Dive into the ever-shifting realm of AI with us as we explore its profound impact on various industries, from marketing to art generation. Join Mary as she delves into her recent journey through an AI marketing certificate course and our anticipation for an upcoming immersive experience in Chicago. Together, we'll unravel the potential of Adobe Firefly in democratizing opportunities for small businesses, drawing parallels to the game-changing impact of Photoshop.
But the conversation doesn't stop there. Let's delve into the fusion of AI and creativity, inspired by the poetic lyrics of Counting Crows. We'll ponder over the evocative imagery AI tools like Adobe Firefly can conjure, envisioning how they can enrich the realms of art and education. Through our discussion, discover how embracing AI can not only transform industries but also empower you to maintain authenticity and elevate your creative endeavors to new heights.
This week's episode is sponsored by our friends at Retouch Up! Use the coupon code GYST10 for a special discount!
This episode was written and performed by Mary Fisk-Taylor and Kira Derryberry, produced by Kira Derryberry and edited by Joel North.
Dive into the ever-shifting realm of AI with us as we explore its profound impact on various industries, from marketing to art generation. Join Mary as she delves into her recent journey through an AI marketing certificate course and our anticipation for an upcoming immersive experience in Chicago. Together, we'll unravel the potential of Adobe Firefly in democratizing opportunities for small businesses, drawing parallels to the game-changing impact of Photoshop.
But the conversation doesn't stop there. Let's delve into the fusion of AI and creativity, inspired by the poetic lyrics of Counting Crows. We'll ponder over the evocative imagery AI tools like Adobe Firefly can conjure, envisioning how they can enrich the realms of art and education. Through our discussion, discover how embracing AI can not only transform industries but also empower you to maintain authenticity and elevate your creative endeavors to new heights.
This week's episode is sponsored by our friends at Retouch Up! Use the coupon code GYST10 for a special discount!
This episode was written and performed by Mary Fisk-Taylor and Kira Derryberry, produced by Kira Derryberry and edited by Joel North.
This week's episode is brought to you by our friends at RetouchUp. Retouchup works smarter, not harder. Welcome to Get your Shoe Together, the photographer's podcast where we discuss studio, business life and keeping it all in line. I'm Cura Dereberry and I'm Mary Fitz-Taylor. Hi Mary Fitz-Taylor.
Speaker 2:Good morning, happy Valentine's Day. We're recording this on Valentine's Day. Happy Valentine's.
Speaker 1:Day Gala Happy Valentine's Day.
Speaker 2:Happy late Valentine's Day to all and and Malentine's. Tell our guy and gal friends out there Malentine's, I don't know, maybe I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Malentine's.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Today's an exciting day Because you know what today is, cura, do you know what today is? What is today Today? Because there's a couple things.
Speaker 2:There's a couple things that today is, today represents Today are Let me just share it for you, okay, so A it's Valentine's Day, so that's cool. That's cool Little made-up holiday, but I'm here for it. I wished everybody happy valentine. I got all my lovies. Little happy Valentine. You did Texts this morning, got it Check. So today. Because they had a little game on the weekend called the Super Bowl, which I watched, I watched it.
Speaker 1:The whole thing Start to finish.
Speaker 2:Did you watch it for Usher, or did you watch it for Taylor Swift or?
Speaker 1:I watched it because I am a nice person and my family wanted to watch it. Oh, okay, so that's nice. Yeah, and I think it's the first Super Bowl I've watched from start to finish.
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't even watch it from start to finish, because I didn't. I just didn't care. I'm not as much of a football person College football, yes. Nfl, not so much but I did. I watched bits and pieces. Did you root for the red team?
Speaker 1:The red, white, white and gold team or the other red, white and gold team Exactly?
Speaker 2:Well, yes. So I just said who are you rooting for us at the red team? Because it just was, it worked. It worked for me. I was rooting for the 49ers no hate out there people Only because one of my high school seniors that I adore plays for the 49ers. So Well, Janadog was also rooting for the 49ers yeah, good for Janadog.
Speaker 1:I don't have any idea why, but I don't know where that stems from.
Speaker 2:I normally root for the Chiefs because our great friends Rich Newell and Mike Handline are big and Kristi Newell they're big Chiefs fans. So because I didn't have a team in, I thought, well, I usually root for the Chiefs, but I had to root, for I had one of my favorite Tennessee volunteers plays for the 49ers and one of the seniors, a Richmond boy, so I had to go 49ers Fortunately spoiler alert in case you haven't watched yet they lost.
