I have seen a lot of discussion on-line recently about the need for constructive critique of our work. I have discussed this before but it doesn’t seem to go away, and probably never will. Let’s face it, people only like good comments about their work or in today’s on-line world, “Likes”. I gave my thoughts on “Likes” in my very first blog post so I won’t go over old ground. When we do get negative critique we naturally tend to go on the defensive and justify why did particular thing or shot at a particular angle etc. On the other hand the critique could trigger a lightbulb moment and make you open up to what is being said and you learn from it. It is also the case that not everyone will critique your work in the same way and they will have prejudices towards specific elements of the photo e.g. “I’d prefer it in B&W”, “When you magnify the image you can see noise/grain”. So what is the point of critique in photography? Of course if you are in a camera club you are subjected to judges who are tasked to find things good or bad about your work.
My take on critique is that anyone is free to critique my work. They wont offend me or inflate my ego. I am comfortable with this because I have already self-critiqued my photos whilst editing, composing and post-processing. The photo is how I want people to see it and if they don’t agree then that’s fine.
This brings me to the new kid on the block, having your work critiqued by artificial intelligence (A.I). A recent article in “photofocus” on-line by Julie Powell takes on this very topic. You can read the article HERE. It discuses the use of ChatGPT A.I. to get a virtual “judge” to look at your image and pass on it’s thoughts on how to improve the image. There is also a good YouTube video by Anthony Morganti that demonstrates using the facility. You can see the video HERE. There is a paid version of ChatGPT but the free version allows you to upload images for critique also. The ChatGPT website allows you to upload a maximum of three images in 24 hours. The video is self explanatory so give it a try if you want some A.I. critique that you may or may not find very useful. There does seem to be some intelligence behind it but it also produces a lot of generic advice that is straight out of basic photography text books.
Adobe Photoshop A.I. Updates
Whilst I am on the subject of A.I. I’d like to talk about the latest update to Adobe Photoshop. One of the new upgrades is a “Generate Image” feature. In effect you can ask Photoshop to create an image for you by just feeding it some text and letting it give you 3 options of what it thinks you want. I don’t really know what to make of this other than to think it could become an alternative to actually going out and taking some photos. It is still pretty basic but given time I think A.I. will change photography for ever. I think it is interesting however that the advice given is to analyse the A.I. image closely and look out for extra hands, fingers or even limbs! It will not replace good photographers or photography, but it will introduce a genre where the image is all produced on-line without ever having pressed a shutter release button. There is another good video online from Anthony Morganti on this upgrade and you can watch it HERE
Colourisation
One aspect of A.I. that I do like is the ability to colourise old black and white images. I have been playing around with this in Photoshop>Filters>Neural Filters>Colourise. I came across a photo of my Grandad taken during WW1 showing him with his comrades. It was probably somewhere in France as they all have their Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders battle dress kilts on and their weapons to hand. At that time he was a Lance Corporal but went on to become Corporal. I decided to have a go at colourising it and it really brought it to life, showing him as a young man ready for battle (he is the chap in the centre). It’s not perfect but I think it works for me. He was subsequently blinded by mustard gas and invalided back to Scotland. Thankfully it was temporary. What do you think?
I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and thank you for reading it. If you want to comment on this blog post please do so below or you can contact me by using the “Contact Me” facility in the website header.
