A new approach


AI Safe Photography


There are new risks posed by AI and the manipulation of online images. I have created a methodology to keep students safe online, whilst also retaining the emotive power of photography.




It is important that images remain useful & effective for marketing schools. In terms of showing the unique environments, facilities & experiences that exist in your school. This page shows the options available to you.

 

This image does not show a real students face. It is internet safe.

1. Usual Photography

Regardless of which of the following options are chosen by you and the school, at least 50% of the images will still be standard candid, joyful, reportage focused images of students. These can always be used internally.

2. Framing & Focus

It is important that your school photography does not become a series of detail shots of pencil pots and shoes. This is not emotive imagery and does nothing to market the your specific unique school experience.


Therefore, I have practiced a way of still showing the joy of an experience, or the location, but using careful framing to ensure images cannot be manipulated by AI.

3. AI Face Replacement

For external facing digital images, I can replace the faces of students with AI faces. This protects the identity of the student from AI manipulation entirely as their faces are not digitally accessible. I take the time to do this well so that the images look genuine & authentic.


This also preserves your actual locations, activities & school experience in your marketing.


I run my own AI model on my own device and servers to do this. At no point are the images uploaded to an online model, protecting GDPR and images from use as AI training Data.


I can do this for £250 + VAT for 25 images.

4. Internal VS External

If all images used externally (Web, Social, Emails, Digital Marketing) are safe from being manipulated by AI, parents can give a simpler yes/no consent to image use based on the following:


"We take the threat of AI Image misuse seriously and are taking steps in our marketing to prevent and reduce this risk. We are doing this by:


  1. Misfocusing or obscuring any face of a student when shared digitally (*edited).
  2. Only using images when they are not obscured / altered (**unedited) either internally at the school, or in physical print collateral (leaflets, prospectuses), which cannot inherently be manipulated with AI.
  3. Replacing any in-focus faces with AI, when shared digitally. This is done using a specialist, dedicated, offline AI server so at no point are images of your children shared with foreign servers or used to train an AI model & their identity is protected.


I consent to *edited images being used in external digital marketing if they are protected from AI misuse; through sensitive face-replacement & misfocused faces.


I consent to **unedited images being used in external print marketing & internally at the school.


Yes [ ] / No [ ]


Note: Children in high-risk safeguarding situations should not be involved in any marketing if there is a specific elevated risk to them as an individual.

5. Print Collateral

We all love print, and it is safer than digital content as it cannot inherently be manipulated with AI. Therefore images can be used more broadly in this use case.


It is extremely unlikely that a printed piece of marketing material is scanned in and misused. There is no documented case of this happening.

6. Video

Currently, video presents a lower risk of AI manipulation than high resolution still photography, although it is not inherently safe. Misuse generally requires a suitable frame to first be extracted, creating an additional barrier to access.


Extracted video frames also typically contain less usable visual information than high resolution photographs due to compression, movement and motion blur. However, advances in AI are reducing these barriers, and clear, front facing frames may still provide sufficient information for manipulation. Wider compositions, movement and avoiding prolonged static close ups can further reduce this risk.