Speaker 1:Barely, they barely lost. It was a good game.
Speaker 2:It was a great game. It was a really great game.
Speaker 1:Even I could tell it was a good game.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, I don't know if we want to discuss the fact that Sunday Super Bowl four years ago. Four years ago on Sunday, the same teams played in the Super Bowl, I believe, and the same two people were running for president, yeah, so anywho, I'll just leave that there. But also, today is officially the beginning, so there's two other things. So at the end of the Super Bowl I was texting with our good friend, david Trust this morning. Do you know what that means? Do you know what's officially the start of?
Speaker 1:What.
Speaker 2:Baseball season Kara, oh my God. Baseball season has started.
Speaker 1:Is there ever a? Lull in the sports no, is there ever a?
Speaker 2:break, maybe, no, maybe a little tiny gap when baseball ends, before football starts, but I don't believe so. No, no, basketball is also happening. I don't know. I don't follow the basketball.
Speaker 1:I know there's March Madness. Okay, that's the basketball. So that indicates that it would be in March right.
Speaker 2:I mean, if there's a college team I'm into, I will root for the basketball. But I went to a big basketball college so basketball is a big deal. Of course, all my Kentucky people they're all big Tim Walden and all of our big basketball people because of the Kentucky Wildcats.
Speaker 1:It just sounds like it seems to me basketball is a lot of shuttle running like back and forth like you did in Gens, a lot of floor squeaking.
Speaker 2:And floor squeaking. I can't stand, especially the NBA. I can't stand to watch an NBA game because of the floor squeaking. It's a lot. They might as well be wearing any of your kids that Lucy ever had. There were these little tiny like little Mary Jane kind of shoes, but they had squeakers in the heels. So when they walked around, they squeaked.
Speaker 1:Lucy had those.
Speaker 2:I did not have those because those that weren't invented when my children were a little, thank you Jesus. But I did like to buy those for my friends For other people's kids.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, it was very cute at first. It wasn't a cute idea. It was cute at first and then you're like a mother of pearl. And then it was a lot.
Speaker 2:Now you understand why dogs chew up their little stuffed animals and eat the squeaker right on out of its little heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, just because it's annoying.
Speaker 2:But also today it's officially the beginning of Dave Matthews season. Dave Matthews began.
Speaker 1:I was unaware that Dave Matthews season ever ended. I.
Speaker 2:Well, that's true, they do take a hiatus.
Speaker 1:And literally you are at every other weekend. You were at a Dave Matthews concert, so I mean it stands to reason that it never, it's perpetually Dave Matthews concert season.
Speaker 2:If you paid attention, you know I have not been to a Dave Matthews concert since November. That's untrue. No, it's absolutely true. They close their fall tour at Madison Square Gardens and they have not picked up a guitar or played publicly unless it was a private event that I was not invited to until Friday night.
Speaker 1:I feel like you are probably at a Dave Matthews concert right now, like in my heart, in your house, in my heart, I am.
Speaker 2:In my heart. I am In my car, I'm always at a Dave Matthews concert, but no, ma'am, today it starts. Today I'm leaving for Mexico in a couple hours. Squeezing this podcast in, Got one, got my bags packed one foot out the door. So so there you go, people. Today's a good day for Mary Fishtailer Baseball season. Dave Matthews season, Bam.
Speaker 1:You're coming in with a lot of energy, a lot of energy.
Speaker 2:And guess what I've been invited to in Mexico? What Mary, a huge. So my friend Rodrigo is one of the band photographers from Portia. He's from Portugal, who I hope we get to meet more in Portugal later this year. For your birthday and then we're calling it a birthday trip. It's not really a birthday trip, but he's coming over and he's doing a huge photography exhibit in Mexico and it's a private invite thing and I've been invited. I'm going to go.
Speaker 1:Oh, aren't you a fancy lady?
Speaker 2:I'm Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I'm pretty fancy.
Speaker 2:I'm out and you know what? I just went to dry bar this morning, as you can tell, and she did a great job.
Speaker 1:How did you get up today?
Speaker 2:I've done Pilates, I've got my hair blown out, I've showered, I'm drinking a Celsius Six cups of coffee, but I was getting my hair blown out and she goes I? I am so sorry to ask, but are you Guys? I'm so? Are you embarrassed to say that? Are you the Maryfisk? I'm like what? The the impersonators versus, yeah, versus the randos out there, but personating Maryfisk, she said well, I'm in the wedding industry and I mean you guys are pioneers, you all are. Oh, geez, you are.
