photobyjohnbo

Lens-Artists Challenge #302 – Artificial Intelligence and Photography

President Reagan and Josh share a joke.

For this week’s challenge, we ask you to share your thoughts and images on a controversial subject – the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in your photographs. The amount of editing photographers use has been discussed for years, with controversy growing since the proliferation of AI.  From before the release of Photoshop in 1987, the extent to which photos could be manipulated has steadily improved – to the point where, today, an image can be completely computer-generated. This week, we’d like to explore that topic specifically.

In 2002, while working on a graphic arts degree, my son, Josh, created a photograph demonstrating image manipulation to emulate a newspaper photograph. He inserted himself into a newspaper photograph of President Ronald Reagan and Queen Elizabeth, using only Photoshop and two pictures. Today, applications like Photoshop, MidJourney, Firefly, and others can create photorealistic images using only text descriptions.

Reporters have been fired over minor modifications of newsworthy photographs made with only basic editing tools, never mind the use of AI. Generally, those who subscribe to Lens-Artists do not claim to be journalists and often edit an image to better conform to our artistic vision. The question for today is to what extent AI makes the work something other than photography and at what point should it be identified as such.

Pinnacles National Park Altered.

The image above of Pinnacles Park was captured on a cloudy day, but some peaks and valleys of the pinnacles were getting extra light. I found a more dynamic sky in my library and used Luminar Neo’s Sky Replacement tool. Does sky replacement constitute AI, or is it a simple edit? To what degree have I manipulated the image, and should I include a note to that effect in my text?

Converting vertical to square format.

In September 2023, we visited the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco, Texas. I captured a vertical image of this statue near the entrance. Have you ever realized you cropped too closely in-camera when you got home and reviewed your photos? Photoshop’s Generative Expand came to my rescue, but not without much editing work.

The original format is on the left. It took a couple of iterations to see a creation I liked. One tip for using Generative Expand, or Luminar Neo’s GenExpand AI tool, is to make the additional area beyond the crop larger than you would like. I wanted a square format, so I elongated the crop wider than necessary. That allowed me to determine how much of the newly added image to crop and make it square. If you look closely, you’ll notice that my final edit omitted some of the sky in the original (as well as the light posts.}.

Another World.

For this article, I created an image background using only AI.  I started with a royalty-free image of a woman and generated a background using Luminar Neo’s GenSwap tool. My prompt was “Ancient ruins on sand and desert background in haze backlit by a large moon.” I tried to get Neo to generate a round moon, but it always generated an oval moon. In one attempt, it generated two moons. That became the background I chose. I added a light source outside the right edge of the image and appropriate shadows to match the light on the model’s face.

Desert scene altered by Generative fill.

The image above, which I haven’t published before, features an example of Photoshop’s Generative Fill tool. It is a desert scene with a road bisecting the extreme right of the picture. I masked the road on the right and carried the mask to the bottom left. In the prompt, I entered the text “raging river,” and Photoshop gave me three versions. This was my favorite option.

We recognize that not everyone is interested in AI editing tools. Either way, we invite you to share your images with or without AI and ask you to let us know your opinion on its use. What are your thoughts on what constitutes AI vs. enhanced editing, i.e., tools like sky replacement, removal of distractions, replacement of backgrounds, etc, vs. total creation of an image? At what point (if any) should we identify the use of AI? Except for experimental purposes, I don’t expect to create fully AI images for my blog, but if I do, you will see my admission to that fact in the caption or text.

I will close by asking you to comment on the following two images. One is a photo of a sunset in the Gulf of Mexico. The other is an AI-generated image created in Photoshop with the text prompt, “Sunset over the ocean with an island peninsula.” It took maybe six attempts to end up with similar images. I’d love to see your guess as to which is which. So as not to spoil the surprise, I will update the post with the solution on Thursday.

Image A.
Image B.

Edit: I promised a reveal and found it quite interesting that the majority picked the AI image as real. Image A is the original captured by my Samsung S23U off the coast of Naples, Florida. I did very little editing on this image, but it is not “straight out of the camera.”

In addition to the HD versions of the photos here, I’ve included some other images that use Artificial Intelligence on my Flickr site here. I look forward to reading your comments and posts regarding artificial intelligence and its application to those of us who consider ourselves lens artists.

Last week, we saw many signs of spring in posts featuring Sofia’s theme, Floral. Donna will host the challenge next week. If you’d like to participate in the challenge responses each week but aren’t sure how to get started, check here.

John Steiner

127 comments

  1. Ok..so this one needs a bit of desk work 🙂. Controversial but a good topic. I’ll be back with my post soon 🙂. The image of your son is really funny 😀.

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  2. Before I forget I am going to guess Image A is AI. Not really sure how to tell.

