Matt Smith: Will A.I. make photographers extinct?

Are the new image generation Ai engines going to create an extinction-level event for photographers? Just when the profession gets into its stride, with dark room process computer software available to everyone, along comes AI to kill off the very source of the original image. Or does it? What have photographers got that AI doesn’t have? Matt Smith is one of America’s most creative product photographers. His studio is one of only 4 in the country that can create full 360-degree ‘spinning’ product images for ecommerce. Not computer generated images. Actual photographs. Every job is painstakingly set up, lit and shot, whether it’s a full size Ford F250, an outdoor patio set, a contact lens or a chicken nugget. Matt and his team are creatives, engineers, programmers, woodworkers and photographers. His studio is like a year-round Elves’ workshop. But as we’re about to hear, he’s got the one thing that AI doesn’t have and will never have. But if AI isn’t going to steal his lunch it’s probably going to put a couple of drinks on his tab and in this episode, we find out how the two disciplines are learning to work together. If you love photography, if you’re fascinated by the potential of AI or if you want to learn more about the wonderful world of creative ecommerce product image production, then this is the show for you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices