Hotel Lobby photo guide: compare your candidates
Collect two or three possible photographs of each person before choosing. Look at them at roughly the same display size. This avoids favoring a large but soft image over a smaller, sharper portrait simply because one fills more of the screen.
Start with recognizability. Can someone who knows the person identify them from the face rather than their outfit or location? An excellent vacation picture may be a weak reference if the subject is distant, looking down or partly hidden behind another traveler.
Choose the photograph with useful facial information even when it is less flattering as a social post. If a beauty filter changes the jaw, erases skin detail or reshapes the eyes, the reference no longer describes the appearance you expect to see. Do not stack retouching filters to fix a problem that a different original avoids.
A two-person Hotel Lobby photo guide starts with separate files
The creator expects two single-person photographs, one per slot. A photograph of a crowd does not instruct the generator which two people you meant. Extra visible faces also make an already difficult identity task less clear.
If you only have a picture containing both people, make separate copies and crop each around one person. Leave the full head and useful surrounding context. Check the resulting face at the size you expect to inspect it; cropping cannot recover detail that was never captured.
Avoid an extremely tight rectangle containing only eyes, nose and mouth. A complete head, hairline and some neck or shoulders give a more interpretable portrait. The aim is a clear subject, not a passport-photo rule or a guaranteed formula.
Hotel Lobby photo guide to face angles
A forward-facing view or a modest turn usually gives you a straightforward starting point because both sides of the face remain visible. A full profile hides an eye and much of the opposite cheek. An image taken from far above or below also changes the apparent proportions.
This Hotel Lobby photo guide does not impose a precise allowed angle. There is no tested degree threshold for these inputs. Instead, inspect whether you can see the features you want preserved and whether the image represents the person in a familiar way.
Choose references with broadly comparable viewpoints when possible. Pairing a level portrait with an extreme upward selfie makes it harder to tell whether a difference in the result came from the source view or the model. You can reduce that uncertainty before spending any credits.
Inspect light on the face
Face the subject toward soft, even light if taking a new picture. A window can be a convenient source when it does not leave half the face in deep shadow. Avoid a bright window directly behind the head if it causes the face to become dark.
The lighting check in this Hotel Lobby photo guide is simple: look for visible detail around the eyes and mouth. Overexposed highlights can remove useful boundaries just as heavy shadows can. Increasing brightness later may make a dark picture easier to see, but it cannot reliably restore detail that the camera did not capture.
The two references do not need identical backgrounds or matching color temperature. However, a heavily orange-filtered portrait beside a cool, dim selfie is harder to compare fairly. Choose natural-looking versions first and let the selected source performance establish the scene.
Remove obstacles by changing the picture
Hands across the mouth, a microphone covering the chin, hair over an eye, and strong glasses reflections all hide information. Start by looking for another photograph rather than trying to reconstruct those areas with an editing tool.
Ordinary glasses can be part of someone's recognizable appearance. You do not need to remove them automatically. Prefer a picture where the eyes are visible through the lenses and the frames do not merge with a heavy shadow.
Hats and jewelry are similar judgment calls. If a hat covers most of the forehead and casts a shadow over both eyes, the reference asks more of the model. A simple portrait with fewer obstructions is the more cautious choice, especially for a first attempt.
Keep enough detail after cropping
The crop check in this Hotel Lobby photo guide starts with the face itself. A large file can contain a very small face. Think about the pixels describing the person, not just the total file size. Cropping one distant face out of a large group image may leave less useful information than an ordinary close portrait from a phone.
Inspect the chosen crop without extreme zoom. The eyes should have visible edges and the mouth should not dissolve into a soft patch. If the face only becomes identifiable after you recognize the clothing, select a closer picture.
Avoid sending a screenshot of a screenshot through several chat apps before uploading. Ask the person for an original or a clean export when practical. Repeated compression can remove subtle detail, and sharpening those copies later can emphasize artifacts instead of recovering the original face.
Prepare a compatible file without overprocessing it
The site accepts supported portrait images and prepares them in the browser, including automatic compression before upload. There is no arbitrary original-photo size cap, but browser memory and image decoding still have limits.
Use a normal JPEG, PNG or WebP copy when an unusual format fails to open. Changing the filename extension does not convert an image. Export a supported copy using a trusted photo application and check that the orientation remains correct.
You do not need to enlarge a modest image to enormous dimensions. That creates more pixels without supplying new evidence about the face. The useful work in this Hotel Lobby photo guide happens before upload: choosing the clearest original and keeping its identity cues intact.
Compare the pair as a pair
Finish the Hotel Lobby photo guide by placing the two chosen references next to each other. Confirm that each contains one intended person and that neither file is an older duplicate you selected by mistake. Then decide who should occupy the viewer's left and right in the performance.
Distinctive hair, glasses or facial features can make review easier, but do not deliberately alter someone to manufacture a contrast. Two similar-looking relatives can still be the intended pair. Their similarity means you should review the finished clip particularly carefully rather than promise the model will separate them perfectly.
A useful preparation exercise is to describe each reference in one plain sentence: left person, short dark hair, clear forward view; right person, round glasses, unobstructed mouth. This is a private selection note, not text you need to enter into the generator.
Use an honest before-generation checklist
Imagine two candidate sets. In the first, one person is sharp and evenly lit while the other comes from a dim group photograph. In the second, both have ordinary recent portraits with clearly visible faces. The second set removes an obvious input weakness, but it still does not prove the generated video will preserve either identity throughout every movement.
That distinction matters. Upload previews show the chosen files; they do not simulate turns, gestures or lip movement. A still image that looks excellent can still produce an imperfect moving result.
Before submitting, verify the pair, assignment, selected source preview and output ratio. Standard costs 300 credits and Pro costs 400; changing the tier cannot compensate for selecting the wrong person. Spend the preparation time on the reference problem you can actually see.
Know when this guide has done its job
You are ready when both references clearly show the intended subjects, the files load properly, and the slot assignment matches your plan. Preserve the original photos on your own device so you can reconsider them if the first result raises a specific issue.
After generation, use the face-consistency guide for identity changes and the quality guide for blur or compression. Those are different checks. Do not keep editing a good reference simply because a later messaging app made the downloaded video softer.
Use this Hotel Lobby photo guide to choose two defensible inputs, then return to the creator. The goal is a clearer starting point and a reviewable result, not a promise of perfect likeness.