Best AI Models for Realistic Portraits: 13-Way Comparison

Which AI model generates the most realistic human faces?

This time, we evaluated the following 13 AI models:

Midjourney v8.2
GPT Image 2.5
Nano Banana Pro
Nano Banana 2
Grok Imagine 2.0
Seedream 5.0 Pro
Higgsfield Soul
Higgsfield Soul 2
Ideogram 4.0
Recraft 4.1
Qwen Image 3
Z-Image Turbo
WAN Image 2.7 Pro

Comparison of Each AI Model

Using three common selfie compositions as a baseline, we compared them based on:

"Which AI model can generate the most realistic people?"

"Which AI model can generate attractive AI beauties that drive customer acquisition?"

We compared the naturalness of Japanese faces, photorealism of skin, prompt understanding, background/props, and stability across 9 generated images.

We also introduce examples of images that are easy to use for marketing purposes.

Midjourney v8.2

It consistently generates beautiful young Japanese faces, but still lacks photorealism in bare skin texture.

Face/Skin: The distinct "Midjourney face" from previous generations is much less noticeable in v8.2. However, when lining up 9 images, facial features and smiles tend to converge into similar patterns, and skin appears uniformly smoothed.

Strengths: It easily produces cute Japanese faces and excels at character design. Even with changes in clothing and location, it maintains the person's impression and close-up selfie composition well.

Weaknesses/Usage: Limbs sometimes break down. It is weaker than other models in rendering sweaty skin or pore texture. While strong for prioritizing aesthetic beauty, it requires selection if aiming for unprocessed raw photo realism.

GPT Image 2.5 Sunburst

High ability to compose the entire scene—face, person, clothes, cat, and background—as a single coherent photograph.

Face/Skin: Natural Japanese faces with less tendency to converge into identical looks. The strong brownish tint noticed in previous GPT Image versions is not prominent here.

Strengths: Detailed and flawless depiction of clothing shapes, furniture, cats, and window light. Suitable for converting long scene descriptions into photos with minimal breakdowns.

Weaknesses/Usage: Skin appears clean and smoothed, lacking the raw realism of sweat or moisture. For conditions like "sweaty skin," other models may convey the intent better.

Nano Banana Pro

Strong in prompt understanding and backgrounds/props, but the "Nano Banana face" remains in text-to-image Japanese portraits.

Face/Skin: While some results are natural, faces can converge into refined, idealized patterns. It shines more in image-to-image (i2i) editing than pure text-to-image (t2i).

Strengths: Excels at grasping long prompts and multiple conditions, assembling scenes including cats, furniture, and costumes. Fine detail specifications and negative prompts are easy to use.

Weaknesses/Usage: In these 9 images, there were issues like tight necklines and smartphone reflections, and sweat reproduction was weak. For precise character refinement, utilize i2i editing rather than one-shot t2i.

Higgsfield Soul

Easy to create realistic and glamorous beautiful Japanese faces; however, backgrounds and props are prone to breakdowns.

Face/Skin: Facial features are well-aligned, with a strong balance of youth and beauty. It doesn't over-polish like a photo book, maintaining the closeness of a selfie.

Strengths: Stable reproduction of selfie compositions. A good choice for uses where the Japanese female face is the main subject.

Weaknesses/Usage: Details other than the person, such as backgrounds or cats, are not as strong as Nano Banana Pro. Sweat gloss varies by iteration, and prop breakdowns are noticeable.