"Photography is dead" (AI), Peter McKinnon's latest video. Is it??

[stillviking]

"Photography is dead" (AI), Peter McKinnon's latest video, officially opened an identity crisis for me for the 2nd time in my life.

I always loved photography and all my free time was for photography and related to photography.

Then I was lucky to be a contributor to a sports magazine (not a newspaper, a magazine that sought to show the beauty of sports) for a few years. With the digital, the magazine closed and no one else cared to know anymore. It was the first time I felt lost, that was really what I liked, beautiful sports pictures. I sold all my photographic material and spent 2/3 years without knowing what to do with my life and identity.

3 years ago, I regained my passion for photography and found myself again, inspired by the "outdoor photographers" I saw on social media, I gained new courage and wanted to show how beautiful nature was and live for photography. I bought all the material again and started to travel and walk on trails looking for the best landscapes and lights, with all the joy and frustration when the result was not what was intended.

Now, watching Peter McKinnon's "photography is dead" video, I have a crisis again and want to sell everything. I just don't sell it because I think to myself "who am I if I'm not in love with photography?".

AI came to ruin all of this, and all my dreams of showing the beauty of nature again seem to make less and less sense. Today there are millions of images on the internet and now with AI everything will be fake to make everything even better and more perfect, with 0 skills involved. So why am I spending money and investing, carrying 10kg of photographic material on my back, buying filters, etc. if with a crude cell phone photograph or software (like Midjourney in the future) plus with Adobe Generate Fill everything is created in seconds perfect and images much more appealing to all people?

Honestly, I need your help and your opinion on how AI is devaluing photography to death to the point of completely demotivating taking pictures. Any mediocre photograph looks fantastic with these edits.. I don't know why I'm upset anymore. The problem is that I've always loved photography too much, and I can't let go because I'm lost without it, it's part of me since ever.

 

[stillviking]

I don't think it's photography anymore bue people will act as it is, no doubts. And lots of it will be like "look how good photographer I am" just manipulating images on softwares.

 

[Del Paso]

Do you still recall the time when so-called creative filters were in fashion? I think we all gave them a try ot two.
Star filters, sunset filters, degraded ones etc...
Photographers - and painters- have always played with distorted (or should I say improved?) reality. If people want to add lakes or dinosaurs, why not! It's their photography, not mine. I don't like AI's excesses? Who cares...
As long as pictures remain pictures and not means of coaxing people into believing untruth.

 

[Rocky]

I was scanning ( digtizing) ALL my old Photograph and Color Slides dating back 60 years. what I have found is Phtoshop ( AI??) is extremely valueable. It make quite a few not so good images to be very good. So this is a case and point that AI's is useful when it is needed. As for phtograpphy is dead, I may not agree. AI will help create better picture. Yes it is not "pure" phtography. But it is the end result that counts. Ansel Adam took a picture and spends hours in the darkroom (including choose the right phot paper) to come up with stunning picture. For me that is kind of AI (in his head). Now we can use photoshop and much much easier and faster.
If you want "pure phtography", you need to take color slides. no cropping, no adjustment. What you see is what you got.

 

[AlanF]

Here's another simple trick with Photoshop AI - expanding the borders of an image. I have just posted in the BIF thread a Cormorant flying fast and close in front of me, and it was difficult to keep the bird in frame. The one I posted was successful, and I cropped it to my satisfaction https://www.canonrumors.com/forum/t...ur-bif-photos-here.19270/page-350#post-968268
Another one had the bird too close to the bottom left, but using generative fill, I could easily add extra background and then crop (can't complain about the sharpness of the R100-500 in the extreme corner of the R5!).

Before:


Expanded the left and bottom borders and then crop (both reduced in size):

 

[neuroanatomist]

Here's another simple trick with Photoshop AI - expanding the borders of an image.

Depending on the background, that was relatively simple in PS even before generative fill. When I got a new monitor several years ago, I had a few images I wanted to use as wallpapers (I typically have 5 desktops/spaces on my Macs). The display is 5K:2K, with an aspect ratio of 21:9. Here's an example:



The original is uncropped, and was shot with the 1D X and 70-200/2.8 II. The red tail decided to have lunch on our fence post.

 

[AlanF]

Depending on the background, that was relatively simple in PS even before generative fill. When I got a new monitor several years ago, I had a few images I wanted to use as wallpapers (I typically have 5 desktops/spaces on my Macs). The display is 5K:2K, with an aspect ratio of 21:9. Here's an example:

View attachment 210688

The original is uncropped, and was shot with the 1D X and 70-200/2.8 II. The red tail decided to have lunch on our fence post.