Speaker 1:and I'm, like I said, old, old, she's a hair make up, I don't she was a doll.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, I don't recommend using a stylist that's also does hair and makeup for weddings as your drybar person, because you go in for a simple drybar and I now look like a prize.
Speaker 1:Your hair looks good, it's very curled to go to the beach on a plane, you know to play.
Speaker 2:This is a little much. It's gonna fall. My hair doesn't fall, literally. Look like I'm gonna go put on a gunny sack, stress and walk down the aisle. You have some beautiful ringlets, you guys. It's, it's a vision, is what it is. Oh my god. So sorry, I just Occupied the whole beginning, so let's take a pause for the cause to hear from our great friends. It retouch up and come back and dig into something that we're all a little uncomfortable about.
Speaker 1:Uncomfortable, I'll be right back. Hey you, is it 2 am and you're still up retouching that one-year-old cake smash session because there's just not enough hours to get it all Done. Stop what you're doing right now and upload that session to retouch up. Never tried retouch up? No problem. Sign up for a free account at retouch up comm and use the referral code GYST to tell them you're one of our loyal listeners. With retouch up, there are no contracts, no minimums, no complications and nothing to lose. For a limited time, all listeners of this podcast can save $10 with the coupon code. Just fall 10. That's GYST FAL L 1 0 for all customers. That's enough to retouch like four headshots or get five Extractions, or remove all the leaves out of the pool and the cars out of the parking lot on that real estate shot you just took. Get your life back with retouch up at retouch up comm and we're back. All right, yeah, we are all right.
Speaker 2:So I know you want to talk about this, but let me tell you what I did. So I so I have 100% Been very uneasy and uncomfortable with AI. I mean not in all aspects and I've definitely warmed up to it and I'm not I'm not rejecting it, I'm not, I'm not. I actually was having a conversation recently with another small business owner and they're like, well, it just makes me sick and I'm just gonna ignore it. I'm thinking oof, I'm not gonna be that person. I didn't have the time or energy to tell them that they were being short-sighted because it's here.
Speaker 2:It's been here, honestly, for a long time. We're just finally getting access to to what it does. But I actually, two weeks ago and I give my brother-in-law credit for this enrolled in and I am currently on in an online class Working towards a certificate in AI marketing. That's fantastic. Well, does it? I hate it. I hate every minute. I sit on those pot, I sit on the podcast, sit on the calls it's we do online once a week and then I'm gonna go to Chicago and April for a three-day, all-day, intensive Whoo, swearing me out here. I'm trying this for you.
Speaker 1:I love you because it's gonna make your life so much easier. I mean it is, it is it's exciting to me.
Speaker 2:Thank, I know it is.
Speaker 1:I know you'd be. I should have taken the class too, I would. I should have told you.
Speaker 2:I'll send you the information. Yeah, the cool thing about this is that this teacher he's. I've done all the in. My brother-in-law has been doing this for two years with this guy and I've seen him take his company and quadruple with his company. With it Now he runs a pretty large manufacturing company. So a little different for mine, but but you know you, you could apples and oranges, you still you make it your own. So I know that I trust this, this guy.
Speaker 2:But the bottom line is, guys, if we don't get in on this now, if we don't get in on understanding the, what this can do and how it can make our lives and our businesses Easier, we're gonna miss the boat because, just like a lot of things, in three to four years Everyone's gonna know how to do this. So let's go, let's, let's make it like. Compare it to Photoshop. When we went digital 25 years ago, photoshop was like clunky and new and you had to have a PhD and something I've never heard of in order to even use it. Now it's an app on your phone. People flip it open, import an image, run at the.
Speaker 2:So it's gonna this, this whole concept of AI marketing, which is essentially what Google has been using forever, which is when we were in Singapore. They've been using it for 20 years Different versions of it, obviously, but this is something that used to have to have a huge business and pay a Google ads expert a lot of money a year to have Access to this technology. It's becoming more and more accessible to us as small business owners. It's still it, but I completely predict in three to five years it's going to be as regular as opening your phone and running a filter on an image or taking an image on a phone. It's going to become so accessible that it's not going to be special. So those of us that early adapt and those of us that incorporated into our businesses now, we're going to be so far ahead of the game. That's my opinion, I agree.
