07/01/2026
AI the dreaded acronym. The question above was to posed to me in a photographers survey I'd recently completed. Survey's I don't do. This one I did… and disappeared down a metaphorical rabbit hole. Before I knew it over hours had gone by, emails, messages and quotes left undone, it was 'paperwork Monday', so thankfully no gigs. As questionnaires went it started innocuously enough, I'd already attempted it previously and got bored by question 30. On a second viewing I was hooked by question 32, the questions really made stop and think about my photography business. Ironically it kick started historical conversations with other photographers and vidoeographers over the past year or so. The subject being… how will AI affect my business?
As a photographer I use AI in my camera's (auto focus), in my photo editing software (denoise, sharpen, retouching etc.) and the obligatory description for a social media 'shout out' to promote the business. A task I loath, I'm pretty crap at it and hate doing. The last usage eases the pain and saves on the procrastination. The first 2, I use because technology has advanced so much in just 5 years. It's become unavoidable. Modern high end camera's now have dedicated chips that detect if the subject is a human, a bird, a plane or a carrot. They can shoot at 120 frames a second, they can pre-empt you pressing the shutter button, fill in your tax returns and make love to your wife. The technology and it's advancement is inevitable and unavoidable.
The creation of AI generated imagery on the other hand is a worry. 99% of my photography is live action. With low light and live concert action I do the best that I can and make sure that I can get 50 decent images from 1,500 for example. Could AI do that? I'd convinced myself that my business will be immune from the AI threat. In the last year or so my paranoia has been piqued by conversations regarding AI, not as tool but as a real issue for the entire creative industry. Recently a friend of mine and I discussed how our business's were faring. He admitted that his business was on the cusp of some serious change. His clients (his studio makes video shorts for blue chip companies for social media advertising etc) were in the process of producing the content internally to save costs. No cameras, no lighting, no sound, no editing. No way! I said. How is that possible? I added. He then showed me of a video generating app (technology he said that was evolving almost every week) of a video short that had been completely produced through AI prompt's. It wasn't right… but good enough in quality to be a concern. And of course technology will inexorably march on making that concern very real for every creative.
I managed to complete the questionnaire but skipped question #97. 'In general, I think that Al is_______for photographers'? Maybe I'll get AI to answer that one.
*No AI was used in the production of this article. All the typo's and errors are proudly human.
