Editing Photos Professionally with AI
Hi there! I’m Megan Hoffer, founder of Lancaster Photography School and lead photographer at Megan Hoffer Photography. Today, I’m giving you a peak into my recent experience with the newest in AI photo editing. This article will help you decide if it’s for you…or not.
When it comes to new things, I am never the first one to try them out…especially new technology (It took me two months to even open the boxes of my new Nikon Z6ii Mirrorless Cameras). It takes a solid argument and an even better deal for me break rank from my tried and true systems to dip my toe into new realms I don’t truly understand yet. But, when the argument and price point are there, even I can acknowledge when things need to change.
This is the mentality in which I decided to try AI editing for the first time. I had been using an amazing private editor for 2 years. Hiring her was a necessity as I decided to try my hand at teaching photography and building an entirely new brand for it. Even though I edited super fast on my own, I needed to create the extra time needed to develop new systems and work out the kinks for, what is now called, Lancaster Photography School.
I was incredibly happy with the results I was getting from my private photo editor. It was like a dream: I would edit the highlights of a wedding myself and then send off the gallery to have it magically appear back in my inbox two weeks later, completely done and perfect. I also loved saying I had an editor. It made me feel like I had made it. I was at the point in my career that I could afford an editor. — Cue the confetti and pop the champagne!
Once Lancaster Photography School settled into somewhat of a routine, the time came to reassess all the systems and expenses of my two businesses. The numbers were clear. There were way too many expenses and I had to make some tough choices about what was truly needed and what wasn’t. I mean, the whole point of having a business is to make money, right?
At this point, AI was talked about in a hushed whisper, if at all, “Have you heard what they’re doing with AI for photo editing?!?!” Only the big names were trying it out. I still remember being on a FB Live in our Community Group for LPS with Mike Morby of www.Shootwith.me about productivity when he mentioned it and asked if I was using it. I had barely heard of it at the time and looked into it after the call a little embarrassed that I hadn’t been able to talk more intelligently about it with him. He seemed really happy with it but I hadn’t heard any other feedback. So, I dropped the thought in my busy season and went on to complete the year in my comfortable way with my editor. I mean, how could a robot possibly edit like a person would? Crazy, right? I also just assumed it was super expensive too, though I hadn’t actually looked.
The real problem was that I was already over my head in work and family life. I didn’t have time to give it a try…even with an editor.
The final straw that pushed me over the edge to make me pull out my business credit card and type the numbers into the box — click BUY, was a Founding Member’s Deal from Aftershoot. $499/ year for life if you signed up before a certain date. While that sounds like a lot of money, at the time, I was spending $9,000 a year for my editor. Yes. Nine. Thousand. Dollars — $.43 per image to be exact. That number alone had to go with our without the help of AI. My big head be damned! I’m a business woman first, right?!
If it ended up making editing even a little easier, it would be worth a shot.
Learning new things takes time. — A good bit of time. And, AI editing was no different. There were tutorial videos galore and I needed to set aside an entire day to research and work through it all thoughtfully. It probably wouldn’t take most people that long. I just like to be thorough and prepared before I try something new. I decided Aftershoot was the way to go for me and I trained my editing “Profile” on 14,000 images from the Lightroom catalogs of the last 12 weddings I had shot and a few engagement session catalogs as well for good measure.
Like I said above, I have been using Aftershoot and from what I understand, most other AI editing softwares are pretty similar (I watched a lot of YouTube videos before making that purchase!). With Aftershoot, you’ll get a bunch of videos of a delightful chap with a mustache who talks about rainbows and unicorns a lot to help you through setting it up…which I enjoyed.
The thing that distinguishes Aftershoot from the others, at this time, is their unique pricing model which allows you to purchase the program(s) you plan to use in a typical “more, better, best” model rather than the editing industry standard, per image fee…which I truly appreciate after paying per image to have my photos edited for so long. I like providing my clients with a lot of variety and value. This pricing model doesn’t make me want to start throwing photos out just to keep the price down, like I ultimately ended up doing with the private editor.
Aftershoot (and other AI editing softwares) will also cull your images for you, if you want it to. If you don’t need help with your culling, you don’t have to purchase that part. I like that they give you that kind of power over what you are spending your hard earned money on.
There is no shortage of YouTube videos out there comparing Aftershoot and other programs and how to use each so I’m not going to focus on those nitty gritty details here. What I do want to get into is: Is AI editing for you? Should you spend your hard earned money on it.
