn Profile:
What do you think? I think this looks professional enough!
Aragon AI Pricing
Aragon offers 3 different packages, as you can see below. I opted for the Starter plan and I think it was enough for what I was looking for. However if you want more pictures to choose from, opt for the Basic plan for 80 headshots.
Is Aragon AI Free?
No, Aragon AI is not a free service. The paid plans start from $29.
Aragon AI Alternatives
While Aragon AI is an impressive service, there are also a few other alternatives that we can have a look.
Headshot Pro
First, let’s talk about HeadshotPro. This AI-driven service offers a package of 40 professional business headshots for just $29.
The process is straightforward and user-friendly: choose your preferred style (be it traditional, modern, creative, and so on), then upload your selfies to train the AI model.
In less than two hours, you’ll have a collection of professional-grade headshots.
I will also write an in-depth review so you can compare it with Aragon AI results.
StudioShot
Among the best ai headshot generators, StudioShot offers a unique mix of AI and real-life photography to create the ideal business headshot. Users start by uploading their selfies and picking from a variety of photography styles that change the lighting, background, and overall feel.
In two business days, StudioShot creates over 50 AI headshots. Users can then pick their favorite for further tweaking by professional photographers. Prices start at $29.25 per person and include endless touch-ups by skilled photographers.
However, because StudioShot’s process is mostly done by hand, they currently don’t offer refunds.
Final Thoughts
It’s pretty impressive how companies like Aragon AI are shaking up the way we produce professional headshots.
They’re offering solutions that are not just affordable but also efficient, catering to a broad spectrum of needs. This makes it easy for anyone wanting to present their best self in the digital world without needing to book appointments with a professional photographer.
Whether you opt for Aragon AI or any of its alternatives, there’s a ton of valuable tools at your disposal.
And as technology continues to advance, we can anticipate even more impressive and accurate results from AI headshot generators like Aragon AI.