The question for today is to what extent AI makes the work something other than photography and at what point should it be identified as such. John is our eminent host. I encourage you to take a look at his site and give the question of AI some thought. He takes a thorough look at it. We are there, and if we listen to the experts – we cannot go back from it. We don’t have to use it though… but do you think it is ”photography”?
Personally I edit my pictures with a light touch – when I edit. I have changed skies, but that is when I work with scanned pictures I cannot make better. And, I write it when I have. Before this post, I had never written a prompt for a totally new picture – To me, this is a different kind of art, fun to try, but I don’t think I will ever do anything but playing with it. So, here we go! I will try the WP AI, as I was so inspired by Donna, and because with WP, we can all try it, even if PS or Lightroom is not an option on our computer. Use the right bar!
My first try was, like Donna’s, to use my blogname. I wrote ”A Lagotto Romagnolo and Cattleyas”. I was not at all happy with that one, and changed it to ” A brown lagotto running in a field of cattleya orchids” That picture is in the opener. The orchids are not cattleyas, but AI could produce a reasonable picture of a Lagotto Romagnolo. Milo is nodding too.
For the second picture I wrote ”A Geisha in a Japanese temple”. For both pictures I tried 7-8 different suggestions.
For the third one, I wrote ”Tokyo Sky Tree”. This option I liked the best, but none of them met my expectations. It was an interesting lesson though.
My last try was a macro, and I found this one acceptable. WP’s AI is not good at making the picture feel real, but I saw Sofia’s Firefly play – and they were really really good! My biggest fear is not being able to tell what is real or AI. In fact, today I am more careful with pressing ”like” or adding a heart on instagram – there are too many AI generated pictures. In that perspective, WP is better – those are undoubtably AI… I strongly believe that if the major part of the picture is changed with AI, the photographer should say that in the text, and if the whole picture is AI generated, it is a must. Then it is no longer a photo.
For John’s question about the peninsula picture – the second one shows very strange waves, so, that might be the AI?
Thank you, Sofia, for last weeks floral enchantments, and the chance for me to feature the Japanese Wisteria garden!
Donna will host the challenge next week, go to her inspitational site and see what she is up to! If you’d like to participate in the challenge responses each week but aren’t sure how to get started, check here.
Leya 
I love your own photos best, so no need to feel you need to learn AI, as you pointed out, they do not feel real, you created beautiful images, but they felt like illustrations. I am with you, the city game out as the best one. By the Loved the two following post after this, the water was so lovely.
Thank you, Ritva!
It can be fun but it doesn’t replace photography as your post clearly shows. There’s beauty in it, obviously, but it’s lacking your artistic eye.
I agree. A photographer/blogger can be traced by his or her style, and I think it is wonderful to recognise people! It is the same with music.
Absolutely.
Your opening photo is actually pretty – out of all of them – that one looks most realistic to me. I agree with all of your comments related to using AI!
Thank you – yes, some are nice, but they mustn’t get too realistic…
Thank you for sharing your experiments, Ann-Christine. I think you captured the experience of playing with AI well, that it gives us some nice images but does not meet our expectations. I do like the dragonfly image, and I initially tried some dragonfly images. I decided not to use them in my response to the challenge because they were so good, they scared me … lol 😉
Ha, well, I find everything about AI scaring. But I also realise we have to try it and know more about it – otherwise we will feel even more out of control.
You did well, Ann-Christine. Your opening image is great and so is the closing. I wouldn’t be able to tell for sure if they were AI generated or not. I couldn’t get anywhere with WP. I finally found AI in Google. I’ll do my post tomorrow morning when I’m more clear headed. Again, you did great.
Thank you, Anne. Looking forward to seeing your post!
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Love your experiments.
Tokyo Sky Tree, and dragonfly my fav.
Thank you – it’s fun to try, but maybe not something my cup of tea.
True. AI can come closer to the human way of thinking, but can’t replace humans. But AI developers beg to differ😂
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I need to find out more about this WP AI, I am self hosted and I still use the classic editor, time to make some changes. You got some great shots Ann Christine and I want to explore that more.
I don’t know how a self edited platform works, but I guess you could try someone else’s for a start? Just to see if that is something for you. There is PS of course.
I liked trying it, but I prefer my own photos.
Like Milo, I approve of the puppy running through the flowers. They look quite good, AC. There will be a lot of graphic designers out of work as a result of this tech.
True – jobless people all around. It seems there is nothing we can do. Have fun with it, but it is not photography. Milo liked that one…
Hope you are all well in AU!? Floods? Draught? Here many countries have been flooded now, but we have managed so far.
You had some great results playing with the WordPress AI. I’m like you, I believe if someone posts a picture created with AI they should let the reader know.
I hope more people agree on that! As far as I can see this week, they do!
