“Artificial intelligence in photography does not just capture moments; it transforms them, blending creativity and precision to reveal the unseen beauty in every frame.” – MJ Martin
NOTE: This article is derived from a presentation delivered as a technical paper to the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section, at the ProFusion photography event held at the Toronto Convention Centre in November 6, 2024.
Technical Aspects of AI in Photography
AI is significantly transforming the field of still photography, influencing cameras, lenses, post-processing, and other aspects of the creative process in several ways:
1. Cameras & Lenses:
– Auto-focus & Subject Tracking: AI-powered auto-focus systems in modern cameras, like those from Sony, Canon, and Nikon, have drastically improved subject tracking. They can now recognize and lock onto eyes, faces, animals, and even vehicles in real-time, ensuring sharper images, especially in fast-moving situations.
– Scene Recognition: AI helps cameras automatically adjust settings based on the scene. Cameras can now detect if you’re shooting landscapes, portraits, or low-light scenes and optimize exposure, white balance, and other settings accordingly.
– Image Stabilization: AI-enhanced in-body and in-lens stabilization systems analyze motion patterns to provide smoother handheld shots, minimizing camera shake and blur.
2. Post-Processing:
– AI-based Editing Software: Tools like Adobe Lightroom, Skylum Luminar, and DxO PhotoLab use AI to make intelligent adjustments in post-processing. Features include auto-enhancements for exposure, color correction, and noise reduction. AI can also help in more sophisticated tasks like sky replacements, facial retouching, and object removal.
– Noise Reduction: AI algorithms have become adept at reducing noise without losing detail, which is especially useful for low-light photography. Programs like Topaz DeNoise AI offer noise reduction with far better results than traditional methods.
– Sharpening & Up-scaling: AI-based sharpening tools can intelligently enhance the details in an image, and AI up-scaling allows photographers to increase the resolution of their images without a significant loss in quality, making it easier to print large formats.
3. Creative Automation:
– AI Filters & Styles: AI offers preset filters or styles that match the mood of a photograph. These are not just basic filters but complex adjustments that simulate specific film styles, lighting conditions, or artistic effects, providing creative freedom for photographers.
– Automatic Culling & Sorting: AI is helping streamline workflows by automatically sorting through hundreds or thousands of photos, culling out-of-focus shots or selecting the best ones based on compositional factors, exposure, and subject quality.
4. Composition & Framing:
– AI Composition Suggestions: Some camera systems and apps now use AI to suggest better framing and composition in real-time, guiding photographers on rule-of-thirds, balance, and horizon lines, enhancing the final shot.
5. Generative AI:
– Photo Retouching & Restoration: AI tools are getting better at complex retouching tasks, like restoring old photographs, filling in missing details, or transforming a flat photo into something more dynamic by suggesting changes in lighting or adding elements like textures or effects.
– AI-generated Photos: AI can now create hyper-realistic images from text descriptions, potentially transforming the creative industry by allowing photographers to blend real photography with AI-generated content.
6. Real-Time Effects & Filters:
– In-Camera AI Filters: Cameras and smartphones increasingly offer real-time AI filters and effects, allowing photographers to see the potential final image as they shoot. These filters can simulate long exposure, apply bokeh effects, or enhance colors and textures live.
7. Smartphones & Computational Photography:
– Multi-frame Processing: AI is heavily used in smartphone cameras, where multiple images are captured and combined to create a single high-quality photo. This is seen in HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography, low-light shooting, and other techniques to improve image quality beyond the capabilities of the small sensors.
– Portrait Mode & Background Blur: AI assists in creating simulated depth-of-field effects (bokeh) on smartphone cameras by intelligently separating the subject from the background, replicating the look of professional lenses.
Overall, AI is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in photography, offering photographers greater creative flexibility, more advanced tools, and faster workflows, whether shooting on a high-end DSLR, mirrorless camera, or smartphone.
Creative Aspects of Artificial Intelligence
Yes, AI can make photos better in several ways, though the extent of improvement depends on how it is used and what the photographer aims to achieve. Here’s how AI enhances the quality of photos:
1. Sharper Images:
AI-powered auto-focus systems improve precision in focusing on subjects like eyes, faces, or even animals. This leads to sharper, more accurate photos, especially in action or portrait photography.
2. Improved Low-Light Performance:
AI helps in reducing noise in low-light situations, allowing photographers to capture cleaner images even when shooting at high ISO settings. This is especially useful in night photography or indoor settings with limited light.
3. Better Exposure & Color Balancing:
AI-based algorithms analyze the scene and automatically adjust exposure, contrast, and white balance to ensure a well-lit and color-balanced image. This helps reduce overexposure or underexposure, resulting in a more dynamic and visually appealing shot.
4. Enhanced Creativity:
AI-driven editing tools can introduce creative effects, such as sky replacements, artistic filters, or even generating specific looks (like simulating film photography). These creative enhancements can elevate the artistic quality of the image.
5. Improved Composition:
AI suggestions for composition and framing can help photographers create more balanced and aesthetically pleasing photos by guiding them on factors like the rule of thirds, symmetry, and alignment.
6. Time Efficiency:
By automating tedious tasks like sorting, culling, and basic editing, AI allows photographers to spend more time focusing on the creative aspects, which indirectly improves the overall quality of their work.
7. Enhanced Smartphone Photography:
AI makes smartphone cameras more competitive by leveraging computational photography techniques, combining multiple exposures, enhancing portrait modes, and delivering results that rival those from traditional cameras.
Conclusions
Is AI a part of your creative workflow? Should you use AI in your photography?
The answers should be both ‘Yes”. AI can definitely bring value. Is it perfect, No, it is not yet perfect and still has a ways to go to even get close to perfection in some cases. Denoise is an example of AI’s obvious imperfection. Use denoise tools in a limited manner as they can hurt an image more than they can help it. Whereas, sharpening tools, again used judiciously can dramatically enhance a less then perfect image. Some of the background diffusion tools work fairly well. So they can add bokeh and isolate the subject from the background further enhancing a mediocre image towards a great image.
Again, and I cannot overstate this point, not all AI tools are equal so select the best post-production tools for your specific needs.
Generative AI is still in its infancy and has a very long way to go before it is on target. It is able to get some aspects pretty good and other aspects within the same image fail outright. Yet, it still holds some potential promise!
All photographs and generated images belong to the original creators and they hold all rights. They are used here under the creative commons licence. The author has no rights to share these images or to allow them to be shared further.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX). Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now OntarioTech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section. He holds three master’s degrees, in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and five certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 30 next generation MOOC continuous education in IoT, Cloud, AI and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.