Confessions of a Liar
Father forgive me for I have sinned. Actually, it’s more of a “If you build it they will come” type of situation and, well, I just couldn’t resist.
No, it wasn’t the most egregious (there it is, I just succumbed again (and yet again)) of sins, but I did it. I used generative auto-fill to correct a flaw in my composition (and to complete a word I began typing (and to allow autocorrect to correct my horrible spelling)). AI is creeping into our lives and, try as I might, it’s hard to resist. My excuse is simply that I was too lazy to be meticulous in photographing the orchids (it was a for-fun shoot for heaven’s sake) and I will wholly admit that I’m a lazy bum.
Here is the original non-AI image.
You notice that dark splotch under the . . . who knows what it’s called (I’m too lazy to look it up . . . like I said), but it’s there. Looking at it now, my camera should have been just a bit higher and possibly to the left (I’m talking 1” higher and 1/2” to the left). Not much at all. I wouldn’t call it laziness as much as nonobservant. I would have corrected it in camera had I seen it. But I didn’t so I didn’t.
After I wrote the post, uploaded it and it went online, the thought hit me that, hey, I could fill that in. So I went back to Lightroom and tried the usual “heal” tools, but none of them worked - the correction looked horrible. Then I realized that one of them has a Beta version of their AI generator and I gave it a try.
Definitely better. Of course I went online to correct it.
Does it change the intent of the image? No. Is it truly a substantive change? I don’t think so. But these things can be a slippery slope. So I decided I would shame myself and confess in the hope that the next time I’ll be a bit more careful, a bit more observant and not be tempted to delve into the dark side.
Yeah, right. We’ll see how that goes.
I will tell you now, though, it used to be I was fearful of the day that true robots arrived. Not any more. Ann and I are not ashamed to say that once an affordable robot is released onto the market that can help around the house, we’re finding a way to buy it! A Roomba and robotic lawn mower just don’t cut it.