Editing and AI

Nikon D810, 80-400mm, 1/200, f4.5, ISO 12,800

The debate about artificial intelligence in photo editing is far from over. At what point does a photo stop being a photo and become an AI creation? Though I don’t hope to definitively answer the question here, I can at least provide a sample from the borderland.

I took the photo above during yesterday’s Central Avenue Dia de los Muertos parade. If you click on it to get a better view of the details, you’ll see just how grainy it is. That’s an inevitable consequence of cranking the ISO way up, which in turn is an inevitable consequence of working in low light (a nearby streetlight was the best I could find) without flash (too far away from the subjects for the flash to be of much use).

So when I got it home and loaded it into Lightroom, I ran a noise reduction filter on the image. Interestingly enough, the app made a copy of the original and then officially designated the filtered version as “Enhanced-NR” indicating that it had been altered using AI.

As ever, my goal is for the image to reproduce the experience, to show what I saw. The grainy photo definitely wasn’t what I was after. The noise-reduced version is a lot closer to reality.

But here’s the issue: it has also taken on an AI-view-of-the-world visual quality. If you typed “woman celebrating Dia de los Muertos” into a generative AI system, you’d likely get something more surreal than this. Still, that same sense of light and color that algorithms bring to their own products ... well, that’s what this looks like, too. 

And the last thing I’d ever want as a photographer would be an image that looked like a machine made it up.

Food truck edit

Combination of two photos

Here’s the challenge: I’m after a shot of the art on the side of a food truck. I want the whole side of the truck in the shot to give the art some context (“food truck” rather than “painting”). But when I step back far enough to get the whole truck in the frame, I end up with a sign blocking the shot.

Nikon D810, 28mm (28-105), 1/125, f/8, ISO 100

So I got another photo of the painting from closer in, with no sign blocking the view.

Nikon D810, 28mm (28-105), 1/125, f/14, ISO 100

Photoshop to the rescue! Back at home, I combined the two pictures. In the wide shot, the sign blocked only a small chunk of the art, so I needed only a little bit of the other photo. A mask, a free transform, a small perspective warp and a brightness adjustment made the replacement piece match quite well with the rest of the image. Then a crop cut out some unnecessary background elements.

Yarn bombs

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/500, f/4.0, ISO 100

On our recent trip to Arkansas I opted to forego my usual habit of running all over the place like a crazy person trying to get photos. Instead, I drove into Eureka Springs one morning and spent some calm time taking pictures in a small park full of yarn-bombed trees.

The experience gave me the chance to keep an eye on the histograms of the photos I was taking, resulting in some good exposures and clear color reproduction.

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 18mm (18-35), 1/60, f/11, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 48mm (28-105), 1/60, f/6.3, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 105mm (28-105), 1/60, f/4.5, ISO 250

Nikon 810, 75mm (28-105), 1/60, f/8, ISO 250

360 Bar light adjustment

iPhone 7, cropped and altered

For my 365th day in a row, I went in search of a scene with “365” in it. And I ended up settling for 360.

Cropped and straightened, this wasn’t a bad shot. Except for one thing: to get the light levels adjusted properly for the shot as a whole, I had to make the interesting part (the folks behind the counter) too dark.

Enter Photoshop. I masked off the stand’s window (easy enough, as it was close to a simple rectangle). Then I could adjust the light levels separately.

For my blog, this wasn’t a problem at all. But if I took this picture for a newspaper, odds are this kind of alteration would be considered an ethics violation. Even though the result produced a photo that accurately reproduced what I saw when I took it, masking is considered a slippery slope for folks whose reputations depend on publication of unaltered images.

Here’s the photo as shot:

iPhone 7

Roman Candle HDR

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 5 sec., f/22, ISO 400, cropped, three shots combined via HDR

High Dynamic Range editing is designed to bring out the best of all parts of a picture, blending the properly exposed sections of multiple shots into one image. But every once in awhile the resulting image is actually greater than the sum of its parts.

The picture above was created by using Photoshop’s HDR option to combine the three photos below.

