The Spellcheck of Photography
To continue the discussion on AI and photography, I think the shot’s creativity comes from the photographer. Like Paul Simon, I have a Nikon camera and I take photographs. Back in 1973, when he wrote that song, Photoshop didn’t exist. Neither did mirrorless cameras. In the darkroom, you did Photoshop. You processed your film in darkness and threw it into a chemical bath.
Everything was timed. A little shorter or longer would change your image. That was about as AI as it got. Jump ahead to 1990, when Photoshop was first released for the Mac. A whole new world of photo editing opened. I know some who do not believe in any edits. Berengo Gardin, the master of photojournalism, who shot with a Leica, believed editing was fine for advertising and fashion. But not for news. He never cropped or manipulated his images. He stamped the back of images with “Vera Fotografia” (True Photography).
Jump ahead to today’s world. Everything is edited. Apps on your iPhone can edit what you shoot. They sit on mine. I haven’t used them in years. I consider my phone shots quickies. Phones do take terrific shots. However, they cannot beat the depth of a mirrorless or DSLR camera. Adobe’s Lightroom and Photoshop tools have added AI.
It is a breath of fresh air. The new features are a pleasure. Remember, you still need to take the best picture you can. Meaning, use the right lens, ISO and F-Stop settings. I used Adobe’s Pre-AI suite to remove shaving cuts from someone’s face and remove fences from pictures of animals in zoos. I don’t like them being there. So, removing the fence makes them look free. I know they are not. I have touched up bodies of water and the sky.
In the old days, taking out shaving cuts and/or removing fences, be it at the zoo or the ones around the planes at the USS Intrepid, could have removed part of the person’s face, the wolf’s teeth, or the propeller on the USCG chopper. You had to be very careful with your brushes in Photoshop. The remove feature wasn’t like it is today. Now you can use AI to remove these things, and it recognizes that someone’s face is very close to the cuts. It realizes you likely want to keep what is behind the fence in full. Denoising photos falls into the same playbook. AI can sharpen your photos.
I don’t like all the new features. I am not sure they are fully ready. But they are there. If you’re willing to toy around and put in the time, you will find many will enhance your photo and make it much better. Microsoft launched Word in 1983. It did not add spell check until 1985. For two years, we had to proofread ourselves. Now we set it to auto, and it cleans up our documents.
Photoshop is a tool to clean up your pictures. Now that it has added AI, it is no different than how Word evolved. Technology will keep evolving, and it is up to us to evolve with it.
Mitchell's thoughts, photos, etc. 