The AI Revolution

Hey, how’s it going? I’m Andy Jones and this is episode 108 of the Photography Side Hustle podcast.

So this week I’m going to rattle on about AI, Artificial Intelligence. Now we have all been using AI in our homes for over a decade, Apple introduced Siri back in 2010.

Over the last year, AI technology seems to have taken a giant leap forward, and as a photographer running a business, you can use it to your advantage. 

I’ll start off with automated image editors

If you shoot weddings or events where you take a lot of images, this type of AI can be an absolute game changer. 

There are quite a few of these editors popping up, in fact, this week’s episode is sponsored by Batch AI, an automated image editor.

So how do they work?

Well the thing about AI is they are constantly learning and expanding their knowledge base. When you start off editing you work on maybe three to five images and then let the AI copy the way you edited those photos. It will then edit the rest of the images in your style. If the result isn’t quite how you like it you can make changes and get the AI to re-edit them.

The next time you have a pile of photos ready to be edited you can just let the AI get on with the job. It already knows how you edit and can get the job done in a fraction of the time it would take you to do it.

Saving time on anything you do in your business makes you more profitable. 

I would spend 8 hours editing weddings where I took 1500 photos. If I was to use Batch AI on 1500 photos it would edit them all in 90 seconds.  

So let’s say your time spent meeting the couple, visiting the church or venue, shooting the wedding day for 8 hours, then editing for 8 hours, adding up to 18 hours total.

You charged $3000 to photograph the wedding. That works out to $166 an hour, which is a great hourly rate. But, if you removed the editing time your hourly rate would go up to $300 an hour, almost double. 

If you can save a whole workday using this type of AI you could add an extra portrait shoot to your workweek and make even more money.

For wedding photographers that are stressed out this service will reduce your stress and give you more free time to relax.

Even if you shoot family portraits and only take around 1000 photos a month. It’ll save you time and make you more profitable.

It’s really a no-brainer. 

Ok, next is …

Now you might not think that an AI like ChatGPT could help you, but believe me it can make your workflow much easier.

I have been using ChatGPT for podcast title ideas. Last week’s episode “Captivating Customers with Customized Products” and this week’s “The AI Revolution” were ChatGPT suggestions. I ask for title ideas after I’ve written the content.

But this week I discovered a new AI website, it’s called Writesonic and it offers loads of AI stuff.

There is one that is similar to ChatGPT, Articles, Blog Posts, Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn Ad copies, E-commerce, Social Media posts, Search Engine Optimization, and Landing Pages. I’ll put a link in the show notes.

So you’re probably thinking it’s not for you, but these AI can save you even more time. Did you know that you can direct an AI to read an article and write copy for you in that style?  

If you shoot family portraits and mention your sessions in blog posts, you can use older posts as examples of your writing style. Then you give the AI all the details, like the family’s name, location, if it was a beautiful day, in fact, anything that is relevant that you want in the blog post. Then ask the AI to write a post based on your details.

You could have a Google doc ready so you just change the details. Then you only need to cut and paste it into an AI. A few minutes later your blog post is ready.

Again, if it saves you time it’s making you more profitable.

Another thing you can use AI for is making a simple model release form, or a user policy for your website. There are so many uses.

Ok, here is the big one …

So last Adobe has come out with Firefly an AI generator for images and text. It has been included in the latest Adobe Photoshop Beta release. If you have an Adobe account the beta release is listed in the apps.

The first time I saw what it could do I started to panic. Anyone with just a little knowledge can make bad photos amazing.

Now I always talk about checking the background before taking a photo. Well, it really doesn’t matter anymore. Let’s say you are taking a portrait in a downtown area, and there is always a car in the frame. Normally you would walk away and find a more suitable location. 

Well, now you open the image in Photoshop (Beta), draw around the car with the lasso tool, and hit the Generative Fill button on the new floating menu. The car magically disappears and you get a choice of three replacement backgrounds to use. Oh, and they are seamless, in most that I have done you could tell something was removed.

Last week I mentioned a collage I did with three dogs. Using Generative Fill I added to the image on all four sides, it even added legs to the front dog.

Let’s say you have a photo of a family but the sky is grey and uninteresting. The new floating menu has an input section so you can ask Photoshop to add whatever you like to the image. In this case, you could type in “a blue sky with lots of white fluffy clouds”. Then hit the Generative button, wait 15 seconds, and hey presto the image has a blue sky with lots of white fluffy clouds. Plus there are two other options you can use, and if you don’t like the options you just hit the Generative button again and it gives you another three options.

The other thing you can do is replace the background altogether. You can ask Photoshop to put your subject wherever you like, a desert, up a mountain, on a beach, absolutely anywhere. Just type in what you want and it’ll do it.

How does Adobe manage to do this?

Well, they own Adobe Stock, where they have millions of stock images for sale. I have a few of my photos on there. 

So when the AI removes part of a photo it replaces it with part of a real image from Adobe Stock. I’ve heard that they will eventually charge for Firefly and if they use your image to generate fill on someone else's image, you will get paid for it. Which is a good thing.

This one update has changed how photographers can work. Now you can make mistakes, like cutting off someone's feet, and be able to add a new section with feet to the bottom of the photo. 

If a landscape photographer wishes he had more sky or more mountains in a photo it can be done easily. 

I really believe you can make any image you want with a few minutes of editing in Photoshop. Anything and everything can be added or removed, and you’ll be able to save way more photos.

AI is here to stay, and it’s very early in its journey. You need to get to know what it can do for you and how it can make you more productive and profitable.

Ok

Now you might know that I was working on a Photoshop course. I was supposed to be available by now but I’m going to have to make some more videos to cover this. So hopefully it’ll be ready soon.

Right, that’s it for this episode, I’ll be back next week. If you need help with anything you can find me in the Facebook group or through Messenger.

Ok, I’ll talk to you soon, bye.