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 5 sec., f/22, ISO 400

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 5 sec., f/22, ISO 400

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 5 sec., f/22, ISO 400

I shot these by mounting the camera on a tripod and tilting up to photograph the tree above me while a friend shot a Roman candle amid the branches. I honestly had no idea what we’d get, so I was pleasantly surprised by the result.

Tattoo machines

Nikon D7000, 35mm (35-80), 1/40, f/4.5, ISO 1000, focus stacked

The topic for this week is focus stacking. This is a handy digital post-production tool that allows you to create shots with a ton of depth of field even if your lens and lighting conditions made you shoot shallower when you were in the field.

Take a close look at the four photos below. The light in my friend Danny’s tattooing room generally isn’t the best for photography (though when he’s working he uses a better light). As you can see from the tech specs, I’m pushing my equipment nearly as far as I can. The shutter is at 1/40; any slower and I’ll start getting camera shake. The aperture is at 4.5, the wider end of the lens’s range. The ISO is at 1000; any higher, and the photos may start showing grain and inaccurate color.

But with these settings, I can’t keep the whole subject in focus. As you can see, each shot blurs at least part of the rack of Danny’s machines.

That’s where focus stacking comes in. Photoshop (and other software packages) will automatically combine several photos into a single image, using only the crisply in-focus parts of each shot. It also rotates and shifts photos automatically so they all line up. So all I have to do is make sure I shoot a series with enough partially-focused shots that Photoshop can then merge into a wholly focused image.

The outcome is the picture at the top of this post. The results aren’t always completely perfect. You can see some awkward blurring along the left edge, which I would have cropped out if I wasn’t using this as an example. But it’s way better than the unwelcome bokeh I was getting thanks to the limits I was working with.

Not that bokeh doesn’t have its place, even in this shoot.

Nikon D7000, 35mm (35-80), 1/40, f/4.5, ISO 1000

Nikon D7000, 35mm (35-80), 1/40, f/4.5, ISO 1000

Nikon D7000, 35mm (35-80), 1/40, f/4.5, ISO 1000

Nikon D7000, 35mm (35-80), 1/40, f/4.5, ISO 1000

The Patriot

Nikon D7000, 72mm (28-200), 1/640, f/6.3, ISO 200, cropped

First rule of late season visits to Worlds of Fun: leave well before Haunt gets underway. None of the photos I tried to take after dark worked out. However, I did have some fun earlier in the day.

The first ride my group went on was The Patriot, one of the park’s many roller coasters. I managed to find a spot that gave me a couple of good angles. The shot above proved to be a good example of how to imply movement in a “frozen motion” shot via body angles. You can tell that the coaster is moving with some speed because otherwise the seats couldn’t be at that angle.

The other way to convey motion is through blur. I propped the camera on a fence so I could slow the shutter down enough to blur the moving coaster here:

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/10, f/22, ISO 100, adjusted

Then I decided to have a little fun with it. I shot a series of pictures with the coaster at several spots along the track. Then I used layers in Photoshop to combine them all into one picture that shows the whole sequence.

Nikon D3000, 10.5mm, 1/125, f/10, ISO 100, edited

Wyandotte County Courthouse

Nikon D3000, 18mm (18-55), 1/250, f/8, ISO 100, cropped

Earlier this week I shot some pictures of the Wyandotte County Courthouse. This is part of a project I’m working on for the Kansas Association for Justice.

I started out with some standard angles such as the one above. But I swiftly found myself captivated by the small details. For example, I liked the oil derricks in this bit of ornamentation:

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 280, edited

 As you can see from the wide shot, the sky was completely cloudless, and as a result the shadows were fairly harsh. Photoshop helped even out the highs and lows. It also removed some of the perspective distortion that came from shooting from a low angle.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 400

I was also quite fond of the details and colors on the fixtures on the front stairs (also visible in the wider shot).

Plaza bunnies

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 1/200, f/7.1, ISO 200

For years we’ve been meaning to get down to the Plaza during the Easter season and photograph the giant rabbits. This year we finally did it.

This shot was extremely popular on Facebook. It got more likes than anything else I’ve ever posted.

