The Robots Are Coming! Or, Why I am Not Embracing AI in My Wedding Photography Business

27 Jun

Hey there. Life mid-wedding season is a hectic, sweaty affair, but I’m popping this post up to talk about something that’s been on my mind recently. I’ll try to keep it short and lighthearted, because this topic has the potential to be drier than a Jacob’s Cream Cracker challenge during a heatwave, and we’re all busy people. But I think it’s important, because it’s probably the biggest change in the photography industry since the invention of the DSLR.

You might immediately think I’m some sort of technology-avoiding, progress-hating yokel, and while it’s true that I do love digging up an allotment with a spade, I also really like technology.

I like using shit hot cameras, I spend more time with my MacBook Pro than I do with my own kids and I even own one of those heated clothes airers from Lakeland. So stick that in your pipe and vape it.

The Jetsons Didn’t Even Have AI

I start most Mondays with an online group chat with a bunch of other photographers. Yesterday we talked about AI, and about companies like Nikon developing cameras that take a photo any time they detect a face, or two faces, and how you could one day stick that on a robot and have it wander around a wedding do our jobs for us. And the same companies are developing onboard AI editing software, so you can shoot and have it edited in camera. And I actually felt a little bit sick. Because the Jetsons didn’t have AI, but you know what they did have?

Robots, schools, whizzy little space cars, and full employment. I’d quite happily have a housekeeping robot named Rosie, but I’d also prefer to retain the skills and human touch my couples require.

If we all embrace these AI tools to write our web copy, design our brands, take and edit our photos to include things that were never there, what comes next? I love this job. I love photographing people in love, and everyone they love in one room, and all the moments that happen between them. So I’m keeping it human, as much as I can, for as long as I can.

That Summer When I used AI

Last year I tried doing loads of editing and culling with AI software. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it would have been cool to just plug my memory cards into the computer and voila, finished galleries 30 minutes later. The reality was a bit underwhelming though. I’m talking queuing for hours at the ice cream van on a hot day only to discover they’ve sold out of magnums level of underwhelm.

Culling is the task I hate the most, but I was still having to hunt through raw files to find all the photos it missed, and sack off half the ones it included. I quite enjoy editing, so I started doing that again myself.

And that was that. I have gone back to editing and culling every photo by hand, by myself, like a 21st century Neanderthal.

Generative Fill-ing Up Weddings With Things That Didn’t Happen

For the uninitiated, this is where the current debate really begins. Generative Fill. A new feature in photoshop that lets you select objects, people, backgrounds, and make something else happen in the photo. Want that bin removed? Need to move people closer together? Perhaps completely change the background from a working mens club in Wigan to Mount Fuji?

This update can do it for you. Just select the bit of the photo you want to change, and write a command into a textbox. It’s like ChatGPT but visual, and it uses Adobe’s enormous stock of images to fill the content. And hundreds of talented editors are weeping into their coffee.

As an aside, I’ve seen a lot of really poor examples of what this software can do. It’s not really ‘there’ yet. Sometimes the results are seamless, but sometimes they’re a horrorshow. Like this example of a wedding videography showreel. But this tech will only get better, and that’s where my concerns come from.

I’m not judging anyone who uses these features to save time and money - we’re running businesses, not hobbies, and none of us have enough hours in the day.

But it’s not for me, because messing about with what really happened on the day just isn’t my jam. The photography I love the most is the stuff that is chaotic, messy, and beautifully human. I just don’t care if a bride’s hair isn’t swooshing exactly right, because that has almost nothing to do with how the entire photo feels. I find the juxtaposition of everyday clutter with wedding day perfection immensely satisfying, and that’s hands down the wankiest thing I’ve ever said about weddings.

My point is, the flaws aren’t imperfections. They’re not even flaws to me. They’re just part of the day. Except for the glowing green fire exit signs all over venues, I’ll get rid of those. Capturing the reality of weddings gets me out of bed every morning. That’s where I find joy in my work.