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AI is everywhere right now. It’s changing constantly and showing up in almost every creative space, photography included. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it, and I think that’s worth saying upfront.
On one hand, AI has real impacts on our environment and society, and ignoring that is irresponsible. At the same time, completely rejecting new technology is not realistic either, especially from a young person’s perspective. Technology is always changing. It always has. We can’t just decide we don’t like something new and expect it to disappear.
In a paper I wrote last fall for my Computation in Society class, I looked at AI through creativity, human connection, ethics, and how autonomy starts to blur when machines become more involved in decision-making. Writing that forced me to sit with the discomfort instead of picking a clear side. It made me realize that the bigger question isn’t whether AI belongs in creative spaces, but whether people stay honest and in control of how they’re using it.
Something I’ve learned, both in life and through my classes, is that technology itself isn’t automatically “bad.” Phones aren’t bad. AI isn’t bad. They’re tools. What matters is how people use them, how dependent we become on them, and whether we’re being intentional or careless.
I’ve been using the Adobe suite, mostly Photoshop and Lightroom, pretty consistently for about two years now. I’m comfortable there. I know my way around masks, color grading, framing, and retouching, and I spend a lot of time experimenting with edits that sometimes take weeks to finish. I’d like to think I’m skilled, but I also know I’m still learning and have a long way to go. Both of those things can be true at the same time.
In recent years, Adobe has rolled out tools like generative fill and generative upscale, and they’ve become part of my workflow. I enjoy using them because they fit naturally into how I already edit. I treat them like any other tool, something that supports my vision instead of replacing it. All of my images are heavily edited, and most take a long time. None of them are posted in real time. If you see something I’ve shared, it was almost definitely taken days or weeks before.
All of this has only reinforced something I’ve long known: photo manipulation didn’t start with AI. People have been editing, compositing, and altering images for decades. The difference now is accessibility. AI lowers the barrier. Fewer steps. Less technical knowledge required.
That’s where the line gets blurry. AI is getting better at producing images that feel polished and convincing, which makes conversations around ethics, credit, and transparency more important than ever.
So, this is where I draw my line: I would never use AI to generate a completely new image and present it as my own photograph. I would never fake a moment that didn’t exist. Every image I share starts with something real, something I actually saw, something that made me stop. AI, for me, is just another tool in the process, not a shortcut.
I also feel strongly about how casually AI is being used for everything these days, from answering unnecessary questions to filling emotional gaps. When AI starts replacing thinking, effort, or even human connection, it stops feeling like a tool and starts feeling like a crutch. That kind of overuse, especially without intention, is where I draw the line as well.
That said, AI in photography can be an incredible tool. It opens doors and gives more people access to skills that used to take years of practice to develop. That doesn’t make someone less of an artist. It just means the landscape is changing. At the end of the day, it comes back to intention.
AI isn’t the enemy, but blindly embracing it isn’t the answer either. The real work is figuring out how to move forward thoughtfully, while protecting the parts of creativity that make it human.
That space in-between is where I’m choosing to exist.
~Thanks for reading :)