Speaker 1:Okay, I agree. Just this morning this isn't actually what I was going to tell you that I'm working on, but just this morning I thought I'm not great at prompts and prompting AI. So I'm pretty good at prompting it for writing to help me and for marketing pieces and things like that, but I'm not great when it comes to image generation, which is our taboo zone, like for me it is. It is, it is Right, it's a hot topic for a lot of us, right, right?
Speaker 2:Right To top it first, yeah.
Speaker 1:But yesterday what I was working on was I have a client who started out as a smaller real estate firm and I made this really beautiful composite that made them look like they were on a reality show, right, Like there's 10 of them. They're all doing different poses, they're standing seated, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:And they're just like the real realtors of Tallahassee Right.
Speaker 1:And you know they're selling Tallahassee so, but they were, but they've grown just massively. So every month I feel like I'm adding like four new members to this group photo. So it's like it's just gotten to be this like very wide, long shot. And so the owner of the firm was like hey, is there a way that we can make this more compressed? You know like, because it's getting kind of out of hand. And I agree, you know, because I never anticipated her adding so many people. That wasn't, you know, and in fact it was one of those times where I didn't know that I would still be adding after the initial setup. Sure, so I started thinking, like, you know, we've we're not going to photograph everybody again, because there's, like I don't know, almost 30 of them in there now, you know. And so what I need? I need risers, I need something. I can't just stack them.
Speaker 1:You can't shove them up there Like I can't just put them in rows, because that doesn't make sense. They've got to have something. They're full length pictures, you know. You've got to have something to stand out.
Speaker 1:So I went to Adobe Firefly, which is the image generator from Adobe, and I went through and I started trying to prompt it to give me just gray stairs on a gray background, like I figured I could probably make this in Photoshop, like manually, but I was like I need to give her an example of what I'm thinking of changing this to. So I started prompting it and I realized that I'm not good at prompting you know what I mean. Like because there's because it kept giving me staircases from the side and staircases with the lighting coming from the wrong direction and stare, and so because it has to match right. So all I'm looking for is literally like three steps up in a stair in a long, wide stairway that I'm looking up, and then a gray wall behind it. That's all I want, you know, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I eventually got there, like I eventually got to it and started learning how to use this some more, and I started thinking I need a bucket of these. I need a bucket of these backgrounds for all the composite work, because it's true Like we can't just be sticking people in a line in this composite work forever and there's so many times where I'm like, well, if you've got more than 15, we probably want to go on location and arrange everybody or whatever. But why?
Speaker 1:You know, because I'm not talking about high end art or taking away somebody's photography. What I'm, what I'm having it do, is literally make me studio setups that are wider than my studio can accommodate, with props that I don't have.
Speaker 2:Well, making it more convenient for your client, because getting everyone together on location that's tough on your client. So you're making it easier on your client to do business with you and you're making it easier on your business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly so, exactly so. I thought you know I need to have this as a bank of options for my clients now too. So when they come to me with, hey, we want to have, you know we've got 25 people I can give them the option of let's get them all photographed. This is very easy for us to move it and out. Here are three layouts that you can choose from. We can brand this to the color scheme of you know whatever. I mean. Gray is pretty neutral, but I thought this is the next step in my compositing product. You know is being able to. I'm already dropping in backgrounds, you know when needed. You know blurry. You know outdoor scenes.
Speaker 1:You know, that sort of thing. So I don't have to go on location, right, Because I would much prefer that. It's just so hot here y'all usually, or raining, as you learned when you came and visited. You're like, what is that? I was like, oh, it's just a thunder shower. You're like what? Yeah, it's a lot of rain, so. So anyway, I was thinking like, but I need to get better at prompting. So here's what I did this morning, and you can, if you go to the level up group, you can, you can check this out. I've had that song from the counting crows round here stuck in my head for a couple of days. You know, just the those first few lines step out the front door like a ghost, into a fog where no one notices the contrast of white and white.
Speaker 2:I've always had a very visual. Did anybody else have that in their brain until now?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's going to be there for you. Now you do Round here, so I have a very like that's one of my favorite songs and I had in my mind I almost like it's very descriptive and so I always have a vision of what that looks like and it's always the same. So I thought what if I put in just those two stanzas from from that song, you know, to the part where it says of the crumbling difference between wrong and right? What if I put that in the AI prompt and see if it generates something close to what I've always thought? Yeah, looks like it doesn't spoiler, it doesn't.
