In deze foto composities is alleen gebruik gemaakt van diverse foto lagen, van bestaande foto's uit de natuur, om tot een nieuw beeld te komen. Voor mij is het interessanter als er echte natuurlijke elementen in zitten, ook al is het een fantasiebeeld. Het gevoel van “stel je voor dat het zo zou zijn” komt dan veel sterker naar voren. Fantasie met echte elementen dus.

Misschien dat uiteindelijk de AI generators een volledig natuurgetrouw beeld kunnen produceren, aangezien het echte foto’s gebruikt. Dan nog moet je zelf de informatie er in stoppen om het er zo uit te laten zien, zoals je dat zou willen. Dat kan niet iedereen. Ook daar is creativiteit voor nodig.

Er kan zoveel met AI software en Photoshop en ja, je kunt het heel echt laten lijken, zoals fotografe en Photoshopper Kittiya Pawlowski onlangs probeerde met foto’s van een sneeuwluipaard in de Himalaya. Iedereen ging er van uit de ze echt waren en ze werden in toonaangevende bladen gepubliceerd. Maar goed getrainde ogen van natuurfotografen en bergbeklimmers bestudeerden de foto’s en kwamen tot de conclusie dat het samengestelde beelden waren. Ze was er helemaal niet geweest.

Iedereen doen laten geloven dat het beeld waarheidsgetrouw is en je daarmee positioneren als vermaarde natuurfotograaf is oplichting. Dat zou ook gelden voor het als 'waarheidsgetrouw' verkopen van door AI gerenderde beelden.

In plaats van bang te zijn voor AI, moeten we banger zijn voor mensen die niet aangeven wanneer iets AI/gephotoshopt is. En die zijn er op de sociale media al teveel, helaas.

Françoise

Who's Afraid of AI? - Part 2

In my previous blog, I mentioned that I'm not afraid of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the creation of 2D art. I do see advantages in its use at certain points in the production process. However, I also understand the fear of artists that they might become redundant and that 'everyone' could suddenly create a beautiful image.

Recently, when I watched the making-of trailer for the new Pinocchio stop-motion animation, my belief in not fearing AI was strengthened by what director Guillermo del Toro said. He had deliberately chosen stop-motion animation. And that had everything to do with the natural textures and lighting that are still better in reality than when animated.

AI still can't surpass this.

As a child, I already loved stop-motion films. In my childhood, it was Chapi Chapo, but later I enjoyed watching Pingu and not to forget Shaun the Sheep and Wallace and Gromit. I also liked watching the famous Disney movies, but somewhere in the past few years, I partially lost interest in 3D animation. Especially when people are made to look as real as possible in 3D, I lose interest. I struggle with the smoothness, the perfection of the faces and teeth, but also with the fact that there's no realistic shading on the faces. (This isn't present in 2D animations either, but it's not the intention for them to look as real.)

In other words, I understand Del Toro very well. You consciously choose natural lighting and patterns and textures. I create new worlds with them, like, for example, "Mysterious Beach Life" (above left) and "Into the Woods" (above right).

In these photo compositions, only various layers of photos from nature have been used to create a new image. For me, it's more interesting when there are real natural elements in it, even if it's a fantasy image. The feeling of "imagine if it were like this" becomes much stronger. Fantasy with real elements.

Perhaps eventually AI generators can produce a completely lifelike image since they use real photos. Even then, you need to input the information to make it look the way you want. Not everyone can do that. Creativity is required there too.

AI software and Photoshop can achieve so much, and yes, you can make it look very real, as photographer and Photoshopper Kittiya Pawlowski recently attempted with photos of a snow leopard in the Himalayas. Everyone assumed they were real, and they were published in leading magazines. But well-trained eyes of nature photographers and mountaineers studied the photos and concluded that they were composite images. She hadn't been there at all.

Making everyone believe that an image is true-to-life and positioning yourself as a renowned nature photographer through that is deceit. The same would apply to selling AI-rendered images as 'true-to-life.'

Instead of fearing AI, we should be more afraid of people who don't disclose when something is AI/photoshopped. Unfortunately, there are already too many of them on social media.

Françoise