A bit of fun with my iPhone

[billtils]

When we were out for lunch yesterday this man at the next table caught my eye so I fired off a few discrete shots with my iPhone. Not prize winners by any stretch of the imagination but perhaps a reminder of the old saying that the best camera is the one that you have with you (and also a pat in the back to the latest version of Photoshop which made all the clean-ups a breeze).


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[Dave Humphries]

Hi Bill,

Hmmm, I'm intrigued, so his hair and forehead are PS AI generations?

Dave
(from down south)

[billtils]

No, I absolutely refuse to go near generative AI, but the AI assist eraser is out of this world. Here's the original: (I posted one earlier as being the "Original" but it wasn't quite ...)

[DanK]

Bill,

I think I do what you're describing, but I don't know that we have proper terms for it. Like you, I don't use AI to generate things that weren't there, except... I do use it a lot for removing stuff and occasionally for extending the canvas, and those are technically generative AI too. E.g., I recently used it to remove a very annoying large street lamp pole. To do that, it generated a bunch of pixels that looked like what the AI model thought should be there. This became apparent when I tried the AI removal tool on a photo of David's, and it generated things that shouldn't have been there. I had to do it many times before it got reasonably close because it got wrong what it should generate.

Given all the discussion and sometimes argument about this in photographic circles, it would be helpful if we had clear terminology.

When I tried to sort out what I do and don't use the AI-based tools for, the distinction that I came up with is that I use them freely to do things that I otherwise would do manually. However, it's a fine line, and I think that there are probably ways I use them that don't fit this.

Dan

[billtils]

Dan, thanks for that thoughtful response on AI and editing.

It seems that there is a consensus that it's OK for anyone to do what they like with generative AI as long as it does not break any copyright issues, which basically means any and all images and elements thereof in the final product must be the personal work of the photographer or public domain, so using AI removal to edit one of your own images would be OK.

It gets stricter for competition images, where the public domain option is not allowed and I'd guess there would be similar restrictions in commercial work.

I hadn't thought about the above when I posted - the unstated element in the OP is that it was shot on my iPhone. A substantial number of members of my local camera club have sold their camera gear and only use phones (all of those being later generation high-end iPhones, mine is a modest SE that was purchased for texting and phoning). They produce some stunning stuff but ...


Bill

[Geoff F]

Firstly, my mobile phone can make a call, at least it might if I could understand how it worked, and that is all it will do. I can walk down a dodgy street holding it at arms length or leave it on the pub bar when I go to the toilet and know it will remain safe. It is chiefly a way of calling for help if I break a leg while I am deep within the woods etc.

However, regarding this image, you have auto focused on the nearest person which means your intended target is out of focus. If you were using a 'real camera' you would have deliberately focused on the intended subject. Can you do that sort of thing with a phone?

I sometimes get sent little dots in the middle of a vast area and asked 'Can you identify these insects'. Well, the answer is simply 'No, not from that image'. Or alternatively I see people attempting to get within a few inches of an insect which, of course, flies away.

Recently, at a wildlife area volunteer day, I found a stick with attached fungi and somebody said 'I can identify that with my phone.' So they snapped an image and sent it to a fungi identification app. An answer was quickly forthcoming but they didn't realise they had photographed the underside so the supposed answer was totally wrong. Photographs taken with my little Fuji X20 enabled a clear identification but it took a slight amount of human thought.

My version of Photoshop seems to be lacking AI functions. Or at least I can't find them. But I still manage to do similar things using the old tools like Clone Tool and similar options including using layers and masks etc.

[billtils]

However, regarding this image, you have auto focused on the nearest person which means your intended target is out of focus. If you were using a 'real camera' you would have deliberately focused on the intended subject. Can you do that sort of thing with a phone?

Geoff - I think you may be overestimating my skills a wee bit but thank you for the vote of confidence.

Bill