Your About page is the spot where most visitors expect to see a face. When you are a solo founder with no professional headshot and no team to photograph, that empty slot can stall the whole page. The good news: a face is not the only thing that makes an About page feel real and human.
This guide gives you a clear path for filling that space honestly, with concrete options ranked by what most solo founders actually have on hand.
Why a face-less About page feels unfinished
About pages carry a quiet promise: "there is a real person behind this." A headshot is the obvious way to keep it, so when you leave a grey placeholder or a generic icon, the page reads as half-built. Visitors do not consciously think "missing photo." They just sense the page is thinner than the rest of your site.
You have four practical ways to fill that space without a polished headshot:
- A workspace or environment shot
- A process or product-in-use image
- A values-led abstract or brand image
- A real, casual photo of you taken on a phone
The last one is worth saying up front: a slightly imperfect real photo of you is usually the strongest choice. A relaxed shot at your desk, in natural light, beats anything that pretends to be something it isn't. If you can take one in five minutes, take it. The options below are for when you genuinely can't, or you want to support that photo with more.
If you want the wider map of which image suits which page, this post sits under which image belongs on each page of your business website.
Option 1: workspace, tools, and environment
When the founder photo is missing, the next most human thing is the place the work happens. A tidy desk, a workbench, a kitchen counter for a food business, a sewing table, a laptop open on a project. These shots say "a real person does real work here" without needing a face.
This works especially well when:
- Your craft is visible (you make, repair, write, design, bake, build)
- Your environment is part of the brand (a studio, a workshop, an outdoor setting)
- You want warmth without putting yourself on camera yet
Read using workspace and desk photos without the cliché and pick a scene that matches the kind of work you do. Pick one that looks like a space someone could actually use, not a staged showroom. A few mugs, papers, or tools in frame read as lived-in and honest.
A practical note on placement: an About page image often sits beside a block of text, so choose something that stays calm and uncluttered on the side where your words go. It should support the reading, not compete with it.
Option 2: process or product in use
If a static desk feels too quiet, show the work happening. Hands shaping clay, a screen mid-edit, ingredients being measured, a product being packed for shipping. Process shots carry movement and intent, which makes a page feel active even with no face.
Process and product-in-use images are a good fit when:
- You sell something physical and the making is part of the appeal
- Your service has a clear "before and after" or visible craft
- You want to show competence rather than describe it
For an e-commerce or maker About page, a close shot of the product being handled often does more than a portrait would. It tells visitors what they are buying and signals care, all in one frame.
Option 3: values-led abstract or brand imagery
Some businesses are not very visual. Consulting, coaching, software, bookkeeping, many service brands. For these, a literal scene can feel forced. A values-led image is the alternative: textures, colour fields, a strong brand-aligned shape, a calm photographic mood that matches how you want to feel to a client.
Use this route when:
- Your work is abstract or screen-based with little to photograph
- Your brand leans on a particular palette or feeling (calm, precise, bold, friendly)
- You want a clean, confident look without claiming a story you can't show
The risk with abstract imagery is blandness. Avoid the generic glowing-network or floating-handshake look that reads as filler. If you want to understand why some images feel cheap and others feel considered, what makes a website look professional instead of amateur walks through the difference, and where to find free images that don't look like stock covers how to dodge the most overused stock clichés.
Which option fits you
| Your situation | Best first choice | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| You have a phone and five minutes | A real casual photo of you | Honest, specific, irreplaceable |
| You make or repair something physical | Workspace or process shot | Shows the craft and the place |
| You sell a product | Product-in-use image | Tells buyers what they get |
| Service or software, little to photograph | Values-led / brand image | Sets a mood without a fake scene |
| You want a face but can't show yours yet | Workspace + strong copy | Keeps the page human, no pretending |
Using AI-generated people honestly
Picdrome's images, including its people, are AI-generated. That gives you a useful option for some sections of a site, and it comes with one firm rule for an About page.
An AI-generated person is not you. It is not your team. It is not a real customer. So on an About page, you must never:
- Caption an AI-generated face as yourself, a co-founder, or a staff member
- Place it under your own name or a real employee's name
- Imply, by layout or wording, that it is a genuine photo of a real person at your company
Doing any of that is a straightforward misrepresentation, and it tends to backfire the moment a visitor looks closely. Your About page is the one place where trust is the whole point, so a fake "founder" undermines exactly what the page is for.
This is why the casual phone photo keeps coming up. A real, ordinary picture of you is almost always better than a polished stranger standing in for you. AI people are not the default answer for an About page, they are a tool for the rare cases where a generic human figure is genuinely fine and clearly not posing as your team.
If you do use AI-generated imagery anywhere on your site and want to be transparent about it, see the AI image disclosure guidance for how to say so plainly.
Where AI people are fine
To keep this fair: AI-generated people are useful in plenty of non-About contexts. A generic figure in a hero illustration, an anonymous hand using a product, a crowd or background scene where no one is named or claimed as real. The line is simple. The moment an image stands in for a specific real person at your business, it has crossed into dishonest territory.
Licensing, in plain terms
Picdrome's images are free to use for personal and commercial website projects, subject to the Picdrome license terms. That covers using a workspace, process, or brand image on your About page. It does not give you permission to misrepresent an AI person as your real founder or team, which is an honesty issue on your side, not a licensing allowance.
A short worked example
Say you run a one-person bookkeeping service and dislike being photographed. Your About page could open with a warm, uncluttered desk scene of the kind described in workspace photos without the cliché, beside two short paragraphs in your own voice about how you work and who you help. Lower down, a calm brand-coloured band breaks up the text. No face, no fake founder, nothing claimed that isn't true. The page reads as a real person who would rather show their work than their face, which is itself honest and human.
Mistakes to avoid
- Dropping in an AI-generated face and presenting it as you or your team
- Choosing an abstract image so generic it could belong to any company
- Picking a busy image that fights with the text it sits next to
- Skipping a real phone photo because you assume you need a studio shot
- Leaving a grey placeholder because none of the "perfect" options exist
In Plain English
This post is a decision path for building an About page when you have no headshot of yourself and no team to photograph. It helps solo founders, freelancers, and small makers who feel their About page needs a face they don't have. Reach for it when you are staring at an empty image slot and want an honest fix fast. What to do: if you can, take a casual phone photo of yourself, because that real shot usually wins. If you can't or won't, use a workspace scene, a process shot, or a values-led brand image instead. Never caption an AI-generated person as you or your team, and if you use AI imagery, be transparent using the AI image disclosure guidance. To choose what fits, work through which image belongs on each page of your business website for the About section specifically.
Where to go next
- The full page-by-page guide: which image belongs on each page of your business website
- Choosing the scene: workspace photos without the cliché
- Avoid the stock-photo look: where to find free images that don't look like stock