Speaker 1:It did not, it didn't. It generated something. It generates mostly a girl walking out a doorway of a house, or a ghost doorway, like it's not attached to a house. It's really fascinating. So I started changing the prompts to actually telling it what I wanted. So I added a woman stepping out the front door of a house, away from it like a ghost, into a fog, where no one notices the contrast of white and white and in between the moon and you with angels overhead who can get a better view of the crumbling difference between wrong. I started getting like really specific about the things that are in the scene, that should be in the scene, yeah, and I only got one image that I thought depicted it. Still not exactly what I've always seen, you know, because I've always seen it from her walking from the side. Okay, so all of these are from behind her, like she's, like you're following her, yeah that's how I vision it.
Speaker 2:by the way you always see, follow how we see. I always see it from the side like a from walking, so you're a bystander. Yeah, yeah, I'm the one pushing her out the door, I guess.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so you're walking with her Kind of You're having the experience with her.
Speaker 2:I always watch her, I'm a follower and you're a watcher.
Speaker 1:Oh, maybe I'm an angel.
Speaker 2:I doubt it though.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're you Right, because, like the in between the moon and you, yeah Right. So maybe you're you and I'm an angel. Okay, with a better view, all right.
Speaker 2:I got you. Oh, you okay. Well, you do have a better view. You can see it all, yeah, well all of the ones.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think if I kept prompting and changing it like I want, you know you can change perspective, you can change camera angle, like there's things you can tell it that you want. Yeah, you can change art styles, lighting styles. So I played around with it being studio lit. I played around with it being painted. I played around so I got, like I don't know, 20 or so different images that and they always think she's a redhead, like it's made a lot of redhead women Same. No, I know, hey, I think she's a redhead. I also think she's a redhead. Oh, because you see yourself in this woman, maybe. Yeah, oh, are you the woman walking into the, into the fog, like a ghost? Maybe?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's mostly mostly redheads or brunettes, no, blondes, sorry, blondes Interesting, but it's. Some gorgeous stuff was generated from this, you know. I mean there's maybe two, there's like a storybook looking one, but anyway, I'll post a couple of examples to our page two when this comes out. But I don't know. I thought that was a good exercise to learn how to prompt it. Yeah, more towards, more towards what you're intending, and it's a fun experiment to play with song lyrics in that way, you know, because Well, isn't that cool how you are, because I mean it's I was thinking about this other day.
Speaker 2:So many of my friends are incredibly Well. I think all my friends are very talented, by the way, but a lot of my friends are musical, like. They play instruments, they sing, they do both, they play multiple. I mean a lot of you guys. I mean you, jeff, larry, larry. There's other people I'm just. Tony, yeah, tony Corpel, I mean it's just. I mean Mandy plays a guitar and sing. I mean very talented, and I think I was thinking about that the day, because I am not like, I'm not.
Speaker 1:I mean.
Speaker 2:I love music. I love music maybe more than most people, and I can absolutely run a karaoke. That is you are DJ I'm.
Speaker 2:DJ Mary I'm DJ yeah, jazzy Mary, for sure. Kj I'm a KJ more Karaoke, a karaoke, jackie, not a DJ yeah Anywho. But I think it's cool that when you can marry the two together, you know, like when you can take that and then you're bringing it in and how you know, we are inspired by music and maybe I, you know, I'm inspired by music and I think about songs a lot. And then I like, oh, I want to create that. I a lot of times will hear a song. And then I'm like, how can I make that a picture?
Speaker 2:So I think that's where my brain goes right, always, yeah, and I don't know if anybody else out there does that. Let us know, because I think that's really cool when you actually and when it actually comes together, because I'll think out we all have these thoughts and we're like I'm going to do that, and then the doing that part becomes the.
Speaker 1:I have like three or four songs and this being one of them, this round here, song being one that I have always. What is it? What is that lyric? And I think it's in this song, where it was like the way the light attaches to a girl, oh, I think. Is it from round here, or is it? I don't think I, it's another counting gross.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is counting gross, but I don't know that it's round here. I think it's a different but I'm.
Speaker 1:But there's a but. There's a handful of songs that I've always been like I want to. I want to when I'm good enough, when I'm good enough to make these pieces. You know that I see, because I can't, just if I can't make it work the way that I see it in my head, I don't want to do it. You know what I mean. But and then when I, you know, got more, I don't know rigid in my less experimenting and, more frankly, money making. You know cause. You know I kind of put that on hold. But this is kind of a fun way to plan it. You know what I mean Like to work on it and then use this as a jumping point for, like what you'd like to do, because it even sort of like I mean in December, a long December, thank you. Yes, the way the light attaches to a girl, look across. Yeah, yeah, long December.
