Evoto Angers Photographers by a Surprise AI Headshot Launch, But Is Evoto the Villain Here?

Another week, another photography scandal. We photographers can be a sensitive breed, and no wonder because, let’s face it, trying to earn a half-decent living from this gig is hard. So any potential disruptor is going to cause some consternation.

This time, it was Evoto‘s turn to cause ire. Last week at Imaging USA, the AI retouching company appeared to soft-launch an AI headshot platform. Obviously, this caused quite a stir, with photographers throwing their vitriol around, calling foul of the brand that has so far claimed to have photographers’ best interests at the core of their business.

What Exactly Did Evoto Do?

According to portrait photographer Sal Cincotta’s YouTube video (and yes, there is a certain irony to Cincotta being the whistleblower here, if you know, you know), Evoto ‘accidentally’ launched an AI headshot generator tool on its website, complete with pricing and examples. Apparently, it was a complete surprise to the Evoto folk at Imaging USA when it became public.

Obviously, photographers have been growing increasingly worried about the prospect of AI taking their jobs away, so this little stunt hit an extremely raw nerve. “We’ve been funding, training and evangelizing a software that was promoted as helping us, but in reality was looking to replace us. Feels awful.” says one comment, “Introducing AI-generated headshots in that space doesn’t feel innovative—it feels dismissive,” says another.

Speculation abounded that Evoto had secretly been harvesting users’ images to train the headshot generator. Thankfully, this particular concern has since been debunked. Evoto didn’t need to train anything since it actually just piggybacked off Google Gemini’s Nano Banana.

Evoto’s Response

After heavy backlash, the page was hurriedly taken down, and a statement and apology were issued by Evoto. I reached out to Jay Peterson, Evoto’s USA spokesperson, who reiterated the official response and that Evoto had “listened closely to feedback over the past week and has permanently removed the AI Headshot Generator from our roadmap and all official platforms.”

We want to clarify that this specific web-based tool was intended as a secondary page for SEO and web traffic, powered by a third-party API. We recognize that the FAQ language on that page was misaligned with our actual practices and was in conflict with our commitment to users. At no point did Evoto utilize customer images for this tool or any other unauthorized purpose.

Evoto remains fully committed to our policy of never using customer data without explicit consent. Furthermore, we want to reassure our community that Evoto Desktop, our core product, processes all images locally on the user’s computer. This architecture ensures that your creative work remains entirely within your local environment and under your control.

We agree that the AI Headshot Generator did not reflect how Evoto intends to serve our community. We deeply value the trust users place in us and are dedicated to ensuring our future initiatives align strictly with our mission to empower photographers.

Jay Peterson, Evoto

Not a Calculated Plan

Photographers have been getting more and more worried about AI, and yet Evoto has some pretty high-level photographers acting as ambassadors for the brand. I reached out to a couple; one was very quiet about the whole thing and respectfully didn’t comment. However, boudoir photographer and Evoto ambassador Shawn Black shared some insightful thoughts.

“Evoto unquestionably missed the mark by developing a tool that could, in effect, replace headshot photographers. They have acknowledged this in multiple statements and interviews. It was a serious and consequential mistake. However, I do not believe this was part of some calculated, long-term plan. Based on my experience, Evoto’s prior major releases were highly publicized events involving international photographers and live broadcasts, not a quiet Monday night rollout with no fanfare,” says Black.

Personally, I’m inclined to agree with Black, having attended one of these events myself. I also interviewed the Evoto USA team with a group of media professionals, and let’s just say we didn’t make it particularly easy for them with questions about the future of photography and AI. Evoto seemed quite genuine when they said at the time that they actively listened to photographers and tried to adjust to their ongoing needs. For this Headshot thing to happen does seem like a huge misstep and an about-face in terms of company policy.

Was It Really An Accident?

According to Cincotta, it’s nearly impossible to accidentally launch any kind of software like this. He has a point, because this at the very least looks like something that’s been taken to Minimum Viable Product level, complete with pricing, FAQ’s, examples and copy. However, mistakes do happen, and perhaps the biggest mistake was taking it live on a platform purported to be on the side of photographers.

Evoto is certainly a very large company with international teams spread across the world. As Jay states in the Fstoppers video, it is entirely plausible that one arm of the brand doesn’t always know exactly what’s happening in all areas of the business, nor what is in development at all times. Certainly, when I met some of Evoto’s engineers at the Evoto One event, some certainly knew far more than others about what was being developed in the future.

Living in Spain has also made me more aware of technical screw-ups that ‘really shouldn’t be possible, and yet they happen.’ Like the time my phone line was able to operate two different numbers at the same time, receiving calls on one and making calls on the other. I was told this was impossible and couldn’t happen until the phone company actually discovered a worker error when switching numbers. So honestly, anything is possible, maybe some Evoto technician spilt their tea on their workstation and accidentally pressed publish (joking, but hey, you never know!).

The Real Problem Here

Honestly, the results of the Evoto Headshot app look pretty good, not gonna lie. And maybe that is the worst part of all of this, and why everyone is so up in arms over it. It’s essentially fear dressed up as anger.

“I fully understand how this incident caused a loss of trust within the community. Some of that distrust is deserved; some has been amplified by misinformation,” says Black, “But we should also be realistic. AI tools like this are not hypothetical, they are already here and will continue to evolve.” He has a very good point.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be directing our anger at one AI company when, really, they are just the tip of the iceberg. Boycotting Evoto will have zero impact on the future of photography as a whole, and anyone who is happy with an AI-generated headshot is most likely not our client anyway. The AI-generated cat is not going back in the virtual bag, and we need to accept that our business model of yesteryear may not hold up in the future.

What About Retouchers?

In a similar vein, we photographers should perhaps look at ourselves a little bit more closely. Many of us have been happy to jump on the AI-retouching bandwagon and discard our human retouchers in a gleeful bid to save a bit of cash.

“This feels very…. familiar….” says Retoucher and artist Kelly Robitaille, “Retouchers have been absorbing the impact of AI tools being integrated into photography workflow for a while now. We’ve lost jobs, long-standing relationships with photographers and studios, and lost consistent income as photographers continue to choose faster and cheaper (understandable) AI solutions over the human retouchers,” she continues.

“MY livelihood and the livelihood of MANY retouchers I personally know have already been PROFOUNDLY impacted by programs like Evoto. I didn’t see many photographers refusing to use Evoto on ethical grounds. I saw a lot of silence until it became personal.”

Ouch. Yes, that one stings a little, and so it should. While photographers get on their high horses about losing headshot gigs, we should perhaps also be a little less hypocritical about AI in general.

Choose Your Battles Wisely

Where do we draw the line in the sand? AI is here for all of our jobs if we take it at face value. So maybe we are thinking about this the wrong way. Sure, AI is a major disruptor, especially in creative fields. The answer, then, is to magnify our humanity in ways that AI cannot compete with.

“Moving forward, our focus as photographers must shift,” says Black. “We need to lean into what AI cannot replicate. Make our sessions experiential. Market the human connection, the emotion, and the collaboration, not just the final image. This is where our value will always reside.”

This, for me, is the main takeaway here. Sure, go ahead and stop using Evoto if you must. But this issue will not go away. Personally, I think there are much bigger battles to fight than this one, and Evoto is not the evil genius Cincotta would have us believe it is.

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