How do we know the Red Tail was really there and you did not use AI? I just told PS to conjure me up a fence plus post. The post was too high so I used generative fill to cut it down, then used AI to put a hawk on it.

 

[Kit.]

As for forensic photography - I think this is one area where AI should be used, but with caution. If AI can be used up upscale a grainy surveillance camera image with a high probability of being reasonably accurate, then why not do this?

Then you wouldn't want to be a person whose image was used for training of both upscaling and face recognition AIs.

 

[Kit.]

How do we know the Red Tail was really there and you did not use AI? I just told PS to conjure me up a fence plus post. The post was too high so I used generative fill to cut it down, then used AI to put a hawk on it.

View attachment 210727

I'm sure one could do a much better job here with "classic" (non-AI) photoshopping.

 

[AlanF]

I'm sure one could do a much better job here with "classic" (non-AI) photoshopping.

Do you need a sense of humour implant, or do I need to put a smiley to indicate I am having a joke?

 

[macrunning]

Dead easy. Used Photoshop select tool from the menu; it detected the bird and I added the branch it was on close to it, did inverse selection and then Field Blur. It has indeed changed my attitude to ultra-expensive lenses. One major reason reason for buying a wide lens is subject isolation. However, simple subject isolation is easy using Photoshop as above and is already standard automatically on smart phones for portraits. With dualpixel/quadpixel AF, it may be possible to estimate distances over the image sufficiently for software than to do sophisticated out-of-focus effects to mimick different apertures. I think using digital methods in this way to change aperture rather than using the current analog methods with aperture on the lens is no more different than is using digital vs film.

You should try using the 'Depth Blur' option in the Neural filters. You can play with that or just export a depth field mask and apply it to a gaussian blur for another option to focus blur hacks. I find it more realistic.

 

[macrunning]

Has everyone forgotten the word 'compositing'. That's all certain AI images are. Images culled together to produce a work of art. People have been doing this for years. Compositing is not photography. There are certain tools and uses for AI that I find quite nice and help my workflow go smoother and faster. For example the select subject feature in photoshop (it's much more accurate), the new remove tool that does a much better job at removing spots and blemishes that the old spot healing brush simply messed up sometimes.

Photography is what YOU make it, not what others think. If you are so concerned about what others think that it has this large of an impact on your creativity then you are limiting yourself and your creative freedom. Don't be afraid to experiment with your own photography. It's about the journey, not the end result. The end result is a creation of all of your hard work, time and energy. The joy should be in that process. The end result is like getting your piece of cake (your reward) after eating dinner.

Also, what are you photographing that you are so concerned about AI? AI can't be at a sporting event to take a photo. I've taken up sports photography for local Jiu Jitsu events. AI isn't going to be there to take the photos and capture the moment. The people competing aren't going to want fake AI generated versions of their matches. One thing I've come to find is that people still like to purchase images of themselves at their respective sporting events. So while you no longer work for a sport magazine or online publishing platform, it's time to think outside the box. Honestly I wouldn't worry about what Peter McKinnon thinks. The guy is just a Youtube influencer. You know a salesman, a pitchman. He has an agenda to sell clicks and likes so he can continue his lifestyle. That doesn't make what he has to say, truth or totality.

Don't give up and good l-u-c-k (learning under correct knowledge).

 

[AlanF]

You should try using the 'Depth Blur' option in the Neural filters. You can play with that or just export a depth field mask and apply it to a gaussian blur for another option to focus blur hacks. I find it more realistic.

Thanks for the tips - I have had a try with them. I am an amateur with PS, and don't find it intuitive, unlike most Mac programs so I appreciate advice.

 

[Juppeck]

Photography is to capture emotions with light. Any technology like KI/AI will fail here. Machines do not feel, nor are they creative. They can change what is already there and show a different perspective that did not exist before. Only the photographer can take pictures - just the way he likes it. I would consider AI/AI for noise reduction or editing quite useful. Those who are said to be dead often live the longest...

The sales figures, sales prices and profits of Canon and Nikon, who bet on more modern systems very late, leave little doubt that photography will continue in the future. Many young people who took their first photos with their smartphones are striving for something better and I see a future for photography there.

 

[Kit.]

Photography is to capture emotions with light. Any technology like KI/AI will fail here. Machines do not feel, nor are they creative. They can change what is already there and show a different perspective that did not exist before. Only the photographer can take pictures - just the way he likes it. I would consider AI/AI for noise reduction or editing quite useful. Those who are said to be dead often live the longest...

The sales figures, sales prices and profits of Canon and Nikon, who bet on more modern systems very late, leave little doubt that photography will continue in the future. Many young people who took their first photos with their smartphones are striving for something better and I see a future for photography there.

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