Photographers often react instinctively against artificial intelligence, typically focusing on controversial generative AI. Meanwhile, a different branch of AI technology—machine learning systems—has been making remarkable progress helping photographers manage overwhelming image workflows under tight deadlines.
In today's show, we explore this trending topic in a discussion with Justin Benson and Sam Hurd, both accomplished wedding photographers and tech entrepreneurs.
Justin begins by clarifying the distinction between machine learning and generative AI before taking us behind the scenes of Aftershoot, the workflow tool he co-founded. He highlights the key advantages of culling and editing images locally rather than using cloud-based alternatives.
We also explore the question of trusting automated workflows and discuss how aesthetics factor in, particularly since machine learning systems adapt to a photographer's culling and editing preferences over time.
Our conversation naturally addresses the ethical concerns surrounding AI. Sam's posing tool, Insight, uses generative AI to offer photographers fresh creative suggestions, but importantly, it trains exclusively on images from his own extensive collection. You'll hear about his journey developing this tool initially for personal use before scaling it as a service for others.
By the end, you'll have gained fresh perspective on how these AI-powered tools can enhance your current workflow, along with hearing some thought-provoking predictions about what the future may hold.
Guests: Sam Hurd & Justin Benson
Episode Timeline:
3:34: Sam's background in the creative arts complimented his love of technology in developing his photography career.
7:26: Justin's busy wedding workload and how his photography knowledge became an asset in developing an AI-powered culling & editing software.
9:35: Differentiating between machine learning and Generative AI, plus ethical concerns related to companies using cloud-based systems.
12:49: The influence of AI-related processes to a photographer's creative output, plus the significance of the human element in generating new creative content.
18:43: Factoring for aesthetics when it comes to AI-powered culling and editing software, plus how much to trust the process.
30:34: Implementing an AI-powered software program in a photographer's overall workflow process, and reallocating time to details that really matter.
42:00: Episode Break
42:50: The backstory to Sam Hurd's AI-powered posing tool Insight, plus why posing people is so hard.
54:59: Staying ahead of the curve with various AI-powered workflow tools, plus essential differences to Insight as a text-based service instead of an app.
1:02:57: How the increasing use of generative AI is causing a shift in assumptions about posting portrait pictures to the Internet.
1:07:30: Debating future advancements to AI technology, image generation at the pixel level, and comparing this to the shift from analog to digital.
1:12:23: The importance of the user community in making further advances to AI-powered software tools.
1:17:34: What's next with AI, a real-world comparison to the original Blade Runner movie, plus the dynamic of scary vs cool.
Guest Bios:
After starting as a political news and celebrity portraitist in Washington, DC., Sam Hurd was quickly drawn to wedding photography as a way to explore more inventive ideas. He focuses on deceptively simple photographic techniques with the potential to transform difficult or uninspiring environments into unique creative visions.
A hallmark of his work are several in-camera techniques he developed such as Prisming, Lens Chimping, Color Spreading, and his Ring of Fire effect for in-camera flare.
In addition to his long-held passion for photography and creative reinvention, Sam is equally skilled in information technology and computer science since majoring in this field during college. That background, combined with a belief that modern AI tools can offer new avenues for creative exploration when thoughtfully leveraged, has led Sam to build several services to assist and inspire photographers. These include Insight, which analyses images in real time, returning visual pose ideas based on the actual environment and subjects in front of the lens - an entirely new process for breaking through creative blocks while working.
Justin Benson started out photographing sets and location scouting for film and TV. But in 2011 his life changed after he answered a last-minute call from a family friend in need of a wedding photographer. Justin quickly discovered wedding photography was his true calling and he's been at it ever since, with his wife joining him as a second shooter in 2016. Based in Connecticut, Justin works in a modern t
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.