Retouching Year-End Celebration Photos Using AI

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AI has transformed the post-production workflow in model photography more than anything else. The biggest change for end-of-year holiday photos has been the ability for me to go from spending several days retouching photos, to just a few hours thanks to AI!

There are many unique challenges with holiday photos.  Clients want them to be polished and festive-looking, and often with a specific theme:  winter wonderland, glamourous Christmas, or New Year’s Celebration. However, not every photo shoot goes perfectly.  Not all ideal locations are always available, and we cannot predict the weather, especially around the holidays, and often the client does not have the budget for multiple locations.

I remember last year when I did a project for a fashion brand.  They wanted their end-of-year collection to be photographed with a background that looked like fresh snow.  We had booked a location at a mountain resort.  It was the right place to get the image (the overall style) that they wanted, and the shoot was planned for a Saturday, but there was no snow on the mountain the day of the shoot; we only had brown and grey to work with definitely not a holiday-appropriate background. My only option to create what the client wanted was to do a composite in Photoshop; it took 3-4 hours for each photo, and with tight deadlines for submission my team and I hardly slept for a week.

AI as an Efficient Solution

When I began working this year, I took a completely different route than how I typically work. Of course, I still work with my strengths as I master the art of directing models, creating perfect lighting for each model shot, and directing the pose and expression until they are spot on to what I want. For backgrounds that are not what I would call ideal, I let the AI do all the heavy lifting in post-production.

Celebration photo retouching has quickly become my number one use of Visboom's AI-based photo editing website. Visboom's background swap feature is so incredibly powerful as an editor that I switched from using manual tools simply because the quality of outputs were always a professional-looking product that required no more than a few minutes of my time and far less than what would typically require hours of tedious manual effort.

Here's how it works: After I complete the shoot and perform basic color correction, I upload my photos to VISBOOM. Their background swap feature offers an enormous library of celebration-type backgrounds that range from impressive indoor Christmas settings to beautiful outdoor snowy scenes and even high-end New Year's party settings. What impresses me the most is the AI's ability to automatically adjust the lighting and shadows on the subject so they look like they were taken in the newly inserted background seamlessly.

Maintaining Professional Quality

As a professional photographer, I take pride in producing quality images. While I was initially hesitant that AI would be capable of meeting my standards, after conducting a lot of tests, I've begun to feel that this technology has now matured enough to be useful.

AI handles important details such as hair edge definition, texture of fabrics, and skin tones, very well. Unlike manual compositing, where you may encounter strange "halos" or overly-blended images, AI is computer-generated to prevent this. Furthermore, VISBOOM AI is able to simulate a "depth of field" with matching out-of-focus background based upon what kind of lens I chose to use at the time of shooting.

What I find most valuable about AI, however, is its ability to constantly produce the same quality of results, no matter what time of day I am editing images. An example of this would be how the last photo taken late at night (2AM), will not have the same quality of retouching as the first photo taken early in the day. Because every photo I edit receives the same effective treatments with AI, I am confident that I will continue to produce quality images.

The efficiency AI provides directly impacts my bottom line. Previously, for a 50-photo project, I had to allocate 5-6 days of pure retouching time. Now, with VISBOOM handling background swap, I only need 1-2 days for finalization. This means I can take on more projects during the peak year-end season without compromising quality or burning out.

Client satisfaction has also increased. Faster turnaround times allow them to launch campaigns earlier. Some clients even request revisions with different background themes, something that would previously be a nightmare due to extensive rework. With AI, such revisions become a matter of minutes.

Evolution, Not Replacement

Many photographers worry that AI will replace the need for human photographers. I view it from a different angle. Rather than being a replacement, AI serves as a way to enhance our abilities, much in the same way that a digital camera enhances our creativity and skills. While the technical aspects of photography (composition, lighting, directing) are irreplaceable, AI is capable of handling repetitive and tedious work that does not provide creative value.

For model photographers that are still stuck doing all of the work themselves manually, I highly recommend looking into AI tools like VISBOOM to help with your large seasonal projects. Using these tools is not about finding ways to do it quicker, rather it’s about how to work more efficiently. Photographers who utilize these tools will be in a much better position than photographers who refuse to adapt to change. It has been my experience that the quality of my photographs has remained the same while I've increased my overall productivity by a significant margin, allowing me to focus all of my creative energy on the areas of photography that matter most.