Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence, (AI) in one way shape or form seems to be most everywhere nowadays.  We no longer have to turn on lights, look things up, or adjust the thermostat.  We talk to our little AIs and they do it for us.  It’s either an exciting new time for us or the start of the downfall of mankind if you believe some people.  There are those who say if we aren’t careful someday AI will become our machine overlords.  You know, like Arnie, or the Matrix.

I’m not worried about that right now, but rather something way more important. 

Can Artificial Intelligence fix our photography? 

Now that’s important.

Enter Photolemur, by Skylum Software. 

That’s Skylum, not Skynet, stay calm Sarah. 

Where did they get the name “Photolemur”?  I have no idea.  Does Lemur have something to do with AI?  Doubtful, let’s move on.  

What is Photolemur?

Probably one of the simplest to use software/plugins I’ve ever seen.  

Once loaded, it will appear in Photoshop with your filters.

Once you have an image open you want to process, you select Filter, Skylum, Photolemur3. 

For our purposes, we will start off with a natural color image I made during my Isla Mujeres Photo Tour.

This image was made with a Canon 5DMKIV, 24-105mmL lens.  The image was taken straight from the RAW file and converted, using Canon’s Digital Photo Professional.

It’s not a half-bad exposure, but it definitely needs some work.  Let’s see what Photolemur can do.

 

When Photlemur opens, you see a grey square with lines moving around connecting to dots.  I guess that’s the AI “thinking”

Once the AI is done, you see what it’s come up with as a before and after with a slider.

This looks pretty good.  Here’s the full images side by side.

As you can tell for a color landscape it’s a great way to get a good looking image quickly.   The only downside is you don’t have the ability to tweak anything the AI creates, until it is done.

Now there are also 6 other filter options, Apollo, Fall, Noble, Spirited, Mono, and Evolve.  I tried all of the filters, and most are like filters you get on your cell phone, and they didn’t appeal to me mostly because once again I had no control.  Mono was the exception.  The Mono filter makes a great Black & White image. 

So for color images, it’s a  fast way to process.

Now, how about Infrared?

Let’s take a look.

Here’s a Super Color Infrared, straight out of the camera.

And here is what PhotoLemur suggested

 

And here it is with a Red/Blue channel swap 

That’s not bad.  

How about Monochrome Black & White?

Once again, really not bad, in fact pretty good.

I wanted to see how the Photolemur version compared to my B&W conversion, so I ran it thru Photoshop manually.

Mine is on the right.

Now depending on who you ask, either one is acceptable, and the PhotoLemur version took way less time to produce than my Monochrome conversion.

 

So, What’s my opinion?  PhotoLemur does pretty much exactly what it says it does.

And it’s way quicker than manually processing your images. 

Now there are downsides. 

1. The AI is not going to read your mind and make the image the exact way you might. 

2. You do not a great deal of control over what the software does.

 and 

3. It has a dumb name.

However, you can’t argue with the results it gives, and the price point on the software is very reasonable.

Want to know more?  Click here to see their software for yourself.

 

I’m not sure if this AI thing is going to catch on though.

-Alexa, Open the Pod Bay doors.