Joanne Mason Photography

AI and Traditional Photography:Landscapes Nature Abstracts Fine Art

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
Albert Einstein

New AI – Home in the Mountains

New AI – Home in the Mountains

I am continuing my experiments and explorations with AI-imaging. I’ve been exploring contemporary homes in the environment. This image was created with generative AI, then edited in Luminar Neo. As I have suggested before, AI, in combination with other more traditional editing approaches(*), is a useful tool for visualizing ideas and creating images that may realize those ideas. This image is among my first ones exploring mountain and/or desert settings.

(*) It’s worth noting that the tools in more traditional photo editing programs, like Photoshop, Lightroom, and Luminar Neo – the ones I use – and others, are increasingly being implemented using AI. Increasingly, it may sometimes happen in editing traditional photographs that we are using AI without fully realizing it.

Visit the AI Portfolio for more images.

Joanne

4 responses to “New AI – Home in the Mountains”

  1. Steve Schwartzman Avatar
    Steve Schwartzman

    Where do you come down on the question of who the creator of a photograph like this one is?

    Reply
    1. Joanne Avatar
      Joanne

      I am. Let me explain. I use the A.I. as a tool for generating images that realize a particular vision or idea that is conveyed through detailed instructions I formulate. If I simply told an A.I. “make me a picture of a house,” I obviously have no control over what the computer produces. In that case, I can lay n o real claim to “creator.” But I tell it I want a house, what kind of house (contemporary design, open to nature) I want, where I want it (in a desert but mountainous region, with rock formations around the house leading to larger mountains in the distance). I tell it to include water in the image. I want the house open to the mountains and facing an open valley somewhat to the right. I want sunlight streaming down from the mountains illuminating the front of the house. I want the location of the viewer (me) to be such that I’m looking down the valley to the mountains, not directly to the home which is more at my side.

      I think comparing it to painting is probably better than comparing it to a camera. I’m painting a landscape. I have definite ideas about what I want to depict. I may even lay out a preliminary sketch. As I paint, I may modify my thinking or think of additional details to be placed in the painting. Are the brushes, the paints, creating the painting? No. I am. As I paint, I may have in my mind not just other paintings I have done, but many others I have seen. Maybe even subconsciously. I may even utilize some geometric formulas or conventions (maybe even a device!) to achieve my vision. I am the creator of the picture, regardless whatever tools, materials, devices, instruments, memory I may rely on.

      The great advantage of using the A.I. is that it helps to render images much more quickly, maybe alternative realizations for me to consider. That makes it a great tool for exploring ideas. It provides access to a greater store of “memory” from which to draw from, and it renders these things quickly for me to consider in terms of my vision. And it helps turn my vision, conveyed by detailed instructions, into a final image. But it’s still a tool, and the result is still a painting, and I am the creator.

      And that’s not necessarily all. I can subsequently use all my image editing tools, including my tools for editing photographic images. It’s still me doing all that, and the resulting image is still my creation.

      Reply
      1. Steve Schwartzman Avatar
        Steve Schwartzman

        I appreciate your detailed answer. You’ve clearly thought a lot about this hot topic. Have you ever tried the experiment of going back to the same A.I. program, giving exactly the same instructions as before, and seeing how similar or different the result is?

        Reply
        1. Joanne Avatar
          Joanne

          Yes. In fact, I do this often in one session, looking at different representations of the same instructions. Sometimes, I’ll modify the instructions to get closer to what I want. But often I’ll run it again with the same instructions. I admit there is an element of chance. But it’s still like painting. Set ten painters the same task, and you’ll get 10, maybe similar but definitely different, paintings. Or, paint the same subject or vision multiple times. You’ll get different paintings, possibly with only subtle differences, possibly with more significant differences.

          In fact, the A.I.program I use will, upon request, produce variations of an image I’ve somewhat settled on. Doesn’t alter my belief that I am in control of the process and can claim authorship, so to speak.

          Reply

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