The header shot is a “pure” Artificial Intelligence photo! It began with a blank page in Adobe PhotoShop. The page was selected by the Lasso Tool and AI Contextual Task Bar Tool was instructed to create an “ocean background sea oats foreground”. And this is what was created!
For this week John has suggested we explore Artificial Intelligence techniques found in various software programs such as Adobe PhotoShop and others. Some software programs have had AI editing around for several years and is regularly used to remove digital noise, distractive objects and enhancing details. I use it in this context along with Dodge and Burning Tools when posting images on the internet or sharing with others. I have not used AI’s Contextual Task Bar much in Photoshop so it was fun playing around with it for this photo challenge.
For the challenge I selected this photo from several years ago showing an old house atop a cliff in Kennebunkport, Maine (left side). I decided to replace the background and sky using the Adobe’s PhotoShop AI Contextual Task Bar Tool. Interestingly, a few months ago I stumbled on another picture of this house on the internet and thought it would be fun to use AI to make my photo look similar to that one. (Be sure to click each image to see details.)
This is my finished version of the old cliff house which was built in 1915.
To re-edit this, the Lasso Tool was used to direct AI where to make the various background changes. After selecting an area AI is given a written instruction like add “ocean water” to remove the cliff on the bottom right, “Yellowish clouds” above the water line, next “clouds with flying birds”, the last was adding additional “yellow clouds” on the left side. Overall, I think AI did a good job. For example, deleting part of the cliff to add ocean water or adding clouds turned out fine. Although, the flying birds could be smaller in size but I was unable to adjust them.
In this picture below, I wanted to show the fishman catching something so the AI request was “fish splashing in water”. There were not any suitable fish images although the splashing water turned out well! The sky was also replaced using PS’s Sky Replacement editing tool instead of asking AI for help.
The original photographer’s picture below was taken on a golf course but it did not have the space needed for a subject. Extra space was created using PS’s crop/generative expand tool. Then AI was instructed to provide a “galloping horse” for the subject. It took several attempts to get one that worked because trees in the background created some interference with most of the design.
AL is being talked about and seen more and more in connection with photography. Just recently on the internet, I viewed a couple of exhibits by professional photographers. They identified their work as having been altered or digitally edited. One person identified her series of birds as “The Envisioning Habitat An Altered Reality Series”. The birds featured looked lovely and realistic although I thought the AI backgrounds were surreal looking.
The other photographer, whose pictures were very good and realistic looking, described his work as “artography”, a word I needed to look! The definition: ”artography” is a unique blend of digitally manipulated photography and design. Photos are captured, edited, and creatively blended through layers and textures in digital software.” How many of us create “artography” to some degree? I know I tend to when using PhotoShop and Topaz software programs.
As a reminder, be sure to read John’s thoughts about the use of Artificial Intelligence in photography and see his great examples. Click here for his post, photobyjohnbo.
In closing, this is a favorite quote which seems fitting concerning the use of AI designs in Photography.
“Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.” – Don McCullin