Page 19 - Cape-Camera-April-2024

Cape Camera April 2024

CTPS member
Dave Gordon,
Friso Woudstra
from Kleinmond,
Nicol du Toit and
Neels Beyers (far
right) from CTPS
in conversation
with lecturer
Koot Marais
(second from
right).
Photo: Trudi du
Toit.

Spotting AI ... which tools are legal?

With the rapid development of post-processing programmes that can transform a captured
image into something completely different, the topic of AI causes concern for some club
photographers and judges. This was discussed at the recent Cape Photographers Congress
in Calitzdorp and also in the latest PSSA newsletter, e-IMAGE, reports Trudi du Toit

During his talk Wildlife Photography: the Road to Now and Offenders will be sanctioned for life.”
Beyond, at the recent Cape Photographers’ Congress in PSSA has three levels of transgression with progressively
Calitzdorp, PSSA Honours Judge Koot Marais showed more severe sanctions for salon entrants who use AI or
delegates three images of a lion at sunset. He asked the break any salon rules. See more here.
audience to indicate their preferences and there was The use of apps known for generating AI features (e.g.
about an equal split between preferences for the three Midjourney, Open AI, Adobe Firefly etc.) is easy to detect
images. Then Koot dropped a bombshell: the first two when looking at the Metadata. But, to add to the woes of
images were created by a text prompt in an AI program judges and authors, post-processing programs like Pho-
– the third was captured by Koot himself. toshop have also developed AI features that unsuspect-
When Koot pointed them out, we could see small mis- ing photographers may use without realising that they
takes in the AI images, which were overlooked at first are transgressing the rules.
glance. But, it was clear to everybody present that AI The CAPA article in e-Image warns that Photoshop 2024
technology has advanced so far that it is becoming in- incorporates the advanced Firefly (AI) algorithm, which
creasingly difficult to detect. you automatically trigger when you use the lasso tool
There are programs being developed specifically to de- with the Generative Fill tool — whether you fill an area
tect AI with various levels of success — even by the crea- with a text prompt or pixels from a similar area in your
tors of ChatGBT, who shelved their first attempt because image, the Metadata will indicate that it is a Generated
it was inaccurate. Image.
As you can read in the interesting article on p35 in the So, what is permitted?
latest e-Image on the PSSA website here, the Canadian In a category where manipulation is permitted, the use
Photographic Association (CAPA) has developed a pro- of the following Photoshop tools is legal (i.e. not AI): Spot
gram that can detect the use of AI by verifying the Meta- Healing Brush, Remove Tool, Healing Brush Tool, Patch
data of an image. They also follow the same path as PSSA Tool, Content Aware Move Tool, Red Eye Tool, the Clone
by requesting RAW files of, or the jpegs taken before or Stamp and Pattern Stamp Tool. Content Aware Fill is al-
after, award winning images — or if there is a suspicion lowed provided that pixels from the image is used.
that AI had been used in any image entered.
FIAP — the worldwide umbrella body covering 94 pho- The reason is that they all use pixels that are already in
your image and do not add pixels and items that have to
tographic associations — requests that all salons held be generated artificially from another source (e.g. Pho-
with their patronage should specify in their brochures: toshop Sky Replacement, although using your own sky
all parts of the image have to be photographed by the au- from another image is permitted).
thor who is holding the copyright to the works submitted. To p20

Cape Town Photographic Society 19