The AI Toolbox for Photographers

Artificial intelligence has infiltrated almost every aspect of the photographic workflow, and the technology is changing so rapidly that it can be a real challenge to keep up with the terminology, capabilities, techniques, and pricing structures. In this two-session seminar, retoucher and photographer Tom Gaukel surveys the complex and confounding state of imaging with AI.

This program explores the varying degrees to which AI can be incorporated into a photographic workflow and how these AI features are deployed within the most common image editing software applications that photographers use every day—Photoshop, Lightroom, and Capture One. These built-in features include generative fill and expand, auto masking, neural filters, distraction removal, sky replacement, denoise, facial recognition, and many others.

Tom’s program also reviews the most important web-based stand-alone AI image generators—Nano Banana, Seedream, Flux, GPT Image, Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and Imagen. Additionally, Tom demonstrates model aggregators Firefly and Freepik that provide a user interface that allows for easy access to multiple models simultaneously and intuitive node-based editing workflows. Tom covers a few AI platforms that offer specific types of image editing such as for real estate interiors and skin retouching.

After this seminar, you have a better understanding of which AI tools to choose for your project, how to write effective prompts, how to get AI to write your prompts for you, how to work with the limited resolution that AI image generators provide, and how to effectively manage your credits. You also come to understand, hopefully, that patience is perhaps the most important skill you can have when working with AI image generation.