There is a lot of discussion about how and when the use of artificial intelligence techniques might be appropriate in photography. Might Simon have found at least one uncontroversial use of AI?
There has been a lot of discussion about the use of AI to create or edit photographs, and rightly so. I haven't done any more yet than play with one of the on-line AI photo generating tools for illustrating articles where I haven't found a suitable photograph (see the example above generated using Stable Diffusion). This has nothing to do with my photography. I have however got a bit further into using Google's Gemini (formerly called Bard) which is similar to ChatGPT in being an AI engine dealing predominantly with text.
When you post an image to a stock photography website you are often invited, even required, to add to the image text tags which help people searching for images to find yours. It can take quite a while to come up with these tags. There are dedicated software tools that can help devise them, but I wondered how well Gemini would get on. The answer is pretty well.
My approach is to ask a request which gives a basic definition of the image. Maybe something like:
"Write a list of keywords for a photograph of Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol at sunset. A Ford Focus car is waiting at the toll barrier and a male pedestrian is on the footpath."
The response was as follows:
When you post an image to a stock photography website you are often invited, even required, to add to the image text tags which help people searching for images to find yours. It can take quite a while to come up with these tags. There are dedicated software tools that can help devise them, but I wondered how well Gemini would get on. The answer is pretty well.
My approach is to ask a request which gives a basic definition of the image. Maybe something like:
"Write a list of keywords for a photograph of Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol at sunset. A Ford Focus car is waiting at the toll barrier and a male pedestrian is on the footpath."
The response was as follows:
Sure, here are some keywords for a photograph of Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol at sunset, with a Ford Focus car waiting at the toll barrier and a male pedestrian on the footpath:
Here are some additional details that you may want to include in the keywords:
- Clifton Suspension Bridge
- Bristol
- Sunset
- Ford Focus
- Pedestrian
- Male
- Footpath
- Avon Gorge
- England
- United Kingdom
- Landmark
- Tourist destination
- Architecture
- Engineering
- Transportation
- Travel
- Landscape
- Nature
- Beauty
- Romance
- Inspiration
Here are some additional details that you may want to include in the keywords:
- The time of year (e.g., summer, fall, winter, spring)
- The weather conditions (e.g., sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy)
- The angle of the shot (e.g., from the top of the bridge, from the bottom of the gorge, from a nearby park)
- Any other interesting features in the photo (e.g., people, boats, wildlife)
I think that's quite harmless and useful. I would tweak the list of keywords, adding some and removing some, but it's not a bad starting point and could save a lot of time.