Mobile photography apps brought photography editing to the masses – but will the next big thing in photo editing mean anyone can edit a photo without any technical skills? Amid the launch of the Google Pixel 10, Google shared an update to Google Photos that allows for editing a photo without touching any sliders or tools. How? By asking Gemini, Google’s AI.
Soon, Google Photos will be able to edit a photo using a text or voice prompt. In demos of the feature, Google demonstrated how Gemini removed glare, brightened a photo, and added clouds to the sky using a single prompt. In another demonstration, Gemini adjusted the overall quality and removed a water bottle, and in another, the AI restored a vintage photograph.
The process did not require knowledge of the photo editor’s slider or tools, and in the demo, Gemini even suggested some potential editing prompts. The update hints that future photo editing software could require less technical know-how if natural language prompts are able to tackle edits.
The feature is coming first to Pixel 10 users in the US, Google says, but “coming first” implies that other devices will follow.
I don’t think generative AI is a big threat to portrait and wedding photography, where the resulting images need to be authentic images of real moments – but the ability to snap a photo with a smartphone and then make it better without any technical know-how may be a larger threat to the industry. My social media feed is already filled with parents taking smartphone photos of their graduates instead of getting professional senior portraits done. What will the ability to edit those images without any technical skills mean?
I find some comfort in the fact that I liked the before version of the demo photo with the lovely sun flare better than the AI-edited image, because I actually love lens flare.
The Google Pixel 10 even comes with a Camera Coach, which uses AI to offer live suggestions on how to improve the photo with tips on composition, framing, and lighting. I don’t think generative AI can replace real moments, but AI-guided photos taken with real cameras and AI-guided edits may be a different story.
The Google Pixel 10 series, however, will also be the first to use C2PA Content Credentials on the native camera app, which will mark whether or not the image was made with AI.
Google Photos will also gain support for C2PA, which means the app will also be able to tell users how an image was made. The feature is coming first to the Pixel 10 smartphones, but Google says the Content Credentials will be rolling out to Google Photos across Android and iOS in the coming weeks.
Author: Hillary K. Grigonis
Source: DigitalCameraWorld
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
