This is a huge boon for working photographers, because it takes care of the boring busywork.

AI filters are getting so good that one click is enough to make almost any photograph look great.

In fact, even some pro photographers no longer edit their photos.

Using Adobe Lightroom to edit a photo of a woman outside

Adobe

So, do we need to edit our photos anymore?

Or can we let AI take care of it all?

And sometimes you dont even need to click.

Editing the water detail of a photo of a waterfall in Lightroom

Adobe

Sometimes the quick effects can look artificial and lose the ‘truth’ of the original image.

The trouble with this kind of algorithmic editing is it can make all our photos look the same.

Filter apps make our images look similar, approaching a supposed ideal.

Using Lightroom to add a red overlay on top on an image of a bird

Adobe

Then, AI is trained on successful, popular images, and the homogenization continues.

Remember the psychedelic nightmare that was 2010s HDR?

Todays looks may age just as badly.

Dont Edit

Theres another possibility that might seem radical: Dont edit your photos at all.

Of course, even in this case, the camera already has done some edits for you.

For example, many photographers choose the Fujifilm X-Series cameras because of the way they render color.

Fujifilm uses the term “film simulation” to describe its color looks.

It interprets the sensor data based on its decades-long history of film.

Product and editorial photographers will balk at this.

So, no, in-depth editing is not always necessary."

Film contains dyes, chosen for their look, ditto for paper, and digital is no different.

“Unedited” doesnt mean “unprocessed.”

Maybe the lesson is that a photo should be about its subject.

With the right shot, all the editing in the world wont help or hurt it.

And if you give up on editing, then youll have a lot more time to take better photos.