    Now for my thoughts. This was outstanding, John.As I said in my post, my hat is off to you and you get a standing ovation from me. This is a tough topic to tiptoe into and I think you made it fun and interesting.I always learn from you and this week was no different. I loved the approach you brought to all of us, and your images are fantastic. I especially adore the feature of your son photoshopped into it. I appreciate your Waco image and how with simple edits it can be made better. And how interesting was the desert scene with the river? Well done. I look forward to see what others come up with. I am sure you do too.

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  4. What a timely theme. We are definitely on the cusp of this technology. Leanne and I had a conversation about this when a blogger who uses AI exclusively, asked to be an occasional host of Monochrome Madness. Although neither of us are particularly comfortable with it, we see it as something that will only gain in popularity. We likened it to the days of film vs. digital or full sized cameras vs. cell phones and with a attitude of open mindedness, invited the blogger to join us.

    Oh…and my guess is image A is the AI.

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    • AI is really in the news these days, and the powerful tools available will only get more powerful as time goes on.

      I’m going to wait until Thursday and edit the post to identify the AI image so as not to spoil the surprise.

      Reply

  5. I’m going for A as AI too. I’m impressed by your knowledge of photo editing and willingness to experiment, John, but I doubt I’ll be a convert in the near future. I shall stand by and applaud. 🤗🩵

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  11. John, I enjoyed this post and I thank you for explaining how your created the images. I pick “A” as the AI produced photo. The other one looks too perfect. I think you may have me stumped with this challenge. I’ve never used AI to create anything so I’m going to have to give it a lot of thought.

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    • Thanks, Beth. If you have Photoshop or another AI product, give the tool a try, just for fun. See what you can come up with. Answer to the AI vs real image on Thursday in an edit to the post.

      Reply

  12. Well John – this is a very good and timely challenge. We need more discussions about AI, and You are the perfect guide – so, I will try something new! I just love photography…but use PS and Lightroom to do some enhancements, I think many of us do. Let’s see what I can try for more of AI…

    And I think maybe A is AI made? More elaborate than B.

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    • It’s already been fun to read the comments. I expect responses will be a bit slower than usual due to the more complex nature of the challenge. I am looking forward to seeing more and reading the comments.

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  14. I guess it’s a bit hypocritical when I say I don’t like AI (often too smooth, too perfect, just generally too anything!) but at the same time I dabble in photo editing, from the simple cropping, to adjusting light and possibly colour, changing to monochrome and sometimes the use of an artistic filter. But I’ve seen so many photos that are so different that there is little to no similaritiy anymore to the original and I don’t like it. I also can’t do it so there is possibly some AI-envy.

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    • I know what you mean. I’ve been guilty of too much editing, AI or not, but as I’ve matured in the hobby, I like to think those over-edits are fewer than they used to be.
      Thanks for taking the time to comment. I’m looking forward to seeing your response, whether or not your images are from AI edits. 🙂

      Reply

      • I finally got my contribution together. It’s a bit of a cop out, I admit, but I’m currently battling a different kind of AI (more A, less I) because on Monday an interactive whiteboard showed up in my classroom. The whiteboard is pretty self-explanatory, at least in the basic usage but loading down the teaching material from the publisher is driving me batty and eating up my time.

      • When I was still working for the school district, I helped a few teachers get set up with white boards in the late 1990s. They were far beyond the capabilities of many, but those who really wanted one persevered and made them work. Truth be told, I struggled to get some of them connected to the computers we were using at the time.

      • Good for you! My first training on a whiteboard was 15 years ago. But: I was never allowed to use it (I was only a “guest” teacher and the “proper” teachers were worried that they would have to share their own (personal) computers with anybody). Since 2016 I’ve been teaching German to (mostly) refugees and it takes time to get the resources but we’re SLOWLY getting there.

  15. Great post. I think B is AI. I do dabble with the free versions od a couple of AI model. The allure wore off after a few months when i got tired of repetitive themes and images, lack of individuality, and the inability to truly control what the AI creates.

    I do hate it when articles and AI sites refer to generated images as photographs. There is something lacking in an AI image that purports to be a photograph. A spark of life is missing.

    At the same time, for me, photo editing such as sky replacement, which predates AI, also takes away from the definition of a photograph.

    I recently saw an image of the Sphinx in Egypt that was being sold as a stock photo, not AI, but the background pyramids were in the wrong place. So I guess the argument can go either way.

    Hope to submit but traveling.

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    • Thanks, Marie. You’ve pinpointed what I also find about AI. As I noted in the post, I have little use for creating AI images. Why did I spend all that money on cameras only to make computer pictures? 🙂
      That’s not to say that I am above using some of the AI tools to improve my images. I will always note that in my posts in the interest of journalistic integrity.

      Reply

  16. This is a memorable post, John. I will be looking forward to reading the replies you have. As for the last photos, I think the original image you captured is Image A.

