Not All AI Is Equal
I’ve recently been questioned about the legitimacy of some of my photography. This caught me off guard as I never “use AI” in my images. Then, it hit me; maybe I do!
What I’m Not Doing
The AI that I despise is the AI that is seemingly effortlessly bluring the lines between what is real and what is not. For example:
Take the above image: there's nothing real about this image. Nobody drove six hours from home, climbed around off-road, nor hiked to the scene, despite the elements, to take this image. This scene does not exist in this world.
Some keyboard warrior created this image and guess what, the general individual on social media seems to love it! More about that in another rant. I digress…
Back to my image…
My image was tagged with the AI Info tag. (See the highlighted area in the image above.) This is FBs way of attempting to warn the viewer that what they are seeing contains AI generated content. On the surface, I’ve got no problem with that. Tho, scratch a bit deeper and there is a slight problem.
What I Am Doing
I removed a passing vehicle from my image using Generative AI. I think I also removed a road sign; they are gross. Now, I could have been lazy and removed them with other tools, but the Gen AI tool often works well and is quick. I also had other options.
I could have waited on the car to simply pass by. If you've ever 1) seen the traffic at Garden Of The Gods, 2) missed a rainbow because it faded away, or 3) taken a 12-image pano, then you may understand why I chose to simply shoot the shot with the vehicle in it and remove it in post-processing.
In Conclusion
I hiked in the pouring rain and stood in the rain for over an hour all in the hopes that the rainbow that you see in the image would show. It was a gamble and this time I won. So many times before I’ve lost. The nice thing is, even when I lose I win. Just look at my office! 😀
Ps - Thank you to those who reached out to me questioning both the AI Label and my use of AI. Know this, if I use AI, it is out of convenience not necessity.
- Faz 👋
