I don’t have a problem with that AI image of Trump and Xi Jinping being edited. I have a problem with how carelessly it’s been finished.
Taking people out to focus attention on the two leaders? Fair enough. That’s a creative decision. You can debate whether you like it, but removing a distraction doesn’t automatically make an image bad.
The missing glove? The strangely distorted honour guard? Those are harder to defend.
What creative purpose do they serve? What do they improve? They’re the sort of details a careful retoucher should spot before the image goes anywhere near the public. That’s where the conversation about AI slop gets muddled. We lump deliberate changes and obvious mistakes together, as though they’re all evidence of the same uncontrollable thing that AI decides.
They aren’t. Choosing to remove someone from a composition is a decision. Failing to notice that the people you’ve kept look wrong is an oversight that can be changed.
Photography has a long history of being shaped with retouching. Darkroom work, airbrushing, Photoshop… we’ve spent decades refining images and directing the viewer’s attention. I still hear clients talk about airbrushing them, a technology that we no longer use in its traditional form as photoshop took over that function. What does AI do? Well, like photoshop, it gives us another way to do that same retouching or ‘airbrushing’.
I have spent 30 years working with photoshop as a designer for 10+ and then as a photographer. I have a wealth of experience retouching images. Getting a result from an AI prompt quickly, doesn’t mean you have skills. Though, sometimes just the eye for detail can make it a winning shot even if you don’t have the experience to fall back on. Does the anatomy make sense? Do the clothes hold together? Has the tool improved one part of the picture while quietly wrecking another?
If we’re going to defend AI as a creative tool, and I think we should, then we ought to demand good work from it because it’s ease of use in the hands of those without any experience is something that can damage it’s reputation.
That’s the thinking behind Augmented Imagery. Real photography, thoughtfully developed, with someone taking responsibility for the finished image.
By all means, change the composition. Just check the gloves.
The impossible, made possible.
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