Ashley Skow, CPP of Captured by Ashley Photography in Atlantic has earned the Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) designation from Professional Photographers of America (PPA).

Skow earned this designation after completing an intensive program that measures her artistic and technical competence. Professional Photographers of America currently recognizes fewer than 2,500 CPPs.

“This was a very daunting goal to achieve. I have spent hundreds of hours on photography education and having to proving my technical knowledge and skills in professional photography,” Skow said.”I pride myself in continuing my education each year by attending various events and classes around the country to give my clients the absolute best in experience, quality, and professionalism. I’m excited to provide the very best professional photography right here in Southwest Iowa.”

Professional Photographers of America (PPA.com) is the leading body for certifying imaging professionals. CPPs must complete a written examination, finish an image evaluation and adhere to a strict code of conduct. Certification must be renewed on a periodic basis, ensuring continued confidence in the professionalism of Certified Professional Photographers.

Go to www.capturedbyashleyphotography.com for booking information for Ashley Skow, CPP.

Generative AI has quickly emerged as one of the most transformative and controversial technologies of our era. For photographers and photo editors, the implications are profound. Will it just make our jobs easier? Or will it replace them altogether?

At the center of this unfolding revolution / disruption / total calamity (delete as appropriate) is Adobe‘s Firefly, a groundbreaking generative AI model now baked directly into Creative Cloud apps such as Photoshop.

You might have ignored Firefly up until now, assuming that it’s a temporary phenomenon—a mere blip or novelty that will soon be forgotten about. But if that’s the case, then Zeke Koch, VP of product management at Firefly, is here to tell you (warmly and diplomatically) that you’re very wrong. As far as Adobe’s concerned, Firefly is the future, not just of Photoshop and Lightroom but all of its creative software.

To give us more details, Zeke sat down with us to discuss how Firefly is transforming the creative process and why photographers shouldn’t fear this disruptive new tech. Even though all the images that accompany this article were generated entirely by AI, with no actual photographer needed.

What’s new in Firefly 3.0

Koch, a product veteran who has worked on Adobe Stock and Photoshop, explains that the AI model has been trained on a vast dataset of images and concepts, allowing it to understand and generate a wide variety of visual elements.

In plain language, that means the software has trawled millions of photos in the Adobe Stock library, and learned how to automatically craft new images that will look similarly “real” and professional.

“We’re trying to teach the model to understand reality, so it can really go to photographic reality,” he explains. “We’re trying to teach it to understand how a camera would understand the world. And then to better give you the kind of image you’re trying to generate, we’ve introduced the Reference Image feature. That means you don’t have to rely on words in your prompts, you can upload an image to show the AI the kind of thing you’re looking for.”

If you’ve tried Firefly in the last year and found it unimpressive, it worth noting that this week, Firefly has been updated from model 2.0 to model 3.0. And it’s quite the game changer.

This update delivers, in the words of the release notice: “stunning advancements in photorealistic quality, styling capabilities detail and accuracy along with greater variety [and] significant advancements in speed of generation [that] make the ideation and creation process more productive and efficient”. 

These are not just flowery words. Koch explains that there are real, verifiable software enhancements behind all the hyperbolic adjectives.

“There are a couple of different measures of the complexity that the model understands objectively,” he begins. “And so one is what we call the latent space. It’s effectively how many concepts you have. Those are more tied to the words in the prompt than they are to the picture. But essentially if you type something like ‘bear with guitar’ how many different variants are there of the bear guitar and what’s in the background and all those different things.

“So that represents all the concepts that you can explain in the network. And so we’ve made the latent space twice as big as it was before. And then the other thing is the imagery part: the part that tries to render what we think you want. That’s about three times as big as it used to be. And then the third thing is called attention. It’s basically, when we take your prompt and try to convert it into an image, how much does the model look at all the inputs that you give it? How much attention does it paid all those things? So we’ve also about tripled that.”

What this means in practice is that Firefly delivers higher-quality image generations, with better details and variety. Koch showed me a number of pictures produced by both 2.0 and 3.0 versions of Firefly. And, once he zoomed into the details, it was clear that the clarify of images produced by the latest version is palpably higher, as well as being more representative of real photography.

