Let’s face it, when we have a photographic portrait we want to look good. Or at least cool? Maybe mysterious? With a background in Advertising, Creative Director Carl Brady is unequivocal about his approach:
“I want the sitter to look compelling. To show something of themselves but leave something hidden too, make the viewer curious”
Carl Brady Creative Director at Big Stick Photography
Using photoshop allows retouching the image to remove blemishes, change backgrounds even add make up. Ai portraiture provides a whole new pallet of magical effects. So much so, that the biggest challenge is to contain your creativity and to make the image still resemble the sitter!
Ai Portraiture-an adventure in creativity?
An Ai portrait provides a highly polished, idealistic, romanticised image. Equally you can have it in the style of your favourite artist, specify the type of camera used, even specify a famous photographer. You want to be more creative? Go ahead…merge two images together, change perspective, insert unfeasible elements, add in characters, create a character of your sitter. The scope for experimentation is endless.
However, it can be a challenge to make it actually look like the person whose photograph you have scanned in for Ai to interpret. In addition to instructions of how you want your image treated creatively, you also need to provide numerous caveats about what NOT to do Ie don’t touch the hands! (Ai often has a weakness for hands and can often render them with 6 fingers or malformed!)
Spreading like forest fire
Ai portraits are fun and exciting to work with but whilst it is developing like a forest fire, it is not the final solution yet. You still need a creative steering the boat and you still need to be succinct and knowledgeable in the instructions you give the software (in this case Mid-Journey) but it is a new tool which will revolutionise our industry. Will it take jobs away from photographers like those at Big Stick Photography? Well there is that danger but it provides photographers with a tool to give them limitless creativity to provide fantastical photographic portraits at potentially less cost to produce. So as Creative Director Carl Brady suggests:
“Lets embrace Ai as another creative tool we can use to come up with crazily imaginative images to make our sitters look breathtaking”
Carl Brady, photographer
Now, that can’t be a bad thing can it?
To Book a photographic studio or location shoot with Big Stick Photographer & Creative Director Carl Brady (with or without Ai) please call 01442 828883 or 07952 641999 or email; carl@bigstick.co.uk
Big Stick studio and Ai Portraiture
Below are portraits of Amelia in the Big Stick studio’s & some Ai portraiture. Can you can tell the difference? And is the there sufficient likeness to the original subject?
