21 Articles about AI & Photography

/

Your phone edits all your photos with AI - is it changing your view of reality? – BBC

A.I. Loves Fake Images. But They’ve Been a Thing Since Photography Began. – New York Times

This guy’s obscure PhD project is the only thing standing between humanity and AI image chaos – Fast Company  

6 Best Gemini Photo Editing Prompts in 2026: How to Get Better AI Images – eWeek  

Fashion Photography’s AI Reckoning – Aperture

Student arrested for eating AI art in University of Alaska Fairbanks gallery protest – UAF Sun Star

How AI is disrupting the photography business – Axios

Shutterstock rebrands as it goes all-in on generative AI - Fast Company

Pedophiles Are Using AI To Turn Children’s Social Media Photos Into CSAM – Forbes

The AI Slop Presidency – 404Media

How AI is disrupting the photography business – Axios  

Want to take better photos? Google thinks AI is the answer. – Washington Post

As AI proliferates, outdoor photographers and editors struggle to sort out what’s real and what’s not – Montana Free Press

I Fixed My Bad Family Photos. Here’s How to Do It—and When to Stop.- Wall Street Journal

In the age of AI, photographs no longer express truth. That doesn’t make them any less meaningful.  – Washington Post

Scammers use AI photo of missing dog at emergency vet to steal nearly $2,000 – WTSP

League City police to review policies after giving theft suspect an AI mug makeover – ABC13

Trump's use of AI images further erodes public trust, experts say – PBS

Elon Musk’s A.I. Is Generating Sexualized Images of Real People, Fueling Outrage – New York Times

How to really spot AI-generated images, with Google’s help – PopSci

Google debuts 'Me Meme' feature letting users turn their own selfies into shareable memes – Mashable   

14 Ways to Spot AI Images & Video

/

THE BACKGROUND. Are people in the background looking at the unusual thing going on? If they are going about their business, it is likely a fake. Often, the background of AI images will be distorted. Sometimes odd shapes in the background details are giveaways, such as floor tiles or walls.

OTHER VIDEOS & PHOTOS. If the video or image is of a news event and there are no other videos or images showing different angles, it may be AI-generated. It is unlikely that there would be only a single image or video of something odd or newsworthy.

DETAILS. AI generators are not good at details. For instance, the AI skin is smooth. It looks like the person is wearing lots of makeup, giving it a leathery appearance. The hair is course and fuzzy looking. Teeth are overly straight and will change width and shape throughout the video. The spaced between them will shift as well. Other details can be giveaways as well: shadows that are off, small objects shaped oddly, and although AI video generators are getting better at fingers, they still can be strangely shaped.  

WRITING. Look closely at writing on a sticker, street sign or billboard. Watch for blurry writing when it shouldn’t be or wrongly formed letters, or the letters that don’t spell words.

FOCUS. In a real video, anything that is in focus is sharp, while anything out of focus is naturally blurry. In AI videos, there is less of a difference between what is in and out of focus.

THE SOURCE. Is the person or organization sharing the image reliable and not known for promoting AI-generated media?

THE EYES. In deepfake videos, the eyes can pop or look glassy. People will sometimes blink oddly or else they make strange eye movements. Researchers at Cornell University found deepfake faces don’t blink properly. Also, by using techniques devised for measuring galaxies, researchers have found that deepfake images don't have the same consistency in reflections in both eyes.

THE FACE. Look carefully at the area around the face for evidence that it was swapped onto another person’s body.

THE LIPS. Do the lips have abnormal movements and unrealistic positioning?

MOVEMENT. Watch for unnatural jumps or the absence of motion blur that is typically present in authentic videos. If creators manipulate AI-generated photos using Photoshop techniques such as blurring or file compression, they can fool detection tools.

LIGHTING. AI images often have abnormal patterns in the physics of lighting. AI videos are often well-lit but have a softness to them.

PHOTOMETRIC CLUES. Look at “photometric” clues such as blurring around the edges of objects that might suggest they’ve been added later; noticeable pixelation in some parts of an image but not others; and differences in coloration.

FRAME RATE. Most AI videos will only produce a film quality look because they are made to look like they were shot at 24 frames per second videos. Most real videos are not made at that frame rate. Social media videos are typically shot at 30 frames per second (the default for phone cameras) while most sports video are shot at a higher 60 frames per second in order to capture the quick movement.

SOUND EFFECTS. Many purposely fake AI videos will add sound effects for a more dramatic impact. For instance, sirens, alarms and people screaming might make a clip seem more frightening.

More Signals

17 Articles about AI & Photos

/

New Adobe tool for Content Creators

/

Adobe express logo

Adobe has released a single template-focused app called Creative Cloud Express (replacing Adobe Spark) that combines some of the best features from the Creative Cloud Suite for mobile and web. Quickly create everything from social media posts to promotional posters and videos with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. Drag all sorts of elements into your composition from text, icons, shapes, free photos and fonts, music and other design elements. Assets from Photoshop and Illustrator can be utilized as well. Convert videos to GIFs and documents to PDFs. Great for non-professionals with little video editing experience. However, if you’re a pro, this is not a full-featured video editor.  

Creative Cloud Express includes premium features from: 

  • Adobe Premiere Rush — Shoot, edit, and share videos on mobile and desktop. 
  • Adobe Photoshop Express — Edit and retouch images, create collages, and combine photos. 
  • Adobe Spark Video — Quickly create stunning video slideshows. 
  • Adobe Spark Page — Turn words and images into beautiful web pages.

More on the features here.

Teaching resources from Adobe for Educators here.

While Express is already included in many Creative Cloud subscriptions, there is a free version available or get more templates, photos and fonts with a paid subscription for $9.99 a month (or $99.99 a year) here. Better yet, there is a three-month free trial here. More info on the plans here.

More Tech Tools

Why We All Take the Same Travel Photos

/

I knew it was silly to join the crowd of tourists clicking away at the Mona Lisa when I visited the Louvre a couple years ago—geotagging has made it all too clear how unoriginal those photos are. But I did it anyway, elbowing through a sea of smartphones and selfie sticks for a tourist-free shot at the front. The visit just didn’t feel complete without it. But why?

Photographing something is a way of possessing it—at least, that's what the critic Susan Sontag argued in her 1977 classic, On Photography. “To collect photographs is to collect the world," she wrote. It confirms your connection to places and objects once distant and remote, making the world slightly smaller and less alienating.

Ironically, though, "collecting the world" might mean also losing it. “A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it—by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir,” Sontag wrote.

Laura Mallonee writing in Wired