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Education

Why You Should Turn off Scene Detection and AI in Your Camera

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 06/03/2024
07/08/2024
3 Mins read
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As a low-vision photographer, I’m incredibly happy at how liberating AI in cameras and scene detection has developed. Every manufacturer except Sony says that they’re not using AI in their cameras. But that’s beside the point. Scene detection is incredible at finding birds, animals, human eyes, etc. It makes photography so much easier and makes you then able to shoot moments that you wouldn’t have been able to get before. And at the same time, it’s causing a problem that we can see on social media and elsewhere. Here’s why

We’re All Making the Same Images

“Isn’t it remarkable how photography advanced without improving?” That’s one of my favorite quotes from photographer Charles Sheeler — and with regards to scene detection, it rings very true.

A former staffer on this site put a camera into a much younger person’s hands and had them focus on another person to shoot a photo. Then they turned off AI, and couldn’t figure out how to focus the camera. This is, believe it or not, what you see with most new photographers who are calling themselves content creators. And it’s a big part of technology studies: as we use technology, we become that technology. In turn, we’re not choosing the focusing, a machine is doing it for us. To that end, the manufacturer algorithm is doing it. And therefore, everyone’s photos are looking all the same.

It’s like speed reading. You’re hyper-focusing on specific things in a scene. And it can be very helpful, but it sometimes also makes you miss other nuances. More importantly, it makes images that all more or less look the same. If everyone’s eyes are in focus, and you’re using variations of the same camera sensor and the same optical glass, everything is going to look alike.

You possibly miss other things, too! By putting more brainpower into the actual process, you’re closer to the image itself.

To recap, I’m not telling you to totally stop using it. Without bird and animal detection, much of current wildlife photography wouldn’t be possible. However, I’m urging you to consider using your own skills instead.

So What Do We Do?

Here are a few ideas beyond not using scene detection to get images that are unlike what everyone else is posting online. Remember that not everything needs to be super sharp. And more importantly, if you just go about following trends, all your work is going to look dated after a while. It’s not in your best interest as a photographer to do that. So go ahead and make trendy work when clients ask for it. But on your own time, be experimental.

Yes, that means that you need to do personal work. I do a ton of it on my own website. You’ll see that nothing looks the same — but it all still feels cohesive. That comes from developing my own photographic identity.

Here are some things to try.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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