Adobe Firefly

[Tywais]

Has anyone tried the new Adobe (beta) Firefly - Regenerative AI? What are your thoughts on it regarding the future of photography?

 

[hardtop_winkle]

I played with it yesterday. I captured a couple osprey failing to make a nest on an electrical pole. In this image, I missed focus a little when I tried to frame the image at the end while still using C-AF in the center (I had been tracking the bird in). Ultimately the image was not as sharp as I would have liked and was poorly framed. I could have cropped in if it were sharp, but alas, that wasn't an option. So I played with Firefly instead and was pleased with the result.

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To your question, Firefly reinforces my previous thinking on the direction we are on with AI.

Image creation/content is becoming increasingly accessible and cheap. My understanding is that this (AI generation of content) would severely impact stock photography if it weren't already dead. Consumers are still left to choose between photography or another visual medium. In the past, (aside from photography) they could have adorned their walls with drawings, paintings, and various other arts, many of which pre-dated photography. In the short term, folks are still going to want to have portraits of themselves and their pets. They are still going to desire images that capture important moments of their lives. Or legit images of their products. Or their homes/office spaces. In these instances, AI has the potential to help the photographer clean up an image or furnish a room more cheaply, but - for now - the need for a photograph from a photographer continues. I don't think it will be long, however, before the professional photographer is no longer required.

I am thinking about food photography, for instance. Right now, to the best of my knowledge, there is no way for a consumer to capture a poorly-lit image of a dinner plate with a mobile device and click a button to make it look like it was expertly lit with off camera lighting. That said, we are already seeing AI at work with artificial lighting for portraiture on our mobile devices. As the technology matures, so too will its strength/power, accessibilty, flexibility, and usability. I suspect we are not too far away from having sliders for height, angle, softness, and diffusion of multiple light sources in a single image.

Pulling back a bit, the concerns about the impact of deep fakes in a post-truth world are very real, especially in the context of news/informational media. I will be interested to see if people begin to use their social media feed less for news as deep fakes become more ubiquitous, bringing reputable news organizations back to the fore. I am also keen to see how news organizations certify their content to ensure it is authentic. I like the idea of what the AP is working on with a block chain approach, if not for my concerns re the block chain and green/effecient energy consumption.

Ultimately, though, it doesn't do much for folks who do what I do. I am an enthusiast. Photography for me is a personal pursuit. It is my woodcraft, or needle-point, or cooking. Yes, folks can become artisan woodcrafters, make money from needle-point on Etsy, or become professional chefs, but most folks just do it because it is fun, or cathartic, or challenging, or ... whatever tickles or motivates them to do what it is that they like to do. In this manner, photography (in many instances) is still special: it gives humans the ability to capture a visual representation of authentic moment that they experienced in a specific space, a moment that has never happened and won't ever happen again. That is still pretty cool.

And as for the image I crafted above, and no, I don't think anyone could ever tell if I posted it to FB or IG. It was interesting to play with and a compelling Photoshop exercise, but all I see when I look at the image is a series of photographic mistakes, less than ideal circumstances, or opportunites for improvement. Still, I have a series of images on my hard drive that I can look back on, and that is really neat.

 

[The Dunster]

I'd much prefer the original image with a half stop or so more exposure - and leave it at that.
The colours in the AI image don't look even remotely close to natural nor does the light.
Ultimately though two Ospreys in one pic, one landing while being acknowledged by the other is great. Then we have the nesting materials and the messy construction to look at as well - it's really a wonderful scene without the AI because it tells a story.
Sharpness and so on mean nothing without a story.