This was great! Your feature coaxed me in. My first thought was what a cute Children’s Book that ”AI art” might inspire. And the Japanese Geisha was beautiful. It was fun to play with, but no…not photography to me either. That dragonfly is pretty close to real looking, isn’t it? Very nice AC. I am glad we both found the WP assistant. It did help…
Thanks, Donna – I had seen that AI assistant, but always thought it was for writing text and never clicked on it! Thanks to you I did!
Some wonderful experiments here. Your/AI’s dog scampering through the orchids/not-orchids had one of the first sense of fun I’ve seen in AI, and right now is only the beginning!
Thank you, Elizabeth – I guess we will have to live with this…
I agree that last shot is the best and I reckon could fool people, unlike the others that seem unmistakably AI to me 🙂
It is troublesome, isn’t it, when they get too close to fool you?
Just as a Postscript to my comment below… Thanks for the mention of WP and its AI feature in the right hand panel…… not sure how I missed that introduction.
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♥ You are welcome!
Not sure I am happy with so much AI but also fascinated to give it a serious try. Though I guess as I am unhappy if I find I am trying to modify a shot too far in PS and feel that s heading towards cheating. But AI opens up a different creative options… Social Media started the trend of creating so called false news and with simple PS help succeeded in misleading so many folk…. Maybe Ai if used as a creative Art tool, and its used stated as such, it may produce some worthwhile and pleasing stand alone images. Not exactly happy with this line of progress but lets be fair PS, the use of PS was very much maligned and some still express their total suspicion on its use. Not a definitive answer but just a gut reaction to a developing trend… But that header image doesn’t look bad 🙂
Thank you for an interesting comment, David. I guess we will keep on thinking about AI, and maybe, as you say, there will come up a special kind of art using it. Just don’t call it photography.
I agree, it’s not photography, but if you have time and the interest to play then, why not? But don’t try to sell it as a photograph. I might buy that Geisha image, but I prefer your genuine photography.
Jo, it was nice trying. And like Tina, I believe there will come a new kind of art that could be fun too. Just don’t call it photography.
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I thought that the opening picture was shot so perfectly! I guess it’s going to be difficult pretty soon to identify the AI generated images from real photos..
I already find it difficult. I have seen people using Firefly…and I cannot see if it is fake…
I’m still away from home and reading on my phone, so your header photo isn’t displaying ‘legibly’ for me. But only your macro comes across as a photo. The others as AI confections. An interesting experiment – I rather hope AI doesn’t get hugely better because if it does, it may put thoughtful and talented photographers out of a job.
Thank you, Margaret. And I am sure, there will ba many many photographers and PR people out of work.
AI is an image, not a photo and should not be treated as a photo. If I alter one of my photos I don’t say as I think that people would notice so I use the tags #PhotoEditing and or #photoart
I have enough to do and don’t think I’ll be getting involved with AI in photography. I used AI to make my words in a post ”better” but it mangled what I was saying so I’m not going to do that again 😂
Haha, totally agree – but it can be rather fun when it’s messed up! Good idea putting it in the tags! I never thought of that.
I do like your photos, especially the top one! I don’t have the patience to learn a lot of editing tricks. I want to be better at just getting great fun photos on my own. For that I do need to learn more!
I believe that is what photography is about! I try all the time!
Ann-Christine, even though the AI images were obvious, as you pointed out, the results were very interesting. Like you, I do not see myself spending time with AI prompts for images. It is fun once in a while when one needs a good laughter. The dog running among the flowers was lovely.
I liked the results of the Lagotto, yes. Better than expected. And laughter is good for us!
Interesting pictures, A-C. I like the sky tree as a non-photo. But this is also my opinion: “ I strongly believe that if the major part of the picture is changed with AI, the photographer should say that in the text, and if the whole picture is AI generated, it is a must. Then it is no longer a photo.”
Thank you, Janet – I hope most of us agree!
Well I have to say Ann-Christine that I would not have realized your opener was AI-generated….which is suppose is not a good thing, is it?! But it really is beautiful. The geisha I might have guessed and the sky tree for sure. It has that AI-generated ”look”. The macro, again, is quite good. You’re right, it’s going to be an on-going challenge to know what is real photography and what is AI, or AI-enhanced. We argree that if an image has been altered to a large extent, or certainly if it is AI-Generated, that should be noted. Here’s hoping most of the world agrees with us! So happy you decided to play with the possibilities.
Thank you, Tina – yes, hopefully we are many to agree on this. It is, too, fun to play sometimes, and your thoughts on maybe a new place for doing this will rise.
I’m finding these posts interesting as many of you and I are on the same page about AI. I am willing to try if I find time at the end of the week. Are you saying there is a wordpress AI generator?
Yes, Dawn, there is- in the right bar below the usual buttons for featuring you post. Click AI help and choose generated picture. Then write your prompt. I found that you have to write exactly what you want – look at Tina’s post and you will have some idea!
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The geisha photo turned out especially well, Ann-Christine. It looks like the beginning of an epic story.
Might be – thank you!