Will AI Take Over Your Photo Studio?

Of course it will - you had better pack your personal effects into a cardboard box now and shuffle for the door... But hold on a second...What if your photographic career depends upon the depiction of real people or animals doing real things in real places? What if your photo-coverage is as new and as fast as the winning car in the GP race that hasn't happened yet? What if your bride and bridegroom want to be photographed on the actual day instead of generated in a computer a week later? Does this mean that you are still going to have to get up in the morning, take a shower, show up, and actually do the job competently? Unfortunately, yes. You might be able to get away with an AI soup can, but the real people still want to be real people. There has been a flurry of angst over AI-generated text that seems to duplicate real thought - it has been said that the university essay is dead. Students will press a button and a degree will drop out of the slot. Uh-uh. Don't work that way. The academic studies that need thought still need it directly from the brains of the students - however icky that may seem. Sophomores are not perfect beings, nor are their thoughts and expressions often so polished as to be worthy of anything but patience and restraint. The readers can still tell real from unreal, and in most cases the former is paid while the latter is rejected. So too with images. You may see a strange perfection in an AI image, but tire of it quickly. You may see a strange set of imperfections, as well, and equally choose to reject them. The genuine photographer may spend hours tuning an image, but you can still tell that the thing is originally the product of a human and not a program. If you want an analogy, remember the Moog synthesizer that was going to destroy the music industry - I still have a vinyl LP of J.S.Bach music that had been subjected to the treatment decades ago. It is a novelty, and I play it once in 10 years. In the meantime, think of the innumerable Bach pieces that are played by live musicians on all platforms every year. Note: This essay was written by the Uncle Dick v. 2.3...