Auto photo editing - win or lose?

I've found this article about automatic photo editing a couple of days ago: Automatic Photo Editor PhotoWorks: A Refreshing Change in the Age of Subscriptions[/url] and thought that AI has been occupying photography more and more. And it certainly gets better and better. What do you guys think of this kind of image editors? IMO, it will likely become something that is put into an app for selfies and used by 'instagrammers', but it will make people look more like a plastic doll.

I'm against auto editing. It's just another thing you shouldn't do while driving ;)

Have tried Auto features in four different editing software packages - though I am not particularly skilled at editing, in every case, prefer my own efforts / versions. Something will likely come along some day that works well and is invaluable to those with work flow issues. I am not one who will ever have that need..

To be followed by automatic cameras aiming and shutter release.

Photoshop (I use CS5) has auto tone, auto contrast, and auto color. Once in a while I try these if I am having trouble visualizing where I should be going with editing. I almost never settle on what these choices produce, but they can occasionally help guide my editing.

I don't have any problem hitting the auto contrast, auto levels, etc just to see what happens.

It is another tool in the tool box, to be used as appropriate. And that is the key, it isn't a 100% replacement for your brain and manual editing. It is up to you to determine when and where it will work. If it works, fine. If it does not work, shift to manual.

AI might be there but it still cannot read YOUR mind and how YOU want the image to look.

As far as editing per se goes, sometimes software can choose the better photo in a sequence (e.g. the Pixel 3 can detect if someone has their eyes closed and reject that image in a burst sequence). As far as processing goes, well, we don't need it, but facial recognition would help with automatically selecting exposure correction in a RAW converter.

I'm not skilled at Lightroom or photoshop or any other editing software. I use my native iMac editing software and almost always "auto adjust" light, color, curves & levels.

It suits me fine, and I'm not into having my images look overly processed anyway. Having said that, I do see some photos that have been really nicely manipulated from time to time, and honestly think that a person who has truly mastered Lightroom can do some nice work with it. A friend of mine does HDR and mild HDR in all his images. He has a way of making his photos pop without applying too heavy a hand at it. Not my thing but I admire his capabilities and his photography is generally pretty great.

I've been quite impressed by Picasa's "I'm feeling lucky" button, applied to moderately odd color RAW files. On BW it got me nowhere. PortraitPro (software) has been on my shopping list for a while and as soon as I 'll be feeling confident about my hardware here, I'll get it.

 

I am no way against automated editing; "Done is better than perfect".

 

Looking at the demos on PhotoWorks' page, I am not(!) happy. When I click the "warm colors" button next to their sample portrait, the wrinkles below the eyes vanish too. I sincerely hope they had their page coded by idiots in an overnight rush job. If what I see (there) is like the program to buy (most likely): No deal! - Sorry, I am interested in shooting people. If those want to represent as Instagram-Barbies, I'll pass my RAWs and wish them fun.

If I should get involved into a low budget advertising campaign, I'd give photo works a 2nd thought. - Its great to know that a 50+ year old, still in shape is capable to serve as a model, when it takes just a few clicks to generate something ageless in her pose. But that is closer to graphics design than "photography" in my book. I 'll make sure to word the model release, to explicitly permit such things...

 

I'd want a software that lets me pick a compromise between reality and its full effort.

From what I see and read, this is most likely to appeal to photographers whose main output is portraiture or humans in general. As this is (deliberately) a very small percentage of my own 'work', I shall eschew the idea, and muck things up on my own :):):rolleyes:

"Intelligent" software (facial recognition, enhancements, etc.) has been in our digital cameras and smartphones for many years. So - to me - it's not surprising that the same kind of íntelligent software is now showing up in PP software,

 

If Photoworks gets me closer to where I want to be in PP, I'd buy it.

If Photoworks gets me closer to where I want to be in PP, I'd buy it.

I'm curious about your testing experience and verdict. - Please keep us updated.

Hi @jochen, just to be clear: I'm not testing Photoworks and I didn't look at the demo's. My comment was a general one in the sense that if AI editing gets me closer, to want I want then I'm for it. I read in your previous post that you have the same opinion. I use the 'context-aware' options in Photoshop from time to time. Sometimes they work well, sometimes they don't. The really nice thing about Photoshop (or Gimp) is that you can blend in various 'improvement layers' quite subtley. Even in Lightroom (which I use a lot), you can set the level of various effects.

 

My initial guess was that Photoworks was aimed at 'snapshot' photographers who would be quite happy to have their photo's 'automatically improved' and had no editing vision, software, skills or inclination to learn how to edit photos themselves. I can well imagine a mobile phone 'Photoworks' app.

 

My initial impression was that Photoworks was the equivalent of 'auto and context-aware editing of everything' without (for beginners) the manual editing options. I've now looked at the demo's and I fully agree with you that Photoworks appears to be an editing 'sledgehammer'. In the demos, the results look truly awful (Barbies :)). I might well download a demo version just to review it.

 

If I do, I'll keep you posted.

 

Mike

 

I'm curious about your testing experience and verdict. - Please keep us updated.

'automatically improved’

= look more like what the generic agreement of a pleasing photo is, usually sparkling, saturated, styleless, and boring.

Yes there's that too :). But there are still plenty of tourists who take 'flat' snapshots on a dull, cloudy day and would a bit more vibrance and contrast. Others who take photos of friends and family in a restaurant in which everyone has orange faces and some automatic WB would help.

= look more like what the generic agreement of a pleasing photo is, usually sparkling, saturated, styleless, and boring.

Yes there's that too :). But there are still plenty of tourists who take 'flat' snapshots on a dull, cloudy day and would a bit more vibrance and contrast. Others who take photos of friends and family in a restaurant in which everyone has orange faces and some automatic WB would help.

