Where is landscape photography headed? I have been dabbling in AI photography for a little while now and it has made me wonder is landscape photography might be on the way out, by a...

Bill Hancock Loc: Wausau, WI

I have been dabbling in AI photography for a little while now and it has made me wonder is landscape photography might be on the way out, by a paid photographer that is. I am curious to know what others think on the subject. I have displayed an AI photo for you guys to look at. I have not tried to do anything spectacular. I am just testing the waters, so to speak, to see what AI can do. What do you folks think?

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

That's quite interesting!

But I like to go places and take my camera, so I'll continue taking landscape shots.
While AI can do an impressive job of creating a place, I'll stick with photographing the places I've been.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

For a fake photo, not bad. But it’s still fake. Like buying a picture frame with the happy people in the demo photo and calling them your real family. Robots make really nice cars, but I wouldn’t want one doing a vasectomy on me.

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

Pretty photo! But... the moving water doesn't look natural. Maybe that's what you were looking for??!!

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

Bill Hancock wrote:

I have been dabbling in AI photography for a little while now and it has made me wonder is landscape photography might be on the way out, by a paid photographer that is. I am curious to know what others think on the subject. I have displayed an AI photo for you guys to look at. I have not tried to do anything spectacular. I am just testing the waters, so to speak, to see what AI can do. What do you folks think?

On first glance, it's an appealing image with interesting elements, trees, waterfalls, birds. But on closer inspection, the scales are off. The birds are huge compared to the size of the trees in the picture. The swimming Canada geese are larger than the heron and the streaming of the water is inconsistent across the picture, indicating that portions of the image were taken at different shutter speeds, some places, silky streams, other places, frozen water droplets. Looks like a cut and paste picture.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Reuss Griffiths wrote:

On first glance, it's an appealing image with inte... (show quote)

I just looked at it as an image.

Bill Hancock Loc: Wausau, WI

Thanks for the replies, but my real question is, will the companies that hire photographers start taking the cheaper way out and start generating AI photos and stop using paid photographers? What are your thoughts?

Bill Hancock Loc: Wausau, WI

Thanks for the replies, but my real question is, will the companies that hire photographers start taking the cheaper way out and start generating AI photos and stop using paid photographers? What are your thoughts?

BudsOwl Loc: Upstate NY and New England

Longshadow wrote:

That's quite interesting!

But I like to go places and take my camera, so I'll continue taking landscape shots.
While AI can do an impressive job of creating a place, I'll stick with photographing the places I've been.

I know I won’t succumb to AI since at 93 it becomes difficult to try new technologies. As long as as I can still drive and get along walking with a cane, my photography will be real photography, but to each his/her own.
Bud

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Bill Hancock wrote:

Thanks for the replies, but my real question is, will the companies that hire photographers start taking the cheaper way out and start generating AI photos and stop using paid photographers? What are your thoughts?

They could, depending on the requirements/subject matter for the "shot". If they just need a "scene".
I doubt for travel brochures though...

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bikinkawboy wrote:

For a fake photo, not bad. But it’s still fake. Like buying a picture frame with the happy people in the demo photo and calling them your real family. Robots make really nice cars, but I wouldn’t want one doing a vasectomy on me.

Any surgery you undergo is likely to be robot assisted but not like the robots at Toyota etc.

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Bill Hancock wrote:

Thanks for the replies, but my real question is, will the companies that hire photographers start taking the cheaper way out and start generating AI photos and stop using paid photographers? What are your thoughts?

If my agency is paying, I definitely go with AI.

ImageCreator Loc: Northern California

No bird shadows or reflections

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

ImageCreator wrote:

No bird shadows or reflections

I didn't notice.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

While this is a nice image, it's not one that I would usually make...the trees extending to the edges keeps it from being overly interesting to me.

For me, the hunt is a bigger thing than the actual capture. So an AI-created image is all cosmetic with no substance...there was no hunt. On the other hand an interior decorator looking for pictures to "finish off" a room would probably love having the ability to quickly come up with the perfect pictures without having to search at all.

So the OP may very well be correct...the customers and clients most willing to actually pay for a landscape image may find the option to just create one on their own to be better than looking for an original one. I don't believe that AI-created images are going to have much discernible affect on hobbyists and enthusiasts. But they are likely to have a devastating affect on professional landscape photographers whose livelihoods derive from the sale of their original images. Even if some demand survives, I would expect the bottom to drop out of pricing structures.