Hand-painted illustration of a row of cameras spanning photographic history, from a wooden bellows camera to a modern compact, in warm earth tones

Real or AI?

Every image here is either a real photograph or one Midjourney generated from a written sentence. Play a quick round and see how often you can tell. After each guess you see both versions side by side, and for the AI images, the exact prompt so you can try it yourself.

Ready?

Twelve images, one at a time. Call each one real or AI. We tell you straight away, show you both versions, and hand you the Midjourney prompt for the AI ones.

Over 100 images, evenly split between real photographs and Midjourney generations, spanning 175 years from 1850s daguerreotypes to last year's drone shots. Every round is a fresh shuffle, so no two games are the same.

Curious how these were made? Each AI image here started from a real photograph, generated from a prompt written to match it, and the trick was making it ordinary enough that you cannot tell. The build journal tells the honest story: the pipeline, the restraint trick, where AI images still give themselves away, and how you could do it yourself.