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 1/200, f/7.1, ISO 200, adjusted and cropped

Largely because of the shade, the photo needed some adjusting in Camera Raw. I switched the white balance to “auto,” changed the levels on the shadows and whites, and moved the clarity up a bit. I also took advantage of the lens distortion correction feature, which had built-in settings for the Nikon lens I used and fixed some of the bloating caused by the low focal length. This is what the original looked like:

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 1/200, f/7.1, ISO 200

My only big disappointment was the bunnies’ eyes. They used to be red light bulbs that created a glowing devil bunny effect at night.

Photoshop to the rescue!

Nikon D7000, 22mm (18-55), 1/125, f/8, ISO 100, cropped and altered

Cathedral of the Plains

Combination of several shots

The trip to Hays and thereabouts took us to the Cathedral of the Plains. I neglected to bring a tripod, so I didn’t think I’d get suitably awesome shots inside. But I had some fun shooting outside.

The example above is actually stitched together from a set of shots, the first time I ever tried this Photoshop feature on anything other than a straight left-to-right pan. It produced some interesting results (note the odd bend to the tower on the left).

Nikon D7000, 35mm, 1/320, f/9, ISO 100

I also took some less elaborate photos. The framing on this shot was fun, with the curve of the rose window forming a halo around the statue’s head.

Guanyin

Nikon D7000, 10.5mm, 1/30, f/2.8, ISO 1600, edited

Ever since I was a kid I’ve loved the room in the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art where a statue of Guanyin is displayed. She sits in a temple-like gallery with a giant mural of Nirvana behind her. The atmosphere is delightfully quiet and contemplative.

It’s also a pain to photograph. The uneven lighting that makes the room so nice also makes it difficult to get a good exposure. Thus I needed to employ a little post-production trickery.

Nikon D7000, 10.5mm, 1/30, f/2.8, ISO 1600

I walked away with a good exposure of the statue, but the background looked pale and discolored. After a try or two, I found that I couldn’t bring out the deeper greens on the wall without trashing the subtle reds on the statue.

Enter the mask. I divided the image into two layers (one for the statue and one for the rest of the photo). By masking off everything but the statue on the topmost layer, I was able to leave it unedited while adjusting the wall behind it. Slight changes to the levels and color balance got me the look I remembered.

I briefly considered taking the reds in the carpet down a bit so they wouldn’t distract from the art. But upon further reflection I decided I kinda liked what they did to the visual flow of the piece.

Stained glass

Nikon D7000, 50mm, 1/60, f/4, ISO 1250, edited and cropped

I’m a great fan of stained glass windows, and I enjoy photographing them when I get the chance. However, I’ve frequently found the angles challenging. Naturally what I’d like in a photo is a straight-on view of the window. But they’re frequently some distance above eye level. I haven’t yet mastered the art of levitation, and I don’t tend to carry a ladder with me (especially not into museums or churches). So I’m usually stuck with awkward distortions.

Photoshop once again to the rescue. The lens correction filter allows for at least some correction of distortions such as a bad camera angle. Thus a photo such as the original shot (below) can be adjusted to look more like what I’m after (above).

Nikon D7000, 50mm, 1/60, f/4, ISO 1250

The stadium in winter

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 1/60, f/10, ISO 250, adjusted

There’s nothing like cloudy winter light to grab what little color might be found in your shot and leech it right out. Add a brisk wind and you’ve got some exposure challenges.

I started this shot by concentrating on the proper exposure for the people. The detail and colors of the clothes are accurate. But the rest of the scene looks highly washed out. What to do?

Photoshop to the rescue. By using the magnetic lasso and doing some correction in quick mask mode, I was able to generate a layer mask to keep my subjects safe from the edits I needed to do on the rest of the photo. After that, a simple level adjustment brought out the color a bit, making the scene look more natural.

Here’s what it looked like to start:

Nikon D7000, 18mm (18-55), 1/60, f/10, ISO 250

Little Bighorn

Canon EOS 10D, 17mm (17-40), 1/180, f/10, ISO 100, edited and altered

As I was working on the Photo Safari board on Pinterest last week, I noticed a serious omission: I never blogged any of the photos I took at the Little Bighorn battlefield in July 2011. The rest of that journey was reasonably well represented with entries on the Black Hills and Badlands, but the main point of going up north to begin with somehow managed to slip into a crack between the floorboards.


