AI-generated photos on a business website: what went wrong when we tried

AI image tools can produce a convincing photo of a kitchen, a plumber or a truck in a few seconds, and that is exactly why they are risky on a business website. On our own client work, a generated dishwasher photo carried a clearly readable manufacturer badge even though the prompt said no logos. Another time a pressure washer came out in a famous brand's colours. If you use generated images, check each one at full size, and use real photos of your own work wherever you can.

The dishwasher with a badge

On 31 August we were building an appliance repair site. We asked an image model, Gemini 3.1 Flash, for a documentary-style photograph of an open stainless steel dishwasher in an Australian family kitchen, and the prompt said no logos and no watermarks.

The render had a clear manufacturer badge on the dishwasher door. It had also invented a second appliance in the frame, which seemed to be there to carry a badge as well. The model does not read an appliance badge as a logo. It reads it as part of what a dishwasher looks like.

That matters for a repair business, because brand claims on these sites are made carefully. A hero image showing one manufacturer's badge implies a link with that manufacturer. In this case the badge belonged to a brand that was not one the site mentions at all. Showing it would have said something the business had never decided to say.

What fixed it

The fix is to make the instruction specific and positive. The prompt that works says the control panel must be completely blank, with no brand name, no badge, no lettering and no model text anywhere in the frame, and no other appliances in the frame. Fewer appliances means fewer places for a badge.

Then you look at the image. We read each render back at full size before installing it, instead of trusting the prompt. Regenerating is cheaper than finding out from a customer or a brand.

Colours can be a brand too

Two weeks later, on 15 September, we generated a driveway pressure washing image for a trades business site. The prompt again said no logos, no brand names and no badges. The render had no text at all, but the machine was yellow and black, which is unmistakably one manufacturer's colour scheme.

We fixed that with an edit pass. We gave the model the original image and asked it to recolour the unit to plain dark grey and black while keeping everything else identical, and it preserved the scene. The lesson is that checking for lettering is not enough. Look for signature colours as well.

Stock photos have their own traps

Generated images were not our only photo problem. When we sourced 17 stock photos for the same appliance site on 19 August, two problems cost us a whole search pass each.

• Words with two meanings. A search for condenser coils returned five studio microphones, because a condenser is also a type of microphone. A search for range hood returned Little Red Riding Hood, a hooded jumper and a basket of fried donuts. The stock sites match on the literal words in a caption, and a trade term with a stronger meaning elsewhere loses.
• Interiors from the wrong country. Searches for kitchen or laundry rooms returned mostly American cabinetry, tiles and light switches.

What worked was searching for the appliance plus a qualifier, such as an open dishwasher with loaded dishes or a stainless cooker hood, and choosing close-up detail shots over room interiors. A close-up of a steel drum or a dishwasher filter carries no sign of which country it was taken in. We also built a contact sheet and looked at every candidate before using any. A commercial dishwasher rack nearly ended up on a card whose own text said we do not take on commercial kitchen equipment.

When the photos came from the wrong shoot

A workwear supplier whose site we rebuilt on 9 October is a different kind of example. The old site's sports and aged care photos were stock from other countries. For the rebuild we used real photos from the shop, recovered from a backup of the old site, and asked the client for updated photos of their own work.

Real photos do something stock cannot. A customer looking for a local supplier or tradesperson is checking whether this is a real business. Our post on what a tradie website needs to get the call makes the same point for trades, and the builder shortlist post covers how people weigh up a builder before they call. We have not measured the difference in enquiries between real and generated images on our sites, so we are describing a judgement.

A short checklist before an image goes live

1. Look at the image at full size, not as a thumbnail.
2. Read every piece of lettering in it, including small text on panels, boxes and vehicles.
3. Look at the colours. A yellow-and-black machine or a red-and-white truck points to a brand.
4. Count the objects. Extra products in the frame are extra places for a badge.
5. Ask whether anything in it suggests another country, such as plugs, switchplates, road signs or number plates.
6. Ask whether it shows work or products you do not offer.
7. Keep the real photos as the first choice and use generated or stock images only for gaps.

Where this fits in a site you pay for

Images are one small part of keeping a site honest, and they are the sort of detail that gets missed when a site is delivered once and left. Our base plan includes small edits, which is how placeholder photos get swapped for real ones as you send them. If you want a site where your own work is the main thing on the page, get started here or see our web design service.