How to choose software when every option looks the same

Sample galleries in this category are close to useless, because every product produces good headshots for a photogenic face with good source photographs.

The axis that separates them

Identity rather than realism. The output looks like a professionally photographed person who is almost you — a jaw slightly narrower, eyes sitting slightly differently.

Plausible and identical are different targets, and the gap widens for faces further from the average.

How to measure it yourself

Generate twenty portraits. Mix ten with ten real photographs and ask someone who knows your face to sort the pile. If they can sort reliably, the likeness is not there.

Twenty minutes, and it is more informative than every comparison table combined.

The second axis

Repeatability. Generate more than you need and count. One usable out of forty is luck; forty out of forty is a product.

The axis that does not matter

Resolution. It stopped being a differentiator some time ago and the marketing has not caught up.