Problem rectified. I took this photo looking down from Reno-Benteen Hill into the Little Bighorn valley. From this spot the units of the Seventh Cavalry who weren’t killed with Custer held off the Sioux (who bought time for their families to escape by keeping the troops besieged). The cenotaphs mark the spots where some of the cavalry’s Indian scouts died.

This photo went through standard edits to bring the colors out a bit more, which I kinda hated to do. We were there on a scorching hot summer afternoon very much like the day the battle was fought more than a century ago. So the colors here are more vivid than I remembered them.

I also removed a “keep off the grass” sign. The original photo looked like this:

Canon EOS 10D, 17mm (17-40), 1/180, f/10, ISO 100

Omaha Zoo – Sea Lions

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/1000, f/5.6, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

The sea lions were a study in harsh lighting. They’re outdoors in an area with little shade. Further, their tank was being cleaned (to the considerable chagrin of the largest among them), and with most of the water gone the sun reflecting off the walls and bottom of the enclosure made good exposures a real challenge. All the pictures in this set have been treated to a level adjustment of one kind or another.

Still, the sea lions make great subjects. Proper exposure brings out their textures, slick if they’re wet and furry if they’re dry.

Nikon D7000, 135mm (28-200), 1/1250, f/9, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

As with people, look for shots of animals interacting. It brings out personality that you might not see in individuals by themselves.

Nikon D7000, 42mm (28-200), 1/500, f/11, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

This was a fun shot. The water wasn’t quite deep enough for the large sea lion to make it back up to the rocks. Though his attempt made a splash. Literally.

Nikon D7000, 135mm (28-200), 1/800, f/5.6, ISO 400, cropped and retouched

The last one is my favorite of the set. This sea lion looks so comfy and happy swimming around.

Omaha Zoo – Cats

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/200, f/5.6, ISO 1000, cropped and retouched

For the next few weeks The Photographer’s Sketchbook is going to consider the fine art of taking pictures of animals in zoos, using shots I took during a recent trip to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Let’s start with the big cats, such as the fine specimen above.

Here we have a tiger in close to ideal circumstances for indoor zoo photography. Reasonably good light. No bars. And the subject appears at ease. The photo required a bit of cropping to eliminate some foreground clutter. And the image had an odd blue tint that fortunately came right out with a minor color level adjustment.

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/20, f/5.6, ISO 1000, cropped

That isn’t to say that a bar-free indoor shot is always low hanging fruit. This puma was posing perfectly (she actually seemed to respond positively to being photographed), but the light in her enclosure was so shadowy that the low shutter speed required for the shot added some camera shake and marred the image.

At least it gave me an excuse to try the new shake reduction filter in Photoshop CC:

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/20, f/5.6, ISO 1000, retouched

Still, it’s better to get the shot to start with rather than rely on editing to fix mistakes. I’ve tried the shake filter on some other photos with less impressive results.

Nikon D7000, 35mm (28-200), 1/60, f/4, ISO 400, cropped

Speaking of bars, they’re one of the biggest problems you’ll face photographing in zoos. Outdoor light couldn’t have been any better when we were there. But if the subject is close to her bars, the bars are going to end up in the shot.

Nikon D7000, 72mm (28-200), 1/320, f/5, ISO 200

Even the best pose won’t help an image that says “jail” way more than “magnificent creature.”

Nikon D7000, 200mm (28-200), 1/160, f/5.6, ISO 400, cropped

On the other hand, if the subject is farther away from his bars, then you may be able to zoom in, focus tight on the subject and make the bars so blurry that they practically disappear. You can see a little fuzziness caused by the out-of-focus mesh of this jaguar’s cage, but for the most part they’re invisible.

Nikon D7000, 32mm (28-200), 1/200, f/7.1, ISO 1000, cropped

However big a pain those bars can be, they’re still a good idea. As I’m sure the kids in this photo would agree (especially the kid on the right).