Artificial intelligence in photography

Main article: Artificial Intelligence

2024

Free photo background replacement service launched in 2 minutes

At the end of October 2024, the free online service IC-Light V2 was launched, with which you can quickly replace the background with photos. In addition, this tool allows you to control the lighting in images. Read more here.

Marketplace "Sberbank" launched an AI-generator of photos of clothes on a virtual model

On October 10, 2024, it became known that the Megamarket marketplace, owned by the Sber ecosystem, presented an innovative service that uses artificial intelligence to generate photographs of clothes on virtual models. This technology is designed to simplify the process of creating content for merchant cards in the Fashion segment. Read more here.

Free neural network for Midjourney image generation launched

At the end of August 2024, a browser version of the Midjourney neural network, designed to create images by text description, became available. A certain number of pictures can be generated free of charge. Read more here

"Vkusville" began to generate package design using neural networks to speed up the release of products

Vkusville began using neural networks to generate package designs to speed up the release of products. This was reported on February 26, 2024 in the retailer's official Telegram channel. Read more here.

2023

Adobe sells AI-generated photos of the Israel-Hamas war. The media use them and pass them off as real

In early November 2023, it became known that Adobe it was selling generated artificial intelligence images depicting the conflict between Israel and the group HAMAS in the Gaza Strip. These illustrations have varying degrees of realism; moreover, sometimes the media pass them off as real, without explicitly indicating that they were created by. neuronets More. here

Yandex has released a neural network capable of creating images according to the description

Yandex has released a generative neural network Masterpiece, which can create images according to the description. The company announced this on April 5, 2023. Read more here.

2021: Application of AI in photographic environments

The modern world can no longer be imagined without neural networks and increasingly impressive developments in the field of artificial intelligence. These entities, 20 years ago, which seem to us to be something from the field of science fiction, today penetrated literally every house. And no, we are not talking about robotics and artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence is a much broader concept.

AI algorithms help us start the day with a weather forecast, then build the best way to work in Google Maps, taking into account traffic on the roads, and in the evening our favorite media service will offer the film to our liking. Rest assured, even ads in the browser will be selected by "them" specifically for you, given previous searches.

Even the sphere arts of AI was not spared. For example, among professionals and photography lovers, techniques based on neural networks are becoming increasingly widespread. This article discusses the practical application of artificial intelligence tools in a photographic environment.

2017: Real-time photo retouching algorithm

On August 4, 2017, it became known that Google engineers, during a joint study with scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created an algorithm that retouches photos in real time.^[1]

Developers are increasingly resorting to the so-called "computational" photography: various algorithms and AI technologies designed to improve images taken with smartphones. According to representatives of Google and MIT, their technology will not only allow high-quality processing of photos, but also obtain a result comparable to that of a professional photographer.

During neural network testing, five photos created by Adobe and MIT were selected. Each image was retouched by five different photographers. The resulting images were then used to determine exactly how each image can be improved by adjusting brightness, saturation and other parameters.

On the left is the original 12MP photo, on the right is the same photo processed by the Google-MIT algorithm

Images captured by modern cameras are often perceived as raw material for photography. Before uploading a photo to social networks, even those who shoot on the phone spend a minute or two aligning color and contrast using popular applications, says the MIT blog.

The Google-MIT algorithm is based on a "convolutional neural network." The processing power of modern mobile devices is not high enough for the full operation of the system, but the researchers were able to bypass this limitation - the system performs most of the calculations on a reduced copy of the original image, and then transfers the results to a high-resolution photo.

The researchers tested the program on a regular smartphone (the model is not indicated), and the algorithm was able to display a processed image with a 1920×1080 resolution and a refresh rate of 40-50 Hz in real time. The size of all software does not exceed the size of one digital photo and can be used to process images in various styles. According to the researchers, the neural network can be "trained" on a new set of images to mimic the style of certain photographers.

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