August Photography Thoughts!

Updated: Oct 18, 2023

AI in the photography business?

One of the most talked about issues world-wide is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Many experts believe that A! will become part of our life within the next decade.

Photographers are wondering how AI will affect the livelihood. Most imaging software is already using AI to help speed up the process. In this regard AI is helping the photographer work faster and get better results.

Like many innovations in life and work, we are hesitant to fully embrace A! Will it be a help or a hinderance? Can we still be creative with AI or will it override our vison?

Remember, that since the origins of Photography, photographers have manipulated photographs starting in the darkrooms with "Dodging and Burning."

Dodging and Burning are terms used in photography for a technique used during the printing process to manipulate the exposure of select areas on a photographic print, deviating from the rest of the image's exposure. In a darkroom print from a film negative, Dodging decreases the exposure for areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be lighter, while Burning increases the exposure to areas of the print that should be darker.

Could AI be the natural evolution in photography? AI will not ruin the natural art and expression of photography. It has allowed Smartphone Photographers to achieve better photos.

Let's not forget that Smartphones already are using AI to help with it's camera functions. These A! programs help your Smartphone Camera identify "Facial Recognition", "Depth of Field" in Portrait Mode, and the Smartphones built in "Photo Editing Software."

Camera Manufacturers have been adding "Facial Recognition" for a few years now. Let's not forget about AI auto focus and image stabilization. All the cameras programable modes such as Aperture Priority, and Shutter Priority have been enhanced by AI.

We must make clear distinction between the assistance of using AI as a tool embedded into photo editing software which can help enhance your work and cut your editing time in half, compared with the entirely different AI image generators which use text-to-image models to create "entirely new" works of art based on existing works from sourced content.

I found this great video by Sal Cincotta "Could AI End Your Photography Career"

Is AI going to make photographers obsolete?

AI is not taking over from photographers but rather augmenting their capabilities. AI algorithms can automate certain aspects of the photographic process, such as image enhancement, object recognition, and even composition suggestions.

AI adds a new layer to traditional photo editing software by taking repetitive, manually intensive tasks, learning what we want and helping us achieve it more easily. Complex work is performed more quickly and automation reduces human error, leaving us with more time and space to dream, experiment and attain superior results1.

However, AI-generated images could start to replace photographs in very specific areas, like lifestyle stock imagery. And since the technology can be used to transform photos as well as to create images from scratch, it might start to become part of photography workflows for more professionals2.

So, while AI is not taking over photography completely, it is definitely changing the way we approach it.

AI is changing photography as the line between reality and fiction becomes more blurred, but it isn't going to kill the camera yet. People are still going to want genuine images of people, places, products, events and more, and AI can't create an image of anything that hasn't already been depicted in photography or illustration.

Let's look at Photography as an automobile, we can choose a manual transmission and do the work of changing gears while driving. Or we can choose an automatic transmission and eliminate the step of changing gears while driving.

I found this great article about AI in Photography: "How Photographers Use Artificial Intelligence." by Daniel Wright

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"Dictionary Of Photography Terms" is a great article by Chris George The ultimate dictionary to photographic terms, jargon, abbreviations and acronyms.

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I am just wondering if Artificial Intelligence can capture the emotion in these images?