I have been having an ongoing argument with myself about the extent AI should play a role in my bird photographs, and parallel to that, how should Great Bird Pics approach photographs altered by AI. I don’t plan to answer that question today but would like to start a conversation and I’m hoping you’ll share your thoughts. I’m going to publish several posts about AI in bird photography over the next couple of months, solicit your comments on each, and with your input come up with a “manifesto” regarding AI for myself and by extension Great Bird Pics.
Here’s the first example; using Lightroom’s Remove Tool with Generative AI I eliminated two stalks of grass in front of the body and head of one of my photographs of a White-crowned Sparrow. When using this tool you highlight the area you want to remove, but in this case it’s very difficult just to highlight each strand of grass. Instead you highlight the area just beyond the blades like this screenshot shows.
The red area is where Lightroom will do its magic – it somehow knows that the grass stalks are the objects I want to be removed. In order to do so it must also remove some of the parts of the bird that are highlighted and then regenerates/recreates what was below each blade of grass and the rest of the highlighted areas as best as it can. The first image below is the original photograph with the grass going through the bird. The second is the AI Remove/Generated version. Take a close look at the areas the red highlighting went through.
It probably took 2 minutes to remove/generate the grass stalks and I’d appreciate your comments to the following questions:
- I won’t ask if the bottom picture is better without the grass stalks because that’s an obvious “Yes”. I will ask if you think it is OK to put a picture altered like this in Great Bird Pics? Why?
- There are other blades and grass, sticks and leaves obstructing the bird. How much more should I remove?
- Look carefully at the head of the second photograph and you’ll see that the program’s Generative function slightly changed the black and white stripes on the head. Would you have noticed it if I didn’t tell you? Does it matter?
- Other comments on the AI issue are welcome!
That’s it for now. Please reply to the email or enter your comments at the bottom of the blog post. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
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