There is no doubt about it, the world is currently getting saturated with AI generated slop. Images, articles, video content, its everywhere. Case in point this overpriced beauty I found a few weeks ago at a furniture store, an SD-something-or-other with a smokebox and some generic passenger cars:
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I know, yuck.
But there is another side to generative AI which I have found to be quite impressive, using it as a tool to help augment existing photos. If you are careful with your prompts, it is surprising how quickly it can turn an average photo into something special, or even generate useable content from scratch, as
@Ed Kapuscinski has been showing us with his backgrounds and augmented photos. The goal of this thread is to share some of the photos I have created/prompted and encourage others to share as well.
Starting off, here is a stock photo of my CNR mogul out in the weeds with a mixed branchline train, taken at a trainshow earlier this year.
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With the instructions to remove the ceiling and walls in the hall and replace with a grey sky, add steam coming out from the smoke stack, add a light snowfall and make it sepia, this image was generated:
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Next, I asked AI to replace the ceiling with a blue sky, add the steam/smoke, and turn the photo into an oil painting. I got this:
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While they arent perfect works of art, the images sure are impressive when you consider it took me longer to type out the instructions than it did for the AI model to produce the content! I do find it interesting that the flatcar became a boxcar in the oil painting.
Here are a few other examples were generated from other images I took at the same show.
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Grey scale image of a CPR E8a hauling the afternoon Montreal to Ottawa pool train, in some heavier snow.
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@craigolio1's VIA RDCs running in the rain, with some slightcolour correction and graininess added to age the photo a bit.
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This last one was generated by my friend Emerson Case, and shared here with permission. Late night winter line up of trains at Toronto Union station.
So there you have it, not all AI is slop. I encourage you to give it a try, its amazing (and sometimes entertaining) what will be generated based on the prompts you provide. Feel free to post whatever images you manage to generate.
