# How can you tell if a photo is real or AI generated?

Source: https://creatisimo.net/topic/how-can-you-tell-if-a-photo-is-real-or-ai-generated/
Site: Creatisimo, category Is this AI? Checking images
Published: 2026-10-29. Updated: 2026-10-29. Replies: 3.

## Question by Tariq S., 2026-10-29

How can you tell if a photo is real or AI generated? I am a photojournalism student, and our instructor now asks us to document how we verified every image we use in a story, not just whether we think it is real. Last week a striking protest photo went around my feed with no credit, and half my class had a different opinion about it based on the hands and the lighting.

I do not trust gut feel from zooming in, because everyone seems to have a different tell. I would like a short method I can repeat the same way every time and write down in my notes. What do you check first? What counts as strong evidence and what is only a hint? And is there anything a working photographer can do to make their own pictures easier to verify?

## Reply 1 by Nina W., 2026-10-29

From the other side of the lens: I retouch portraits and clients sometimes ask if a clean skin result "looks AI." Please be careful with visual tells. Smooth skin, soft backgrounds and heavy sharpening are standard retouching, and they get mistaken for generated output all the time. Judging pixels is the weakest layer.

## Reply 2 by Lou V., 2026-10-29

There is one that never fails: AI always messes up hands. Count the fingers and you are done. If the hands look right, the photo is real.

## Reply 3 by Remy F., 2026-10-29

@Lou V. Counter-example from my own test folder: plenty of real photos have odd hands from motion blur or compression, and newer generators draw hands fine. The check is not stable across model generations.

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Cite as: Creatisimo, "How can you tell if a photo is real or AI generated?", https://creatisimo.net/topic/how-can-you-tell-if-a-photo-is-real-or-ai-generated/, accessed 2026-10-29.