I could live without the flat snapshots, for sure. Actually I could live without even most snappy vacation snapshots! :rolleyes:

 

But I kind of like the orange faces. That indoor lighting can sometimes provide great character. Often what is gained by improvements in automated functions which generally conform to a very generic standard is accompanied by some loss of character.

 

Two of my favorite Nan Goldin photos that would be destroyed by a white balance correction--

 

LINK 1

 

LINK 2

I often apply an 'auto smart fix' layer with PS Elements. Sometimes I like it enough to do nothing else, sometimes I keep it and make additional adjustments, and sometimes I delete it, but if I just want a 'quick and dirty' on a photo, I find it is the only adjustment I need more often than not.

I downloaded a Photoworks demo version and I've had a quick play around with it. So far, I've been impressed. It's feature-rich, easy to use and quick to learn.

 

As far as I can see, the "intelligence" is in two functions. The first is in the Retouching function "Portrait Magic". The second is in the (Pro version) function 'Change Background'.

In some ways, it's a shame that the marketing focuses so strongly on this "intelligence" because - even without these - Photoworks is a richly featured Lightroom-like editor (with a few Photoshop-like functions thrown in) at a fraction of the Adobe price, It's also easy and nice to use and - as in Lightroom - the user has full control over any adjustments. Basic photo-editing functions are available free these days in apps like W10 Photos, Photoshop Express etc. But Photoworks offers more an IHMO is more intuitive to use.

 

User functions are grouped under 5 tabs:

- Enhancement

- Tools

- Retouch

- Effects

- Captions

 

Enhancement

The Enhancement functions are very similar to the Lightroom Develop module: sliders for adjusting exposure, contrast, vibrance, clarity, WB temp/tint, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks. As in Lightroom there's an 'auto correction' button which results in a slider setting that you can further adjust manually.

 

 

Tools

The 'Tools include a crop function, noise reduction, grain, and vignetting. In addition, the Tools functions include a few Photoshop-like functions such as:

- tone-mapping

- curves (tone/color).

- (in De-luxe/Pro versions only) "Geometry" (correcting distortion and perspective)

- (in Pro version only) Change backgrounds

'Change Backgrounds' could perhaps be considered to be an 'intelligent''function (though there are equivalent Photoshop plugins). The "intelligence" is in edge detection. In 'Change Backgrounds', the user roughly paints over the boundary between 'subject' and 'background'. The software then detects the edges (which can be manually refined). The 'background' is removed and the user can load a different photo (background) into which he/she can place 'the subject' (moved, scaled). Note: I haven't tested this function!

 

Retouch

Interestly, the Retouch tab includes Lightroom/Photoshop-like functions that you can apply to any (portrait and non-portrait) photo's, Notably healing brush and clone stamp (Photoshop) together with an adjustment brush (Lightroom) and both graduated and radial filters.

 

The main 'intelligent' Retouch function is 'Portrait Magic'. For me personally, this is the least interesting.;). 'Portrait Magic' can pick out faces in a photo (though not in all the photos I tried it with) and skin, eyes, eyebrows, lips and teeth. You can optionally retouch all faces in the photo in the same way or select one face at a time. Why is it 'intelligent'? Well, instead of - as in Photoshop - carefully applying masked adjustment layers, Photoworks allows you either to select one of many retouching 'styles' and/or to adjust individual sliders to smooth skin, darken eyebrows, sharpen eyes, darken/lighten lips, whiten teeth, etc. You can also use the healing brush, clone stamp and adjustment brush. You can set the degree to which you want your 'retouching' to be applied.

 

Effects/Captions

The 'Effects' (Deluxe and Pro versions) are pretty much what you'd expect from nny mobile phone app editing app but also from Nik Silver/Analog Pro. I haven't tried Captions but my guess is that it's similar to the Photoshop 'Text' function.

 

In summary:

Photoworks is an editor and (unlike Lightroom) it has no 'Library' Module, but it does remember which photos I've already edited and you can step though photos from within the editor. Each function alerts you to online video tutorials that are available.

 

Photoworks looks and feels very much the Lightroom develop module with some added Photoshop-like functions thrown in. With the current 30% discount, the standard Photoworks editor costs $20. The deluxe version, which includes correction of perspective and a bunch of effects, costs $30.

 

Ignoring 'Portrait Magic' (which I'd never use) and 'Change Background' (which I'd only very rarely use for 'joke photos') my initial impression is that Photoworks is a full, feature-rich editor which is easy and nice to use. I can't compare it with any others (except Lightroom) but I could do all the editing I normally do in Lightroom in Photoworks just as easily. Photoworks had no problem loading my RAW files. With this full feature list, at this price level I expect Photoworks to make a big dent in the market. Don't be distracted by the 'intelligence' hype. The 'intelligence, for most users is at best 'nice to have' and occasionally used. Even if you never use it and never want it, Photoworks still looks to me to be a very competitive photo editor.

 

Mike

 

 

I'm curious about your testing experience and verdict. - Please keep us updated.

I downloaded a Photoworks demo version and I've had a quick play around with it. So far, I've been impressed. It's feature-rich, easy to use and quick to learn.

Thanks for the great review, Mike. Very generous of you to take the time. As with most tools and software, it sounds like it has much potential and will greatly depend on the individual user for varying results.

I sort of work my own things out for better or worse.

 

Personally, I prefer to scratch my own arse.

 

Puts a smile on my face.

Auto in LR is a good tool, but not the end all, be all. Sometimes I use it as a starting point, sometimes, I don't like what it does at all so I don't. For large shoots like a wedding, I find it more useful to take shots that are maybe all under the same lighting conditions, adjust one of them and use the sync function on a group of similar photos. Still have to look and possibly adjust each one, but it gets them close faster.