Cheating with Photography?
Photography
Images, Social Media and Native Marketing Part 2
Software Folder dot Design | Business +
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Does using artificial intelligence for editing photos diminish the integrity of the artist?
With the emergence of AI Photo Editing technology comes the inevitable question concerning artist integrity.
This is especially where a number of photographers, photo artists and the “purist” in us believe that the use of Artificial Intelligence takes away the creative challenge that differentiates a good artist from another. Something like that…
In short, some would say that; photo editing that uses artificial intelligence is cheating! But, what do you think?
What makes a good photo?
In my opinion, I feel that because people need to have some way of measuring in order to validate something, a facet of the human ‘characteristic’ kicks-in, and uses the perceived labour, skills, cleverness or expertise that may have gone into creating a piece of artwork, as a way of determining its worthiness for reward or praise.
However, this is not necessarily a reliable way of assessing what constitutes as a good photographic piece.
Photo editing short-cuts? Obviously Cheating…
Maybe not obviously, however, cheating has always been part of photography. Besides, what makes a good photo? The process, the context, or the artwork we see at the end of the day?
Meanwhile, whilst the perception of ‘cheating’ is valid. Isn’t the very action of digitally editing an original photo also cheating?
After all, do you remember processing and printing your own black and white photos?
Photography has always included some degree of cheating and especially with artwork used for commercial purposes. Even if you were to date back to the heydays of black and white photography, there were elements of cheating involved along the process. Take dodging and burning for example.
And whilst this may well have caused scornful reactions at the time. Well, over time the technique has survived, and even finds its digital incarnation as a common tool with todays most popular photo editing software.
So, whilst the perception of ‘cheating’ is valid. Isn’t the very action of digitally editing an original photo also cheating?
So, how does AI work with Photo Editing?
Basically, AI used with Photo Editing software simply eradicates the need for undergoing the laborious tasks that typically, as a professional photographer, you would either do yourself, or hand over to a “digital artist” to edit for you.
Nowadays, it’s far easier for even photographers with little to no digital editing skills to single-handedly complete photographic projects in less time. AI can help achieve this in a number of ways.
Portrait Photography is a good case for the use of Artificial Intelligence.
With the capability for recognising faces, portrait photography is a great example of where Artificial Intelligence can really play a valid role. Especially when, conventional editing would require a number of trial and error steps, including masking, cloning, using multiple layers, maybe, and other tricks. AI allows you to instantly, or rather, short-cut your way to editing the specific areas of the portrait photo you wish to tweak.
AI Photo Editors will not answer every case…
Now, whilst AI does help with simplifying the photo editing process, that is not to say, that you will not encounter the odd occasion where you’ll need to go through a number of steps before of trial and error before accomplishing the look you are after. Just as you would normally and regardless of the process.
So much so, that before launching and editing using AI technology, you may even find that you get better defined results by first making specific edits to your image using software you are already familiar with, such as Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo, (By the way, Adobe Photoshop also uses AI).
How does AI work with Photo Editing?
Basically, AI used with Photo Editing software simply eradicates the need for undergoing the laborious tasks that typically, as a professional photographer, you would either do yourself, or hand over to a “digital artist” to edit for you.
Nowadays, it’s far easier for even photographers with little to no digital editing skills to single-handedly complete photographic projects in less time. AI can help achieve this in a number of ways.
Portrait Photography is a good case for AI use
With the capability for recognising faces, portrait photography is a great example of where Artificial Intelligence can really play a valid role. Especially when, conventional editing would require a number of trial and error steps, including masking, cloning, using multiple layers, maybe, and other tricks. AI allows you to instantly, or rather, short-cut your way to editing the specific areas of the portrait photo you wish to tweak.
AI Photo Editors will not answer every case…
Now, whilst AI does help with simplifying the photo editing process, that is not to say; that you will not encounter the odd occasion where you’ll need to go through a trial and error process of elimination in order to accomplish what you want.
This is something that the new Luminar AI aims at providing busy creators with – something that get you where you want to go faster. However, this will not always be the case, not for every single photo.
This is where you may even find that by first preparing your images in Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo may help in yielding better, crispier results when editing with Luminar. It all really depends on the quality of your image.
I suppose this is one of the reasons why some pro photographers and photo-artists use Luminar as a plugin, rather than a standalone app.
You can learn more about AI technology and the new Luminar AI at the Skylum website, or check out our previously covered versions from our Skylum 101 contents page.
So, after all that, what do you think;
Does using artificial intelligence for editing images diminish the integrity of the artist?
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