Rough Draft!
I normally don’t like to publish a rough draft.
During the presentation the other night we had a great conversation about the use of AI. And just a night or two before that I had written this article. But I figured share more of my thoughts as a way to spark some conversation.
I read an article the other day about photographers using AI, and whether that’s right or wrong. I think a more interesting question is how a photographer uses it. So here’s how I do.
Garbage in, garbage out, on steroids
I spent 30 years in technology. In the early days of computing we used to say “garbage in, garbage out.” AI doesn’t change that rule. It cranks it up. Garbage out on steroids.
I think of AI as an assistant. If you were going to hire one, you wouldn’t just say “help me” and walk away. You’d define the requirements, the skills, the policies, the guidelines. Then you’d train them. Training is the magic word for me. Clear expectations make a huge difference in what you get back.
How I got into it
For the last two years I’ve had a lot of physically inactive time. First I was recovering from my surgery, then my wife Roni spent a year fighting sepsis. That meant a ton of time in medical facilities. The tech junkie in me had plenty of time to play with AI, and I found some amazing uses for it.
Where I use it, and where I don’t
I have no desire to create images with AI. Not artistically. I do use it to make room mockups of my photos, the “put your image in this room” kind of thing. Not sure I like it, but I’ve done it.
The cartoon drawings in the Learn section are another example. Those started as sketches in a physical notebook of mine. I came across them, took photos, and fed them into AI to do the animation.
Then there’s the everyday stuff. I once described an image, pointed my digital assistant at a folder, and it found the file buried in a subfolder I’d long forgotten. Not glamorous, but it’s the kind of thing I’m happy to hand off.
My fine art is 100% me and my camera
The images this site is all about are 100% me and my camera. Always.
But then that RAW file hits software. And it has to. A RAW file is just that, raw data. It has to be processed to become a JPG. So at what point is AI involved? These days about 99% of my images are edited in Lightroom from Adobe, and it has AI tools built in. I use them.
I’ll jump into Photoshop once in a while, but it’s far more likely to be for a flyer than for editing a photo. Mostly I use it to try something I saw in a tutorial. Once I’ve played with it a bit, I can often replicate it in Lightroom. It’s a great way to experiment. Are we detecting a pattern?
I have no objection to AI. I’m sure some people are making beautiful things with it. It’s just not part of my photography.
Why I’m a note taker
Anyone who’s worked with me knows I have a note about everything. I was a software quality engineer, and my job was to find problems with computer systems before we shipped code. A lot of the time that meant before the developers had written any of it, working with some incredibly gifted people.
Our team was three to six people, so we worked closely all day long. Every time the product manager walked into our team room with an idea or a problem (in person at first, later on Zoom), we’d start designing solutions together. Drawings and notes were my lifesaver. And we were always experimenting. Could we? Let’s try.
That approach drove my photography too. Can I do this? Try it, fail until you succeed. Once you succeed, can you do it again? Can you do it better?
18 notebooks
As I’ve emptied the attic and closets, I’ve come across notebooks. Eighteen full ones, the 1-5 subject kind, packed with notes and sketches. Workshops, classes, presentations, lighting setups and drawings. Random questions I wrote out as if putting them on paper would bring an answer.
Starting over
Over the years, some of that made it onto my website. I had roughly 400 articles going back to 2010, and I kept that site running for 15 years, which in hindsight is a pretty good accomplishment. Then one day it took a near-fatal blow. On life support, I opted to pull the plug.
I’m a tech geek, so I had 27 backups stashed around the globe. I decided not to restore it. I wanted a fresh slate, built from the ground up, slowly and on purpose, like a work project. Plans, drawings, photos of sketches. Roni got me a neat little drawing table, giant sheets of paper and markers. Pretty rudimentary, but not bad for an Air Force guy. Stick figure Mike behind the camera included.
My digital assistant
Which brings me to my digital assistant, the one I’ve been talking about this whole time. It takes my 45 minute train of thought run-on sentence and wrangles it into something I can understand. It helped me write this post. And yes, I trained it first.
Honestly, the best thing AI does for me is help me get started. When you’re new to something, it can be hard to know where to begin. We may not be headed to the same destination, but I can get you started on your own path.
If you came here wondering about my prints, the short answer is in the Print Guide: Are these real photographs or AI? The whole guide starts at The Fine Art Print Guide.