A Note on AI-Assisted Editing
You may start noticing “Made with AI” or “AI Info” labels popping up on photos across social media, and I want to share what this means when it comes to the images I take and deliver.
Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, TikTok and other social media platforms scan image metadata. There’s a standard called C2PA that gets embedded when I use certain editing tools. The platforms read it and automatically apply the label.
Here’s a breakdown of how AI shows up in my editing process.
The everyday stuff: Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop both have AI-powered tools built right in, and I use them to clean up distractions that pull focus from you. Weird patches of sand, strangers who are hanging out in the background, hair whipping across a face in the wind.
The occasional stuff: Every so often I’ll use generative AI for something more specific, like covering a diaper peeking out… the generative AI creates shorts or extends a toddlers dress. I’ve also used it to expand the background (so I can get you, the subject, framed better than what I took – it’ll generate more background for me). This is a small percentage of images, and it’s always about refining what actually happened during your session, not manufacturing something new.
If you search the difference between Generative AI and AI Assistance, this is what you get: Generative AI builds completely new content from prompts, while an AI assistant editing tool works on your existing material to fix mistakes, clean audio, or suggest structural changes.
Unfortunately, if you share images on social media and get this flag and don’t want it there, I don’t have a great solution for you at this time. I suspect this tag will eventually be put on SO MUCH content that is shared online, that it will be something we all become numb to, but I don’t know for sure.
Also, I’d like to share that Adobe has provided statements that they are not using the images I take and edit in their tools to train any AI models. So, that might provide a little bit of comfort to y’all.
Anywhosies, I care a lot about keeping your beach session realistic. The AI tools help me polish that. If you ever have a question about how a specific image was edited, just ask. I’m always happy to talk through it.
