Retouching battle: How does AI retouching differ from manual retouching?
Photography and retouching capture real-life beauty that aligns with a brand’s creative vision. In recent years, the need for high quality retouching has increased to bridge the gap between aesthetics and authenticity - especially in high-volume creative production. What else has gained popularity to solve this problem? Artificial intelligence in retouching.
But what separates AI retouching from manual retouching? And how can AI be used in the production process to enhance visual content creation?
AI Retouching
AI retouching has taken the photography industry by storm. It’s a way to almost instantly retouch a photo by giving a model perfectly even skin, erasing flyaway hairs, and making blemishes magically disappear. AI can even generate images that previously would have taken weeks or even months to have in hand. Did we mention that it also eases conflicts in usage rights?
No wonder AI’s contribution to creative production can’t be denied. But AI is far from perfect. For example, if you want to retouch a model’s arm or leg size, the AI system can’t make that alteration without distorting the background - it’s unable to distinguish between the two, creating a subpar outcome that likely won’t be useful. There is no substitute for an expert eye in production.
©John Hardy | Retouching by View Imaging
The Art of Manual Retouching
AI retouching approaches retouching with a heavy hand. Although it can be a great guide, it simply can’t fine-tune the details of an image the way that manual retouching - by a human expert. Beauty truly is in the details.
With traditional retouching, you can zoom into every detail of the image to clean up the eyebrows here, add fullness there, or selectively remove tiny bumps on the skin while preserving a natural look.
It’s the attention to detail and vital decision-making skills that experts possess - and AI lacks - that produce high-end visual assets in digital design and e-commerce retouching.
Let’s take a final side-by-side look and compare with the unedited photo as well.
Finding the Balance: Leveraging Both Options
At the end of the day, AI can’t retouch on its own. Although it provides a quick and efficient base, a human eye that can evaluate output and decide what’s good and bad retouching is still a must. So how can we find the best of both worlds?
Making AI generated photos that can be used as background for a product shot saves the time and money of a full shoot. Bonus: They’re also great for concepting and vision boards.
Using AI retouching as a first pass guide in post-production, creating a preset, and applying to all photos for a base retouch before an expert picks it up by hand.
Using AI retouching isn’t a foolproof option in production — but neither is manual photography and retouching. Just like putting together a stellar team, honoring the pros and cons of each approach so we can combine their strengths is what makes a more beautiful world and enhances visual storytelling. And that’s what we’re all about.
Does your creative team need more flexibility? Extend your team with experts in creating high-quality content at high volumes without sacrificing quality. Schedule a call with the team at View Imaging!
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