AI generated images have taken our society by a storm. From TikTok slide shows to insane product mockups, a panic has taken over the photography community as they fear for whether or not AI will replace traditional photographers. But, it's easy to let the fear of change overcome us, so lets dive into the different ways AI can be a beneficial partner to photographers.

Photography isn't just taking pictures with a camera. Anyone can take a picture, and in the case of AI, it can generate all sorts of photos. But photography is more than just an image, and is often used to tell a story. Photography is powerful because it captures things that are happening in the moment. For example, photo of a protest in the newspaper has to be taken while the protest is going on. Of course, this is because you cannot generate an image of a live event on AI. But AI also doesn't capture the raw emotions of those attending the protest either. You can't truly generate the anger, passion, or whatever expression it is each individual is wearing as they fight for a cause. AI can only bring what is already available on a database and more or less lacks the human touch. 

However this doesn't mean photography and AI clash entirely. In fact, AI can be a positive influence within the photography space. Whereas photographers usually spend hours upon hours tweaking small details during the editing process, AI can actually help with these tasks. Now, edits like exposure, sharpening, and more can be done through AI, saving photographers time and allowing them to allocate that time into their creativity instead. 

AI can help with sparking inspiration as well! Photographers can generate images to create moodboards or get creative with their projects. An article from PetaPixel titled "Photographers Give Rescue Dogs Their Ears Back" is a perfect example of this. The photographer, Gamand, utilized the AI program DALL-E on the portraits she took of different dogs that had went through the cruel procedure of ear cropping and edited their ears back on. Gamand stated that "[Some of her clients] became very emotional when I sent them the results. I spent a week retouching hundreds of images until I was all eared out. It was a fun and touching project". This comes to show how AI can be utilized in a photographer's work to develop something wonderful without undermining his or her work.