Floral Friday – How good is AI really?

I had planned to go out and take photos in the garden this morning, but it was too windy and too sunny. Then I thought about another photo of a flower I had. I decided to take another look at it.

So I got it out and put it up on my laptop. Take a look.

I showed this image to my husband Dave and asked him what he thought.

His first reaction was “you have used AI to generate that”. I said no I didn’t, and he wouldn’t believe me. He asked me how I did it and I said I used textures of cracked paint and other ones and then made the pieces look like they were falling out.

I don’t know how good the image really is, but it is something I have always liked.

We thought we would run an experiment.

I opened up the image that I used originally and then we asked AI to make the flower look like cracked porcelain. It didn’t work.

I tried lots and lots of things to see if I could get something like the image above.

I’m not going to show you everything I got, but I will show you the closest.

I think we can agree that it isn’t anything like the first one. There are cracks, but not really on the flower. I don’t even think the flower looks like porcelain.

I tried lots of different instructions. I tried selecting just the flower and that was even worse.

I think the moral to this image is that AI still has a long way to go. While it can be good for the simple things that take you a long time, for more complex things maybe it isn’t there yet. Either that or I am not using the right instructions.

The other thing now is if you do the work yourself are you going to have to defend it against people accusing you of using AI?

Interesting times ahead, what do you think?

 

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36 Comments

  1. Dear Leanne
    AI is as good as the person who uses it. It’s like with a pen or a brush. The pen or brush is as good as the person using it. For me it’s obvious that photographers should learn to use AI as they already use a sophisticated technology, their cameras, to express what they want to. It’s only logical to go on and use the most advanced technology.
    Nevertheless one has to learn to use it and one has to train it.
    The Fab Four of Cley
    šŸ™‚ šŸ™‚ šŸ™‚ šŸ™‚

    1. Well, you asked ‘how good is AI?’ and that’s my answer to it.
      I didn’t see it as a critique. Nevertheless I don’t think that it’s important if you can see how a picture is produced. All what matters is the quality of a picture. But that’s a different question.
      Klausbernd šŸ™‚

  2. I don’t think I’m at the point of thinking every manipulated/edited photo I see could have been generated by AI, but perhaps that’s because I like to fiddle with editing too and recognise the wide range of effects you can get. I like what you did with that flower – very clever! I also like the AI image however even though it isn’t what you were aiming for šŸ™‚

    1. I don’t think I am either Sarah, though I do see pictures at times and I think they are AI generated, but I think that has more to do with my experience of how AI generated images can look. Thank you, that is good to hear, I have to admit I was disappointed with the AI image, but I think that has more to do with how I couldn’t get it how I wanted. šŸ˜€

  3. If you have to “tutor” the AI and it still get’s it wrong time after time, is the final result really AI generated? Like a pencil that needs sharpening. Not going to happen unless driven by human desire. I’m not sure emotion can be coded.

    1. I don’t know, you do have to give it instructions, but I think it shows that AI still has a long way to go. Thank you.

  4. I know from experience as an amateur photographer, that photos can give unusual results (like when I photographed the bush beside my building’s back entrance and a white picket fence was showing in the lower half). Not only is there no white fence, but I don’t think I’ve photographed a white picket fence in my life, only 2 white picket gates.

  5. I do like the last photo. Honestly, I didn’t even know what the first image was until I read your post. Yes, AI does have a long way to go.

  6. I think the petal with the cracked paint texture is absolutely stunning – and yes, I would probably think it was done with AI, but you really did a great job!

  7. I tend to use AI purely as a guide and one could even argue that it is my editor. I will write a draft article, and ask it to review, analyse, and rate the draft in question. Sometimes it come out with a whole load of gobbledygook, and sometimes it seems to knock the nail on the head. It’s great for correcting my spelling and typos!

    1. That’s interesting Ian, I’ve never used it for writing, but I like playing around with it with my photos, or creating images. I agree sometimes the results are crap and other times they are brilliant, thank you Ian.

  8. Well, your image is interesting, and certainly way more so than the AI effort. But you know me, I don’t ‘play’ with images, so I’m not the right person to ask!

    1. I think it is like asking you if you like a painting, if you don’t paint you can still tell if you like it or not, if you get my drift Margaret. So I am asking more that sort of standpoint. Thank you Margaret.

    1. Thank you John, the other image is what I was trying to get AI to mimick what I did, but I guess it shows what the image was sort of like.

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