Could artificial intelligence disrupt the photography world?

Scroll through some of the recent stories found on TechRepublic and you’ll see the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) mentioned on several occasions. AI isn’t something widely seen in action today, but the reality of its becoming more common is definitely on the lips and text editors of technologists. Can AI disrupt the world of photography? Will it eventually replace human input when it comes to processing photos? Anything is possible, but I truly doubt it.

In a recent blog post, a team at Google shared how its deep learning technology has been able to produce “professional quality” photo editing for a batch of landscape photos. In blind testing, pro photographers rated up to 40% of the images edited by AI as semi-pro or pro level quality. Quite frankly, some of the images published were quite nice, but is this enough to disrupt the world of photography? I don’t think so. Disrupt the world of photography editing? Well it could be useful, but not disruptive. Allow me to explain.

Let’s think of a scenario that a photographer may face. First there’s a scheduled photo shoot with a client. In general, the client will have ideas on what they’re looking for in the session and the photographer works closely with the client to meet those needs. We’ll just throw headshot sessions out the window and look more at product photography or photography based on a scene in our example. Now close your eyes, be the client, and think of an ad showing a boardroom setting. In any scenario, it’s up to the client and photographer to determine the mood and message it wants presented in that boardroom photo shoot.

Is the message “Board meetings are serious and powerful”? Or is the message “Come together and collaborate”? Both messages can be answered from the same scene by making a few nuance changes with lighting, the models‘ posture, facial expressions, and gestures, or even the props used within the scene. The client may not understand those concepts, but the photographer will. In this scenario, I can’t say AI will aid in getting the client’s message across. Right now, the AI used by Google isn’t based on compositing or replacing props in a scene. A boardroom with with a few bottles of water or cups of coffee does not give the same vibe as a boardroom with an open box of doughnuts and crumpled cans of energy drinks. AI isn’t ready to replace the analytical skills a photographer brings to the set of a photo shoot.

In the editing process, the photographer and AI share the same data. If a client were to upload an image into an AI system, it could easily input specified parameters to assist in the editing process.