It’s easy to think AI can create any kind of picture, but these tools have their limits. To test this, I took a series of smartphone photos to prove that AI can do just that—some with a focus on aesthetics, and some on practicality.
Burst Photo Series
On a morning walk one day, I captured a burst photo series of people biking across a bridge on my iPhone. I wanted these to look like a magazine or comic strip and show a specific sequence of events. As you can see, I managed to capture every couple of seconds between bikes crossing the bridge.
Although AI is good at creating single images, it’s not really capable of creating image series. For example, when I ask it to make simple adjustments, ChatGPT will often completely change the picture. Furthermore, using the same prompt will often yield completely different results.
Photography of signs
I’ve talked in depth about how generative AI is bad at creating text in images. Although I sometimes get good results using software like ChatGPT, these tools are often far off target. I’ve had many experiences in which the text was unreadable, so I won’t be relying on generative AI for these kinds of photos anytime soon.
Trying to create text in AI images made me realize how I often take the simplicity and utility of smartphone cameras for granted. Whenever I want to take a picture of a sign, all I have to do is point my camera at it and capture the shot.
However, I also wanted to make the image a little more interesting. So, I made the sign part of the foreground. Generative AI tools may be good at creating bokeh and background effects, but since they’re weak at text generation, photos like this are better taken on a phone.
Leading Lines
The generative AI is great at creating landscape-style photos, but I’ve found it falls short when I try to create photos with more complex leading lines. It’s fine for straight roads, but other than that, the AI struggles. Leading lines, on the other hand, are much easier to achieve with your smartphone.
In this example, I took a photo on the beach while standing on the walkway. As you can see, I simultaneously captured a lens flare shot with my smartphone. I liked how the light shines on the walkway, and it’s quite cool that the boardwalk starts to turn to the left as it reaches the background.
I could potentially create a similar image with generative AI, but it would fall short with the core leading line element. However, you may want to try some leading AI prompting tips and tricks to improve your chances of getting the results you want.
Nighttime Smartphone Photography
Generative AI can create some interesting nighttime shots, but it falls short in getting the colors right. In my opinion, generative AI is better for daytime photos. In this nighttime smartphone photo, I specifically wanted to capture a building with an interesting shape. This kind of architecture is usually hard for a generative AI tool to mimic.
The light reflections in this photo are also unique. While AI can create reflections in water, it can make them look more like watercolor paintings than the real reflections you see in photos. To take even better nighttime photos on your smartphone, consider trying these night photography apps.
Silhouettes
Taking photos of silhouettes can be very tricky, and to be honest, it often happens to me by luck rather than really trying. Silhouette photography isn’t just about making something look darker, you also need the light to fall on your image correctly. For example, in the photo below, the light falls at just the right angle on the modern building on the left.
The different shades in the sky of a silhouette photo are also difficult for AI to simulate, even with specific cues. Also, I find these tools often exaggerate shadows; if I want my photos to look like that, I can just use my phone’s photo editing app.
Macro photography
AI can be good at creating close-up shots, but with some limitations. While these tools are great at creating photos of people, I find they struggle with images of plants. To test it out, I took various macro photos of flowers and leaves.
My smartphone camera was able to capture the different textures of these plants, which was exactly what I wanted. It was also good at capturing realistic colors without oversaturating them; generative AI tools tend to do this with bright colors. Still, as I found when trying macro photography with my smartphone, this style requires a lot of practice.