Lauren deVane – Foundations of Fauxtography

Foundations of Fauxtography is Lauren deVane’s course on creating AI-generated imagery with a photographic appearance. Taught primarily in Freepik, it organizes the workflow around visual categories rather than software menus.

The course is designed for creatives who already have visual judgment and want to apply it to AI imagery. Materials include videos, documents and PDFs.

Skills you’ll build in Fauxtography

• Choose between Freepik’s image models based on the look a brief actually needs
• Prompt for photographic realism instead of generic AI gloss
• Edit generated images with directed prompts rather than regenerating from scratch
• Use upscaling and retouching tools to bring images to a usable finish
• Art direct beauty editorial, product, portrait and fashion imagery
• Build a consistent brand visual world across a full set of images

What Fauxtography Means

Fauxtography is the course’s playful name for images that look like photographs but are generated rather than made with a camera. The distinction matters in commercial work: synthetic imagery is not a substitute for a real shoot when authenticity or an accurate likeness of an actual product is essential.

The curriculum treats each image category separately. Beauty editorial, product photography, portrait work, fashion editorial, lifestyle imagery and brand world building each involve their own lighting and framing conventions, as well as different ways an image model can misinterpret a direction.

Freepik as the Creative Workbench

Lauren teaches almost entirely inside Freepik, using it as the central workspace for image generation and finishing. The workflow brings model choice, prompting, upscaling, retouching and prompt-directed editing together in one platform.

Rather than treating every unwanted element as a reason to start over, the course approaches editing as a separate creative decision: directing a change to an existing image. Its emphasis is on art direction and judgment, not simply collecting prompt strings.

About Lauren deVane

Lauren deVane is a former Creative Director at Ulta Beauty and the founder of Bemused Studio. Known online as the internet’s AI Auntie, she speaks at marketing industry events about AI imagery and works with brands, business owners and marketers on custom, on-brand visuals.

Frequently asked questions

What does Foundations of Fauxtography cover?

The course covers AI image creation and editing in Freepik across beauty editorial, product, portrait, fashion editorial and lifestyle imagery, as well as brand world building.

Do I need photography experience?

Photography experience is not required, but the course assumes you already have visual taste and can assess the look of an image.

Can I apply the course outside Freepik?

The art direction concepts can be applied elsewhere, but the software-specific steps are taught primarily in Freepik and would need translating for another generator.

What materials are included?

The course materials include videos, documents and PDFs.