AI in Photography: Threat or Booster for Creativity?

These days, almost anyone can take a photo. In recent years, numerous technical aids like cameras with full automation or various scene automations have made shooting as simple as child’s play. However, creating truly outstanding photos still requires creativity, something AI cannot replace—but it can certainly enhance!

Artificial intelligence can now automatically improve images or even create them based on selected criteria. So, do we still need photographers? Absolutely. The person behind the camera does much more than just press the shutter button.

Take wedding photography as an example: Most couples are incredibly stressed on their big day, yet photographs are cherished memories. If someone mechanically presses the shutter behind the camera, hardly any beautiful moments will be captured.

Conversely, a photographer tries to capture the couple’s emotions, offers posing tips, and scouts the perfect location for the pictures on-site. This is not yet possible with AI and without the creative thinking of the photographer. Nevertheless, artificial intelligence can support artists very efficiently and effectively.

Even van Gogh Was Open to New Technology

Even painters like Vincent van Gogh did not view the invention of photography as a threat but as an opportunity to enhance their workflow. He used photos to paint portraits of people. And van Gogh was not the only painter who saw the new photography as an opportunity: Paul Cézanne also found it easier to recreate landscapes and portraits from photographs. Despite this technological aid, neither artist lost any of their creativity.

The same is true today with the novel image editing aided by AI. Tens of thousands of photographers already use AI image editing and can hardly imagine having ever edited without it. Since then, they no longer have to deal with hours of slider adjustments and use their newfound free time for other routines.

One of the world’s leading providers for AI photo editing is Neurapix. The AI from this German company is capable of learning and applying photo editing styles. It works with the slider values in Lightroom Classic, which are set individually for each photo depending on the lighting situation. So-called SmartPresets take over the monotonous first 90% of the editing path for the photographer, before he steps in to do the final touches—and bring his creativity into play!

“AI Gives Me More Creative Freedom”

“The AI gives me more freedom to be creative. I can spend more time on the truly important photos of a shoot and deliver them perfectly,” confirms wedding photographer Karlis Kalnins on the Neurapix blog. He is among those photographers who have been editing images with AI for some time.

The AI serves him exclusively as an assistant for dull tasks, without taking away any of his creativity. After all, he had used classic presets before. In fact, Neurapix integrates into the editing workflow like a traditional Lightroom preset, only much more effective and context-aware.

Therefore, we can conclude that artificial intelligence should not necessarily be seen as a threat to creativity, but rather as an opportunity to even enhance it. AI can significantly contribute to saving time and simplifying processes, a principle that van Gogh and Cézanne understood back then.