Men's Hanbok Portraits

The men's hanbok register

The men's hanbok is Korean formal dress at its most composed — the durumagi coat over the jeogori, the goreum ribbon tied at the chest, the sheer black gat set on the crown. This pack puts you in it. Three looks carry the range: a jeogori and wide baji under an open off-white durumagi with a horsehair gat, in a hanok courtyard; a palace-register durumagi in deep indigo or burgundy against the painted dancheong eaves of Gyeongbokgung; and a clean colour-contrast hanbok — jeogori and baji, no coat, the colour blocks reading plainly — against a plain plaster wall. Each look is shot from three angles, so the nine portraits read like a real day in formal dress rather than the same photo nine times.

These are photographs, not paintings. The output is photoreal: your face and your features, dressed and lit like a portrait a Korean studio would take — soft directional light, the matte ramie of the durumagi, the crimson goreum bow, the gat's translucent horsehair brim sitting clear of your face. It borrows the cut of the garment and the grammar of the light; it does not turn you into a drama still, a painting, or a costume. The closer your upload sits to a clear, front-on photo, the sharper the likeness comes back.

How to photograph yourself for hanbok portraits

Good input, sharp result. The pack forgives an imperfect photo — the free preview shows you the result in seconds — but four small things help.

1. Soft, even lightFace a window with indirect daylight on you. Skip the overhead bulb and the hard noon sun — both flatten the face and kill the modeling the pack is built around.
2. Front or three-quarter, at eye levelHold the camera level with your eyes. No selfie up-angle, no looking down — the formal portrait register wants you square to the lens.
3. Plain wall behind youLet the pack build the hanok courtyard and the painted palace eaves. A clean backdrop means the whole likeness budget goes to your face.
4. Come as you areThe gat sits high on the crown with a translucent brim, nothing crossing the face — the pack keeps your facial hair and hairline, so upload the version of you that you want to see standing there.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between the free preview and the paid pack?

The preview is one hanbok portrait built from your photo, shown in seconds — a quick sketch, close but not you yet. To unlock the full pack you train your model: 12–20 photos, and we email you when your model is ready. From then on, every portrait — three looks (a durumagi-over-jeogori courtyard look, a palace-register durumagi, a clean colour-contrast hanbok), three angles each — renders from your model in about ten seconds.

Will it actually look like me?

That's the whole job. Upload one clear, front-facing photo and the pack keeps your face, your features, your skin and hair — then dresses them in the hanbok. The free preview shows you exactly how close the likeness is before you spend a cent.

Is this a genuine hanbok or a costume filter?

It's built to read as real Korean formal dress, not a party costume — the jeogori and goreum bow, the wide baji, the durumagi coat, the sheer horsehair gat, daylight on matte cloth. It borrows the register of a Korean studio portrait; it doesn't claim to reproduce one specific maker's piece. What you get looks like a photo a hanbok studio would take, not a sticker pasted over your selfie.

Can I use these as a profile picture, or print them?

Yes. The portraits are yours to post, print, and send — a profile photo, a framed print for the family, a portrait for a wedding or a holiday. They hold up at print resolution.

How is this different from Midjourney or a free AI photo app?

Midjourney will paint you a handsome man in a hanbok — just not you; it invents a face. The free face-swap apps keep your face but render it plastic, the goreum smeared and the gat melting. This pack does one narrow job well: your real likeness, in a real men's hanbok, photoreal, nine ways.

Do I need several photos, or is one enough?

One clear, front-facing photo is enough for your free preview — a couple of extra angles nudge that likeness a little closer too. To unlock the full pack, you train your model on 12–20 photos; that's what every portrait afterward renders from.

What if I only have a casual phone selfie?

Start with the free preview — it tells you in seconds whether the likeness lands. If it doesn't, the prep tips above are the quick fix, and it's almost always the lighting. One good photo beats five poor ones.

What happens to the photo I upload?

Your preview photo is processed on European servers. If you train a model, those 12–20 photos are used to train your model and nothing else — delete your model and they go with it. Never sold, never shared with third parties.

Do I have to be Korean to wear the hanbok?

No. The hanbok is worn with pride by Korean families at weddings and holidays and welcomed on the curious and the respectful alike — it's exactly why the rental shops line the palace gates in Seoul. The pack is built to honour the garment, not to mock it. Wear it with respect and it's yours to enjoy.

When the hanbok pack fits

• A wedding or pyebaek portrait — the durumagi and gat without the rental and the studio booking.
• A Seollal or Chuseok family portrait in full formal dress.
• Diaspora sons picturing themselves in the family's dress from a flat far from Seoul.
• Travellers who always meant to do the Gyeongbokgung hanbok photoshoot and never got the morning free.
• A profile picture with real character — the composure of a palace portrait rather than another snapshot.
• A gift for the K-drama or heritage enthusiast who would never book the studio himself.

About narcis

Most AI portrait tools ship every pose, profession, era, and aesthetic in one giant catalog. The output looks like every other AI photo on the internet — a glaze over a stock face. Narcis goes the other way. One tool, one job: turn photos of you into portraits worth keeping. Drop a selfie and your free preview streams in seconds — a quick sketch: close, not you yet. For portraits that are truly you, train your own model on 12 to 20 photos; it trains in the background, and we email you when it is ready. Train once, render everywhere — this pack, every other pack, and the Studio all come out of that one model, about ten seconds a portrait, and it stays yours to retrain or delete. Each pack is hand-curated against actual references — paintings, photographers, registers — and tested on real faces before it ships. See a free preview before you pay, not after. Packs are one-time — no subscription to buy one; Studio, the unlimited composer, is optional at €12/month and every pack includes 30 days of it. No template generator. Built and run by one team, on our own infrastructure.