Speaker 2:That was going to kill me.
Speaker 1:Long December round here. Yeah, there's a saw my metric that I really like too, that I would want to do.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I I feel like this is a good place to find inspiration for those projects. It kind of solves a little bit of some puzzle like lighting, because you're thinking, you're looking at it and you can analyze how that lighting worked, you know, and you're like, okay, so if I lit it this way, it would give me this feeling. You know what I mean, and it's because I love to analyze how light is already you know, reverse engineer lighting, right.
Speaker 1:So I'm to the point now where obviously I could do that, but I don't know. It makes us feel less impossible. No, I love it.
Speaker 2:You know, I always. There's one that I've always wanted to do and it's. It's a day fat map and that. But it's the funny the way it is, but it's the, it's the line that it's, and it's. I'm definitely getting this tattoo, like I waited and waited and I'm definitely do it, but it's. It's the one that's mountains and oceans and winters and rivers and stars. And I never have had a desire to enter the master artist category. However, if I ever do, it's going to be that image. How I put that together, I'm not sure, but mountains, oceans, winters, rivers and stars, like I've seen that song in my head. I say that line a lot. I'm very inspired by it for some reason. And it's funny because I'm not like a nature like. It's not like I love to go out and hike or whatever, but I do love nature, I, and that's something about it that I find so peaceful that in dreaming tree. Those are two images that I would like to compose. What if you took?
Speaker 1:some of those lyrics and put them into this.
Speaker 2:Adobe Firefly. I will, I'm going to do that now.
Speaker 1:And if and if you're listening and you're like I don't know what Adobe Firefly is, so it's, it's the. It's like the mid journey that Adobe came out with. So it's it's Adobe's version of AI image generation. It comes with your creative cloud it's, I believe it's just like Adobefireflycom probably, but if you go to your creative cloud apps, it's a click, it's a button in there so you can get to it, but it's. It takes a little while to kind of get good at the, at the prompting, and to understand that you can change so many variables between lighting, between vantage point, art style, composition, the ratio that the image is, you know, and then everything that you put in it. You can tell it what not to put in. You can say do not include. Like when I was trying to build my stairs, I kept saying for people to stand on and it kept putting weird monster people in there you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so then I was able there's a little exclude box and I was able to say do not include any people. And then it did that for me, so it stopped doing that.
Speaker 2:So did you get the stairs?
Speaker 1:you needed. Yet I did get the stairs I needed and I'm working on that actually right now and, honestly, I'm working on because I'm teaching a lot at the end of this month. I'm doing a lot of my headshot class that I do, and I always do a little composite section, but I'm I'm thinking of making this a bigger part of my presentation and actually showing some of the AI tools that I've been using to kind of help myself, and I'm honestly thinking of maybe just generating a few as a little package that people just like don't want to mess with AI and they just want to buy the backgrounds they can, you know. So I don't know Like it's. I'm playing around with it, I'm enjoying it, I'm going to start using it and having some examples. I think I'm just going to put the same people in all of them so you can see it doesn't matter, you just need the people and then you populate it and you can see how the same people look in the different scenes.
Speaker 2:Okay, you know To okay A love that idea. The AI teaching idea Also, wow, because I'm obviously I'm leaning into the to the AI marketing side. Imagine that you leaning into the creative side. A smell it Brandy workshop on the rise in here, Give us a little time.
Speaker 2:We're going to be dangerous. We're going to be. We're going to be dangerous. I see this coming to a town near you soon because I do think it's, it's in it.
Speaker 2:It's funny because I'm in this learning process and I'm not. These people are not creative. I'm the smallest business in this group by far. These are people that usually their company is sending them in. They're on a marketing team, learning what I'm learning. So it's that level.
Speaker 2:I feel very like a really tiny little fish and a big sea of big wigs. I mean, these people are running billion dollar, multi-million dollar corporations are working in them, but I'm learning with these people. So that makes me I'm very proud of myself, for even you know getting through it, but it's going to be so powerful for us. But I have to take everything I get and then I have to make it applicable to what we do, because it's there's not AI marketing for photography businesses right, but maybe there will be, maybe there should be, maybe there should be, because I do think that we need it and we use it.
