Why Brand Authenticity Still Matters
There’s a lot of hype around AI replacing jobs including commercial photographers … but the reality on the ground looks very different to me.
First of all AI generated 'photo real images', aren't photography and have non of the authority that comes from an images originating through a camera lens. Ever since the The Cottingley Fairies the nuances and awareness around photographic authenticity has been questioned. Photography's unique authenticity has remained strong though, surviving various challenges, most recently digitisation and now AI.
I would argue that the Cottingley Fairies and AI both emphasises and strengthens the power of a photograph that lies in its implicit credibility.
I believe AI tools will raise the bar at the lower end and support and enhance the higher end while becoming another cost and tool that photographers absorb and pass on.
In an AI world brands will desire trust and authenticity more so than before.... photography possesses a unique form of authentic credibility that AI can’t replicate and will see it's value increase.
Here’s what I’m seeing in commercial photography;
Workflows
AI is excellent for object removal & basic retouching Tidying / removing wires, removing traffic cones / for sale signs, cleaning backgrounds such as stains an brickwork … It’s a great time saver. It's a feature built into Lightroom and Photoshop so it slots in nicely to most professional photography workflows.
Batch grading & colour matching? Useful, but still not at a standard I’d deliver without manual correction at the moment. AI tools such as Imagen and Aftershoot are amazing. For many photographers they will be a big time saver. For a few it will actually improve their work flow, but in my opinion for the higher end photographer will continue to edit each individual image and continue to differentiate their work from others
Most AI tools use credit based pricing, so there’s a cost as well as convenience.
Interestingly, AI isn’t speeding up my delivery times. In some cases it adds time because I can now refine areas I previously wouldn’t have considered.
The results are cleaner but still real. I don't do anything in post production I that couldn't have been done in the real world.
The Authenticity Crisis
I’ve chosen not to use generative AI at all. I once used it to anonymise people in the background of a public shot… and the client rejected it. They’re a trust based brand with a strict “no AI-generated content” policy
That experience reinforced something important that authenticity and credibility matter more now than ever before.
Authenticity matters more than ever in a world of AI
AI is here, I and other commercial photographers have no choice but to confront it. I'm draw to distant memories of lectures and essays from my photography studies. The name that keeps surfacing is the philosopher Jean Baudrillard and the concept of Hyperreality where the line between what’s real and what’s manufactured, simulated or exaggerated becomes so blurred that people start treating the simulation as more real than reality itself.
The Reality Crisis
We’re living in an era where AI, media and digital life can construct ultra believable simulations and those simulations can shape how people think, vote, feel, and behave by tapping into are emotion and manipulating our thoughts
Hyperreality isn’t just an idea anymore; it’s the environment we move through every day.
Yet we are better equipped that ever before. In this new environment when it comes to buying products and services, trust, credibility and authenticity count and this gives value to clients. I believe this value is going to get greater as trust with AI generated content becomes frayed.
Photography made with a camera had had multiple crises and survived and adapted and I've already seen this with my “no AI-generated content” client.
Building Credibility
In order to build credibility businesses still want and need
- Real staff
- Real locations
- Real customers
- Real environments
AI images can look incredible…. but they feel more like stock imagery than authentic storytelling and credibility suffers.
Commercial photography isn’t going anywhere just at the moment. Clients value and need isn’t more than technical skill:
It’s their expertise in;
- direction
- planning
- narrative creation
..... and of course service, that’s something AI can’t replicate.
Photography’s authenticity has weathered every crisis so far and it’s this lasting characteristic that will carry it forward in the AI era.
Matthew Jones is a Commercial photographer who started out using film and a dark room in a spare bedroom. He is known for his Event Photography and Industrial Photography.
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