An AI-edited image won first place in a Maryland State Fair photography category, and photographers are furious.
My response: get over it.
Here is the uncomfortable truth. If a contest allows AI, AI-assisted entries will beat photographers. That is just math. And before you tell me you would never, let me ask: are you editing on a computer? “If you are altering your photograph at all in a computer, you are using AI.” Photoshop has it. Every photo app has it now.
Ansel Adams dodged and burned and manipulated in the darkroom. We do the same thing with sliders. Everybody draws the line somewhere different, so who gets to decide where the line goes?
Want a fair photo contest? Limit entries to straight-out-of-camera JPEGs. The file as the camera made it. No computer, no argument.
And remember, a photo contest is not an art competition. “Photographers, stop. Give it up already.” If you cannot compete with AI, it is probably because you are using AI yourself. So stop complaining and go shoot.
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