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    • Thanks, Egidio. The comments have been enlightening. I hope to encourage people to share some images, AI-enhanced or not and to share their feelings with their audiences.

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  17. This is one tough challenge Johnbo. I will give it a try but I am not sure if I can produce an entry by the end of it haha. Don’t even know where to start.
    I am guessing that B is AI since everyone voted A … just to be different.

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  21. Great example in this post, John, but I might give this challenge a miss.

    Other than a few minor tweaks or crops, I prefer (in general) to see nature and the outdoors as it is in a photo, or close to as is. Since I’m extremely short-sighted and have astigmatism, I can’t see well through the viewfinder and I tend to leave the white balance on Auto (to be rectified if necessary on my computer), inevitably I have to tweak the jpeg images a wee bit. I don’t call this AI, I call it fixing what I can’t actually see, or lacking in skill with my DSLR settings and menu.

    It wasn’t until I started doing Zoo photography that I leaned how to hold a camera still (to get one focal point through the cage wire) and end up with a bird image with no cage wire criss-crossing it.

    Reply

    • Let me encourage you to post your thoughts on your blog to share them with your readers. We left the challenge open to those who aren’t fans of AI, or who otherwise edit mostly in camera or minimally on a computer or smart phone.
      You are free to share whatever images fit with your comments, AI edited or not.
      Thanks for taking the time to comment here, Vicki.

      Reply

  22. A very thorough and interesting appraisal of AI. It’s early days, but AI tends to produce rather schmaltzy images, maybe more of use to the advertising industry. I like your images so much better.

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    • I certainly understand that there are many who aren’t into AI. That’s why I crafted the challenge to be more about lens-artists thoughts on the topic rather than images chosen so people can share their style of photography whether or not they include AI enhancements.

      Reply

  27. […] John is our hero this week for tackling a controversial and rapidly-evolving development in photography. He is challenging us to experiment with AI. For those of you who use any of the Adobe programs, I’m sure you’ve been stunned, like me, with the speed of development of AI tools. Even WordPress is getting into the game by offering 3 AI tools: a review of a post before publishing; creating a photo to accompany your post, and improving the title of the post. I’ve experimented a bit with AI and would like to share some of my early experiments. […]

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  31. As I said in my post, you’re our hero this week for doing such a great job with this topic. Your post gives us all many ideas and tools for experimenting. I’m going to go against the crowd and say Photo B is AI generated. Why? I thought the sun’s reflections on the water were too uniform to be real. Don’t worry! I’m fully prepared to be wrong on this one! Here’s a link to my post. Sorry that yours didn’t appear in the Reader. From my experience, it could show up later!

    https://pilotfishblog.com/2024/06/02/lens-artists-challenge-302-artificial-intelligence-photography/

    Reply

  32. Wow, this is so interesting, John! I appreciate your examples (particularly, your son’s), and I can see where using AI could be fun and useful. For example, “Another World” could be a cool book cover for a sci-fi novel 🙂 I don’t have a problem with photographers using AI as long as they acknowledge it. The Lens-Artists team is wonderful in how they explain any post-editing they use for their photographs. I need to be more mindful of that although I generally limit editing to cropping or brightening, but I’m learning a lot from all of you.

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  38. I should be able to join you with something this Wednesday, John! AI-generation for creating and editing is fun (I tackled this subject last February). I admit that I cannot tell the difference between the two images you shared. I also appreciated how you demonstrated editing with AI in your editing program.

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  41. Thank you for the interesting challenge this week, John. You gave us much to ponder and consider when it comes to using AI in photography. I was inspired to give it a try with the new tools that come with my Microsoft editing tool. The free tool is not spectacular, IMHO. Here’s my take on the prompt.

    https://www.quaintrevival.com/my-recipe-for-photography-inspired-by-the-view-through-our-kitchen-window/

    To answer your question for today is to what extent AI makes the work something other than photography and at what point should it be identified as such.

    Hmm…I think there’s a fine line of when it’s okay and when it crosses a boundary, except I can’t quite articulate it well. Photo-editing to enhance like you’ve done in your photo examples seem appropriate to me. Even your son’s photo is the same as you can tell how it isn’t original to the event. Kind of like memes. The sunset photos – I’d say the first one is AI because the shoreline doesn’t quite look right to me, not sure why? It’ll be fun to see the reveal!

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  44. A topic after my own heart, so I have a long post today: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2024/06/03/to-the-brave-billion/

    I like your examples. AI is a tool like any other tool that we use. It is based on certain flexible statistical models which may therefore look like magic when it works. As it does in your generative fill examples.

    As for your question, I think Image B is AI generated. That pattern of waves looks suspect to me. Also Image A has an imperfection: the sun has created a little smudge of light on the surface of the lens which you can see just below the palms. But this could also be deliberately used by an AI generator to spoof a real lens.

    Reply

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