Glyn takes a look at the latest updates and describes what the updates are and how they affect us as artists. First up, Denoise. As a wedding photographer, I'm keen to look at whether this tool will be useful, as I'm often photographing in dusty old churches. There are a lot of them in Wales in the UK, and pushing the boundaries of my cameras to get a usable shot is important. I'm keen to know whether A.I. is going to make a big difference.
Glyn takes a look at the new Curves panel added to the masking tool and shows the benefits of using this. This really just gives us an additional option when masking and is going to be of great benefit to those that already use the tools.
Glyn also explains how the new masking A.I. selection now includes facial hair and clothes and gives an example of this.
There are a few small other updates that Glyn mentions, and I think this is really great, as sometimes, these things get missed, and we only find out about them when we go to use them. For those who want to see in detail what's been updated, here's the link to the April updates.
My take away at first glance. Adobe shines again. However. As skill sets are dumb downed to AI doing its "magic", something is so sad to see these wonderful products "cheapen" the art and skill of retouchers. I am not that skilled in PS or Lightroom, so nice for me. It's like though it's a race to the bottom to steal from the the human element. I reckon, since I am 76, becoming an old fogey. Vast amounts of money will be made from this technology, the cost may render cannibalism of art, and human thinking where only fingers are needed to push buttons... my rant for the day As someone said, "watch out what you pray for, you might get it"
Us old fogeys are there because of our skills though remember ;). Keep doing what you're doing and don't worry about AI so much. Human emotions and feelings are still very difficult to recreate. Oh and hands... hands are a thing lol
--- "…As skill sets are dumb downed to AI doing its "magic", something is so sad to see these wonderful products "cheapen" the art and skill of retouchers."
I'm totally cool with that:
a) I hate editing. If there were software that did everything I want done the way I want it done, and even if it costs $500+, I'd buy it in a hearbeat. I'd rather spend time driving and photographing.
b) Even renowned retouchers like Pratik Naik have created tools to help speed things up: https://fstoppers.com/store/infinite-tools-photoshop-plugins Time is money. And, yes, them making sales on the plugins don't hurt. :)
c) These new Adobe specific tools aren't doing anything creative. They're merely assisting with selections. The human is still in control of what happens to the images.
I would disagree to some extent. You still need to know when to use the tools and how to use them. People can still get themselves into a complete mess even with the AI masking. I recently saw a local camera club photo exhibition. Over 100 printed photos on display. Only 3 were not over sharpened to death. The over the top retouching was what let most of them down.