AI is Shaking Up the Future
...and how I'm embracing it.
Hello friends, happy new year! I’m excited to start the year off by sharing new work and a little about how I’m embracing AI as a photographer.
AI is controversial - I get it. But the reality is, it’s here to stay, and it’s only becoming more powerful and complex. I’ll admit, I’ve been wary of AI’s capabilities for a while, but I’ve also been thinking about how to make it work for me.
When programs like MidJourney first came out, I saw AI as a tool for art direction. Back in the spring of 2023, I was styling a shoot for a local falafel shop and wanted to create a mood board to communicate ideas that didn’t yet exist in the visual world - or at least, I couldn’t find anything online that matched what I had in mind. Instead of sketching out my concepts, I turned to AI. I entered a prompt, and voilà: the ideas in my head came to life on the screen.
Curious to test my skills with AI, I pitched a client this concept that added elements to challenge the imagination. When I mentioned butterflies, she loved the idea. I styled and photographed the product series in my studio on a purple seamless backdrop. Then, I used AI to generate a variety of scenes, fine-tuned them until they matched my vision, and seamlessly brought everything together in Photoshop.
I want to say this with 100% certainty: using AI isn’t about replacing creativity - it’s about enhancing it. I’m not trying to hide the fact that parts of these images are AI-generated: the pink clouds in the background, the black roses, the delicate purple asters, and, of course, the green bee and the sweet butterfly. But the product styling, studio lighting, post-processing, photoshopping, and art direction that brought these concepts to life? That’s still all me.
The future is here, and AI is undoubtedly part of it. It’s a tool to push boundaries and explore new perspectives. It would be naive to think photographers and retouchers aren’t already using AI-powered tools in Photoshop or Lightroom to streamline their workflows. So why not leverage AI’s capabilities to enhance our imagery?
I want to emphasize that these images weren’t simply created by entering a prompt and letting AI do the work. They required time, effort, and creativity - honestly, more time than a typical shoot because of the additional Photoshop work and fine-tuning the image generators. But I had a really great time creating these and am looking forward to delving into more AI edits.
Do I plan to use AI in every shoot? Definitely not. But do I believe it has a place in unique situations where it can create something extraordinary?
Absou-freakin-lutely.
You can see more of my work at Alyson Brown Studio.