Speaker 2:And same thing for you. Like, there's a lot of people out there teaching the creative part of AI, but how can we use it as professional photographers to make our job better, more sustainable, more profitable. More time you know time efficient, more giving us a competitive advantage, making it easier for our customers to do business with it. That's why we want AI. We don't want it. We use it in. The public wants it to like, make you know creepy headshots that your eyes looked dead or you know whatever.
Speaker 2:That's not what we're asking for, and I appreciate all the cool art pieces and so many of my artist friends are using it, creating really cool things Great. But how can I use it in my business but keep the authenticity of what we do?
Speaker 1:And because everything that we're talking about requires a level of your own modification. Right Like it's, it's, it's not in this. The way I'm using it is not a whole lot different than using a stock background or a stock photo.
Speaker 1:But there's other ways to do it. Like another project, I've got several projects I got to finish before I leave town. But I also went on location with a with a company recently and we were going to shoot it on this big marble wall downtown. Well, time of day was not something I could choose. They were only available at like two o'clock in the afternoon, which meant it was terrible.
Speaker 1:Like it had an awning, so that there were sections of it that were shaded, but not enough of it was shaded for me to get everyone alongside that wall. So in a pinch I said look, I'm going to photograph this wall. I'm going to photograph each and every one of you on the shaded part of the wall. I'm going to get your best shot and I'm going to composite you all together along this wall, leaning on this wall. That's not this wall anymore, right, because? So then I took a couple of blank shots of the wall with the big sun spots on it, whatever, took it into Photoshop and used Jenner to fill to get rid of the huge direct sunspots and refill the wall to be a big empty blank wall of marble, straightened out the horizon line, cleaned up the corners, like, did, did my own artwork to the wall, and now I'm compositing all these people, even though we went on location and we did this.
Speaker 1:we got there and we realized it's not going to work and we don't have time to figure it out, to go somewhere else. Now I'm going to composite them all. It's going to look like it was the perfect time of day on the most perfect marble wall. Right, and you know, and? But this is still using AI technology. You know, jenner, to fill what is the? The content of where fill, you know, to to fill in the blanks and you're still now.
Speaker 2:We're creating a custom background that can help become part of my arsenal of custom backgrounds that I have for, and obviously, if you don't have the time or the knowledge, like me, you can also send it to retouch up. They do all this stuff.
Speaker 1:You absolutely could.
Speaker 2:Obviously, Kira loves this stuff. I do not love this stuff.
Speaker 1:I love solving puzzles.
Speaker 2:Now let me ask you this how do you charge for this, though? Like so. So, for example, let's go back to the company where you're now. They have 30 realtors. Every time they need to add someone, obviously you charge for that new headshot. Do you charge for your creation time to composite? Yes, okay.
Speaker 1:So I have the master file, obviously right, and every single actually this particular company is one that retouch up I send out for retouch up to do so. I don't have a master Photoshop file for this because they are just literally I go remove, I X out this person, remove this person, add this person. So it's real easy with retouch up to do this straight line composite that we do. But no, but I always charge them a fee to create the, the initial composite, like you know, from the first set of pictures. So we always have a creation fee or a design fee and then we have an ad remove fee. So if they're removing a person, they get a charge. If they're adding two people, there's two charges for two people.
Speaker 1:So that's how we plus the image right.
Speaker 2:So that makes sense. That makes sense. Now, the job you went on location for and unfortunately it didn't work because of the sun is, I would assume that you like for me. If I got there and realized I shoot, I can't do what I thought I was going to do, I would fix it and I wouldn't charge the because I'm charged for the job on location. It is what it is at that point. You know what?
Speaker 1:I'm saying it is what it is, it's time of day and this is the location we pick. Yeah, no, I am actually. But see, it's not going to be. It's not going to be that bad because I had the wherewithal to shoot it correctly, Correct, so I'm. I'm literally, I can even have a messy cut out, like even if it's, and it'll go, because they're on the actual wall right, or putting them on right. You know what?
Speaker 2:I mean, and I know I would, now I'm guessing, but the the key to doing that? Now I'm, when you're on a location like that. I'm assuming you're working on tripod, oh yeah, okay, so I'm just I want to mention that because I've had lots of questions like, well, I don't understand. I tried that, but if you're not, if you're trying to handhold and do this, guys, it's, it's. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's not easy.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of things that will make your post production very difficult and even if you send it out, yeah, it is the return that you get when you send it out as only as good as the initial images that you get. They can't work miracles I mean on like, like.
