Craft Does Not Come with a Prompt
Some days ago, while finishing an edit, a question came to mind. What is the role of AI in my creative process.
I think the creative industry has faced this new technology from the beginning and it has divided the community. Those against and those who are not. Every new release feels like a big leap. Better colours, sharper images, limitless opportunities, faster work.
And while some of that is true, great technology is still just technology.
Used with purpose, as part of a process, it can help. Sometimes.
As someone who makes a living creating images, manipulating light and building intent around it, this is where I feel AI falls short.
AI responds and outputs based on the quality of the prompt. It has been built with algorithms that tell it how this or that should be done. And at that job it excels. Many of our phones have been doing this for years. But what AI cannot achieve is intention. The understanding of what a photographer, a designer, an architect was trying to say, achieve and why.
As a photographer, light means everything. Sometimes the right exposure is not the intended one. Some images need to be more moody. Some need less. How lights are placed, what a particular light was there to do, these are things AI does not understand.
Most of the time AI is not even present. I do not carry an AI assistant I can consult on location. Instead that conversation is happening with real people. The architects, the designers, the clients. What is the intention here. What needs to be communicated. Let us try this, or that. Those decisions are made without AI and they cannot be fully understood by it later.
Yes, those exposures could be uploaded into an AI portal and the process handed over. But the algorithm was trained to achieve a seamless result based on what it was taught. So all the effort and intention built during production can be lost in post.
I personally feel that taking the photographs is just one third of the job. The other two thirds happen in post. And only a human editor can see and understand what was built on the day.
AI has a place in this process. For small corrections, quick fixes, the things that would otherwise eat time without adding anything. As a tool, used with purpose, it works. But a tool is only as good as the hands holding it and the mind directing it.
Because the work that matters is the result of a conversation that started long before anyone set foot on site. It begins the moment a client describes what they have designed, what they have built, and why it matters to them. That conversation is human. The edit that honours it should be too.
