Ai and the Creative Process

Written By Mark Bohrer

I write my own blog posts and shoot my own pictures. Any mistakes, questionable composition or oversights here are all my own. While I admit that Ai is useful for certain tasks, I prefer my own unique creativity over some programmer's rule-based Ai search and / or synthesis.

Every photographer develops a unique voice over time. That voice reflects subject choice, placing that subject, foreground and background choices, sharp everywhere versus focus-isolating the subject, near-far perspective, lighting, framing, the phase of the moon, and hundreds of other factors. The way I place and focus a dog, a person, a building, a mountain in surroundings is unique.

Ai Photography?

Taylor before…

When I select pictures to work on in post, I'll use Ai to cull. AfterShoot discards most of the unsharp shots (unless that was the point in a few of them), the shots with unsharp eyes in particular, and the grossly under- or over-exposed shots. I'll go through the chosen shots and pick my selects. Since AfterShoot also groups near-duplicates, I'll pick the one I like the best - not always the one AfterShoot likes the best.

…and Taylor after

Then I'll go back for shots I remembered shooting and liking, but AfterShoot rejected. This sounds more involved than it is. AfterShoot saves me a lot of time compared to manually looking at every image I shot in Photo Mechanic.

Jessie before…

After file import to Lightroom Classic, I'll use Ai to remove dog leashes (if there are any) plus branches that cover important details, and have it help me place skies, foregrounds, backgrounds and subjects into separate masked layers. These are all things I used to do by hand in wet and digital darkrooms. Again, Ai saves me time.

…and Jessie after.

No, I Don't Think So

I then apply exposure, contrast, and sometimes color saturation adjustments to those separate masked layers. Ai never does any of the adjustments or any cropping for me. It will never replace anyone's unique creativity and style. Before you even start working, it cannot choose a subject for you, in any creative discipline. That's up to you.

More Information

Aftershoot (nd), Cull. Edit. Retouch.Your Complete AI Workflow. Retrieved from https://aftershoot.com/

Talru Film and Video (1 year ago), Lightroom AI Denoise tutorial | Say goodbye to noisy photos. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K8DuWuyyHk

Adobe (Last updated on Oct 27, 2025), Masking tool. Retrieved from https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/masking.html

Mark Bohrer
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