Speaker 1:if, for example, I'll see sometimes where somebody they'll, they'll change their camera height because they're trying to shoot to flatter the subject. So they have a really tiny person and they shoot them parallel to the ground, at chest height, and then they have a, you know a person that they're trying to minimize their body. So they'll shoot higher and they'll angle down. Well, now your whole perspective is wrong. And so if you put those people in a composite together, one person, the angle doesn't look, it doesn't look believable.
Speaker 2:Ever. Yeah, yeah, I really noticed that a lot. Well, yesterday I don't know what I signed up for. Yesterday I judged in my, which I love. It was great. It was the February MIR. I judged sweating reputations and portrait. It was great. Great panel, great Judge for four hours.
Speaker 2:What I'd forgotten I had signed up for was we have a Richmond camera club, which is a great, robust club, and they had invited me months ago to judge their image competition last night. I didn't realize they were on the same day, but I judged for four hours MIR. And then I went and I judged 92 images. I'm going to say judge, I evaluated 92 images by myself and what it involves is the image comes up and I have to give like one and a half to two minute talk about each image. 92 images, wow, imagine the camera club and even the MIR, because we're all you know, we all start at some place. There were several things that were composited and that was something I said I must have said 25 times last night is hey guys, I appreciate the composite, I love the creativity. However, it feels to me like this was handheld. I've got perspective issues, I've got this and you can tell. I can just tell Now, granted the buying public, maybe not, maybe not even your client, but I just think that that would make makes your life.
Speaker 1:Well, we want to give the best product we can to the client right, and so believability factor is a thing, and so if these, you've seen billboards where the composite is weird you know what I mean. Like, or you know, you, where the perspective is all off and the lighting or the lighting doesn't match, Like you've got light coming from left and right and you've got edge lighting coming on, but you know, and, but they're standing in front of people. So where are those lights? Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Those lights coming from you know.
Speaker 1:So the believability factor is the thing that maybe your clients don't notice that that it's not shot correctly, but they do notice that something isn't quite right.
Speaker 2:Well, and wouldn't you say? This is what sets us apart, using AI, than your average consumer, and because we are professional photographers. So, even if you're using this technology, whether you like it or not, if you're using it in your business, we know to make sure that, even though we're just typing in some prompts that we're not going to accept it if the lighting isn't going to match, if the perspective isn't going to match, etc. Etc. So that's why us using it is going to help us, not hurt us. That's my opinion. That's that's because I this small business that I was talking to, that I told you yesterday was rejecting it. I just shook my head, thinking I'm not going to be that person, because I've done this long enough that I remember when film was going away and I remember this photographer, like it was yesterday, saying absolutely not, this is BS, it's never going to happen. It rejected it. No longer in business Websites those are silly. Superhighway is a joke. No longer in business. Social media rejected no longer.
Speaker 2:So I've seen it. So I'm I'm now. I'm one of those old photographers. Right, I am that person that I remember looking at 30 years ago going, boy, you're an idiot. I don't want to be the idiot. I don't want any younger photographer out there telling me something and me going that's BS, it's you kids and your crazy ideas. Nope, it's here, it's been here. I'm going to embrace it because I want to stay in business. So, absolutely, yeah, and we're smarter, not harder. So, anyway, that's our AI talk for today. Ta-da, I have a feeling you're going to be hearing a lot about that this year and because it's just it's here, it's relevant. Hopefully, you guys, if you have been rejecting it and not excited about it, maybe this will give you some ideas, because Kira's giving you some great advice on how you can use it to just make your job easier and make your clients happier, and isn't that what it's all about? That's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:And remember, it's not to replace, it is a tool, it's no different than painter or retouching.
Speaker 2:You're enhancing what you've created. You are making what you created a better product. It's no different than me painting it. It's no different than me adding hair in Photoshop or sending it to retouch. It's really not. It's just enhancing what you created. In my opinion, yep, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Ta-da. Well, with that, look at us, look at us. Happy Valentine's Day. You brought, you brought all this energy, and so we, just we just banged it out today.
Speaker 2:I don't even drink coffee, which is the crazy part.
Speaker 1:Well, you drink Celsius.
Speaker 2:I am on my. It's my first one, though, so I do like it so you claim.
Speaker 1:All right, guys, we're going to wrap this one up. You can follow us on Instagram at GetYourShoot Together. You can follow us on Facebook at GetYourShootTogether. You can email us at girl at GetYourShootTogethercom, and subscribe to us wherever podcasts are played. We will see you next time. Thanks, y'all.