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AI Editing Explained: A Game Changer For Photographers
By Kyle Wilson
The photography landscape is constantly evolving, and artificial intelligence (AI) editing is the latest tool making waves. For professional photographers who might be undecided about incorporating AI into their workflow, understanding its benefits and implications is crucial. Let’s explore what AI editing entails, its advantages, and how you can experience it firsthand with Narrative Edit—a cutting-edge app designed specifically for photographers.
What Exactly Is AI Editing?
AI editing uses machine learning algorithms to enhance and refine digital images. These tools can automatically analyze and optimize photos for exposure, color balance, composition, and more. By learning from vast datasets, AI can apply enhancements that typically require a human editor's expertise.
Imagine having a personal assistant who knows how to adjust exposure, white balance, and more, and does it consistently across an entire shoot - without you telling them how to do it. That's what AI editing does; it speeds up the first round of edits so you can add your personal touch after your preset edits have been applied.
Will AI Editing Replace Photographers?
While AI editing is transformative, it is not a replacement for photographers. The essence of photography—capturing moments, emotions, and stories—is inherently human and cannot be replicated by algorithms. AI is best seen as a tool that complements your skills, not one that replaces the need for your vision and creativity.
AI editing is impressively efficient and can match human editing in routine tasks and basic enhancements. However, it lacks the nuanced understanding of context and emotion that expert human editors bring. The human touch remains irreplaceable.
Are There Ethical Considerations in AI Photo Editing?
Some have concerns about the ethical issues of using AI in photography. It’s important to distinguish between generative AI and curation AI.
Generating AI images involves a user creating an image by writing a prompt. It involves ethical issues of artistic ownership, authenticity, and transparency. However, using AI tools for culling and editing is not the same as generating AI images.
Curation AI uses algorithms that learn from your behavior and create recommendations. Kind of like how social media algorithms transform your feed based on what it thinks you want to see.
With AI editing, you use AI-powered software to batch-edit your images based on preset styles. AI can learn from your style over time to improve its editing process. Using an app like Narrative Edit simply allows you to customize your editing style and speed up the process. It is your personal assistant, doing the basic editing while you add your personal artistic touch.
AI Edits in your Style.
Get started with 1000 free credits.
4 Benefits of AI Editing
Adopting AI in photo editing can transform your workflow in the following ways:
1. Efficiency and Speed
AI drastically reduces the time spent on routine editing tasks by automating processes like adjusting lighting and correcting colors. This allows you to focus more on shooting and less on post-processing.
2. Consistency
AI tools can maintain a consistent look and feel across a series of images. No more checking back and forth to make sure every photo matches.
3. Easy To Use
You don’t have to be a pro at using AI. Beginners and professionals alike can use it, making advanced editing techniques more accessible to all skill levels.
4. Enhanced Creativity
With AI handling more mundane tasks, you can dedicate more time to the creative aspects of your projects.
How Narrative Edit Works
Narrative Edit is an innovative AI-powered editing app for photographers designed to streamline and enhance your editing process. Automating routine tasks allows you to focus on the more nuanced and creative aspects of your work, complementing your skills and speeding up your post-processing workflow.
Here's how it works:
Smart Culling
Narrative Edit is paired with Narrative Select, which uses AI to sort through large batches of photos, selecting the best shots based on criteria such as focus, composition, and facial expressions. This reduces the time spent on the initial selection process.
Automated Adjustments
The app applies precise adjustments to each selected photo, optimizing elements like exposure, color balance, and contrast. These adjustments are based on the specific needs of each image, ensuring high-quality results.
Customizable Styles
Narrative Edit allows you to create and apply your unique editing styles. Edit learns your style from edited images you upload and creates your own personal style (as many styles as you like). We also collaborated with some incredible photographers to offer Artist Styles for you to use!
Batch Processing In One Click
The app efficiently processes large volumes of photos, making it ideal for event and wedding photographers who need to deliver a consistent, polished product in a short timeframe. Once your images are culled, you can apply your edits and send them to Lightroom with one click.
Intuitive Interface
Designed with ease of use in mind, Narrative Edit features a clean and intuitive interface, making advanced editing techniques accessible to photographers of all skill levels. There is no need to have any previous experience using AI.
Wedding photographer Jonathan Suckling had this to say about his experience with Narrative Edit:
“AI editing has cut my editing time in half for me. I’ve chosen to reinvest the extra time that I’ve captured into polishing my images and now I feel like the galleries I’m now delivering are the best galleries I’ve ever delivered. I’m really excited about the level of craft that I’ve been able to polish my images to. I feel like that has actually started to change the kind of clients I’m able to get and also elevated my perceived value in terms of what people think I’m worth and what people are willing to pay me.”
Future Trends
Looking ahead, the future of AI in photography has unlimited potential. Upcoming developments may include more sophisticated personalization options allowing AI tools to better mimic individual photographers' styles, cameras with built-in AI editors for editing on the go, and integration with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies. AI will continue to elevate the baseline of what is considered good photography. Staying informed about these trends will keep you at the cutting edge of photographic innovation.
Try Narrative Edit Today
Curious to see how AI editing can enhance your photography workflow?
We are currently offering 1,000 free credits to trial Narrative Edit (1 credit = 1 image). We created this app to streamline your editing process and save time on mundane tasks so you have more time to work on creative endeavors. Join the forefront of the photographic industry by embracing AI and see just how much more you can achieve. Start your journey with Narrative Edit now!
