AI image generation skills paradox

The skills paradox found after the magic of AI image generation wains is that rather than completely removing the need for hard-earned technical skills, it has shifted all that time required for mastery away from tooling and into acquiring a deep understanding of your vision's cultural and historical context.

The test of your proficiency when working with AI image generation is based on your ability to recall and define styles and techniques you might previously have known by sight but have yet to learn the names of. Creating an imperative to read widely about art movements, trends, techniques, and device quirks to get really good at AI image generation.

Here are some photography examples to illustrate the point and get you started.

Vintage and modern cameras have distinctive characteristics photographers use to create unique and identifiable images, a few below.

• Russian Lomo Camera (Lomo LC-A): Known for its vibrant colours, high contrast, and vignette effects, popularising the “Lomography” style.
• Polaroid SX-70: A vintage instant camera loved for its soft, dreamy images with a retro feel.
• Holga 120: A medium-format toy camera famous for its low-fidelity aesthetic with soft focus and vignetting.
• Hasselblad 500 Series: A classic medium-format camera revered for its exceptional image quality and depth, often used in professional portrait and fashion photography.
• Leica M Series (Film): Known for its high-quality lenses and producing sharp, contrasty images with a unique bokeh, a favourite among street photographers.
• Diana Camera: Similar to Holga, it is known for its dreamlike, lo-fi images and artistic light leaks.
• Fujifilm Instax Series: Modern instant cameras produce images with vibrant colours and a distinctly nostalgic feel.
• Canon AE-1 Program: A popular 35mm SLR known for its versatility and for creating sharp, clear images, a favourite among enthusiasts.
• Sony A7 Series (Digital): Modern full-frame mirrorless cameras renowned for their high dynamic range and sharpness, popular in landscape and portrait photography.
• Nikon D850 (Digital): A high-resolution digital SLR is known for its detail, colour accuracy, and versatility in various photography genres.

Photography is peppered with unique errors and techniques that turn flaws into distinct visual styles; here are some interesting ones.

1. Outdated Film: Using expired film can produce unpredictable colour shifts and increased grain, giving photos a unique, often retro look.
2. Light Leaks: Often seen as a flaw in film cameras, light leaks can add unexpected flares, streaks, or areas of overexposure, creating a dreamy, vintage effect.
3. Double Exposure: This technique involves exposing the same film frame to two different images, resulting in a surreal and ethereal blend of both.
4. Bokeh: Deliberately using a shallow depth of field to create an aesthetic quality of the blur in the out-of-focus parts of an image.
5. Cross Processing: This is the deliberate processing of photographic film in a chemical solution intended for a different type of film, leading to odd colour shifts and increased contrast.
6. Lens Flare: Traditionally considered a flaw, lens flare can add a sense of drama or nostalgia to a photo when used intentionally.
7. Pinhole Camera Effect: Using a camera with a tiny pinhole instead of a lens creates images with a unique softness and a very wide depth of field.
8. Motion Blur: Slow shutter speeds capture movement as a blur, which can convey a sense of speed, flow, or time passing.
9. Selective Focus: Using focus to isolate a subject while blurring out the foreground or background, adding depth and emphasis to the subject.
10. Tilt-Shift Photography: Using special lenses or post-processing to create an optical illusion where life-sized locations or subjects appear like miniature-scale models.
11. High ISO Noise: Using a high ISO setting in digital photography increases grain or ‘noise’, which can add a gritty, atmospheric quality to photos.
12. Infrared Photography: Capturing images using infrared light can result in otherworldly landscapes with unusual colours and contrasts.

I’m capturing my experiments here: https://www.instagram.com/exai.lab/