The first time I ran a Lightroom catalog through Aftershoot to test it, I used a copy of a catalog that I had already finished. I wanted to be able to have a side-by-side comparison of what AI did with the image files compared to what I had already decided on previously. You can watch that video in LPS ONLINE as part of our “Support Videos.”
My initial reaction to the images that Aftershoot had edited for me was that they were “too bright” but after looking at them for a few seconds and as I started to work with them, I realized that my eye just needed a minute to adjust, just like what happens when I’m editing by hand. They were pretty spot on. I acknowledged that this was going to save me a boatload of time and increase my profit margins by a hefty percentage. I was sold!
I still go through mostly the same process that I did before…
Before: Cull in Photo Mechanic > Import to LrC > Select Highlights > Edit Highlights > Sync Those Edits to the Remaining Files (The last part is what my private editor used to do for me).
With AI: I still Cull in Photo Mechanic > Import to LrC > Select Highlights. But now, with Aftershoot, I stop there and run the entire gallery through Aftershoot. It also crops and straightens the photos. A portrait session takes about 3 minutes to be edited by Aftershoot. A wedding takes about 15.
Then, I go through the highlights and make any tweaks I need to. The adjustments are usually minimal — a little brighter here, a tad more contrast there. I still end up syncing the rest of the gallery to those initial edits of the highlights. I was already super fast to begin with, but now — NOW, I can deliver a wedding to my clients in 3-4 days (and that’s taking Sunday off!) if I want to. It’s incredible!
Here’s the catch…
My Aftershoot profile is created from a solid foundation of consistently edited images. If you remember back to earlier, I mentioned that I trained my profile on about 14,000 images from 12 wedding catalogs and a few portrait session catalogs I had edited previously. Each of those catalogs showcased my very distinct and incredibly consistent editing style that I developed early on in my photography journey.
If you can’t “show” Aftershoot a consistent editing style, it won’t spit back out a consistent result.
The experts say you need at least 10,000 consistent images to train AI in your style to really reap the benefits. Even now, I still re-feed Aftershoot my favorite weddings after I’ve made my tweaks to further train it. I have lost track of how many images I have used to train my profile. But THAT is the key to making it work for me…and will be for you too.
If you have 10,000 consistent images and you haven’t bought this technology yet, what the heck are you waiting for?!?! GO BUY IT RIGHT NOW!!!!! Use the link to save 10% off Aftershoot.
If you don’t have 10,000 consistent images, you have a few options:
Get it anyway and train your profile on what you do have so far and continue to train it as you gain consistency and skill over the years.
Use one of Aftershoot’s free premade profiles or purchase one. It’s comparable to purchasing an old fashioned LrC preset but it will get your photos MUCH closer to the look it’s advertising. You will still most likely need to tweak things afterwards though so you still need to have a solid understanding of how to edit in Lightroom Classic. I’m guessing that there will be more and more profiles for sale in the future. Individuals may even be able to share their profiles as well. I’m hopeful! We’ll see! At this time, I am not seeing a very wide variety of editing styles for purchase — certainly nothing close to my personal editing style.
Work on your consistency with the lighting, camera settings and editing to get to a point where AI will work for you. And that, we can certainly help you with at Lancaster Photography School whether you are local to the Lancaster, PA area and want to learn live or through our LPS ONLINE option for those anywhere in the United States and Canada.
In summary, we LOVE AI editing! It has changed the game for those who are experienced and far along in their photography careers BUT we highly suggest you first learn consistency in camera and develop your own unique editing style before relying on an editing software to edit for you.
No editing software, no matter how intelligent, can fix some mistakes made in camera. You may get lucky more often with AI editing than you did with presets but it’s still not the magic bullet some may be hoping for.
There is no substitute for learning the basics of photography and getting consistent with your style.
After you have learned the basics and have become consistent with your editing style, we would most definitely encourage you to use AI editing. In fact, you’d be crazy not to!
If you’re interested in trying Aftershoot, we’re happy to share our affiliate link with you here (It was linked throughout this article as well) to save 10%.
If your not quite there yet with 10,000 consistent images and you need to work on your photography skills, check out all we have to offer through Lancaster Photography School. We even have a Lightroom Classic 101 editing class coming up on Saturday 1/27/2024 LIVE ONLINE at NOON where I will take you through Lightroom from understanding the software itself, showing you all it’s neat features to taking you step-by-step through my own editing process with encouragement and ideas for how to develop your own unique editing style along your journey.
What do you think about AI editing? Leave a comment below!
Xx - Megan Hoffer, Founder, Lancaster Photograph School