Officially titled Firefly Image 3 Foundation Model (beta), the new model is available for use in Photoshop (beta) and on firefly.adobe.com.

How it can help photographers

The short version is that this is impressive tech indeed, with its powerful AI capabilities, not to mention increasingly seamless integration with Adobe Creative Cloud. But what’s it all actually for? Kock is clear on this one: Adobe believes Firefly is poised to become an essential tool for photographers, image editors and indeed creatives of all stripes.

“Generative AI doesn’t replace creativity: it turbocharges and extends the creator’s abilities,” he stresses. “The creative spark still comes from you as the photographer. The AI amplifies your efforts so you can create, ideate and iterate much faster.”

In other words, Koch sees Firefly as a “supercharged editorial assistant” handling tedious tasks like background removal and object insertion, while the human being continues to drive the overarching artistic vision.

“We’re not just doing text to image generation from scratch,” he points out. “That’s been on the Firefly web app from the beginning. But the magic in Photoshop is using generative AI to augment and accelerate your existing creative process on real photos you care about.”

Specifically, he points to new tools like Generative Fill which allows replacing backgrounds, adding objects, or tweaking visual elements in one click instead of tedious editing. “We’re trying to make the model understand photographic reality as closely as possible, so it can do the rote editing tasks for you, while you focus on your creative vision.”  

By providing a starting point and a range of options, Firefly can help photographers explore new ideas and push the boundaries of their craft. Ultimately, Koch believes that Firefly and other generative AI tools will become an integral part of the creative workflow, just as digital cameras and editing software have transformed photography over the past few decades. 

The ethics of it all

Whether or not you buy the argument that AI won’t replace our jobs, there’s also the separate issue of how AI is learning from our existing work by studying it online. To many people’s minds, that’s simply another form of piracy.

On this issue, Koch is keen to stress the ethical nature of Firefly, based on the fact that it doesn’t scrape content people haven’t agreed to be scraped. “We’re creating models with deep expertise in areas like imagery, video and design,” Koch explains. “And we’re building these commercially-safe models only using data we have proper rights and licenses for, like Adobe Stock.”

As an added bonus, Adobe embeds content credentials for transparency on whether something was computer-generated. “As this technology proliferates, understanding where content comes from and if it was AI-generated is crucial for maintaining trust,” he adds.

The future of Firefly 

A more functional aspect of Firefly that sets it apart is its integration with other Adobe Creative Cloud apps beyond Photoshop. “There’s text to vector in Adobe Illustrator. There’s text effects in Express, there’s generative images in Adobe Express,” Koch explains. “There’s a little bit in Adobe Stock. So there are a bunch of different systems that can work together seamlessly.”

Lightroom is noticeably absent on the list for now, but as Terry White teased on stage at Adobe Max London it’s not been forgotten: generative AI capabilities will be coming to Lightroom on desktop and mobile soon.

In the future, such integrations will allow for a seamless workflow, where photographers can use Firefly to generate initial concepts or fill in gaps, and then refine and polish them using their favorite Adobe tools. “Having AI in Photoshop allows you to quickly remove the things in a picture that don’t meet your needs,” Koch says. “Or you can start with a blank canvas, get something started, for your inspiration.”

I don’t know about you, but even though I’ve been photographing for almost fifteen years now, sometimes I feel stuck when deciding which editing direction to take with some of my images.

Some questions I usually ask myself:

• Is the post-processing I’m doing appropriate for the image I’ve been editing?
• Should I use a different crop ratio?
• Does the subject really stand out?
• Is the message clear enough?

If you notice, none of these questions are about technique. I remember a quote from Henry Mancini, a legendary composer, who once said:

“Technique is superficial. The method used in applying technique is what gives music its character.”

I’m not saying technique is not important. I believe it is really key. What I’m saying is that all techniques referred to both the use of the camera and photo editing, are a result.

And, when photographers prioritize their technique or the gear they use over the actual things they are photographing, it typically doesn’t lead to any good outcome and growth.

In this article, I’d like to share with you a few concepts about photo editing I love the most. I’m not talking about how to use a specific tool or fancy technique that you’ve probably come across in countless articles or videos already.

Instead, I’ll focus on two powerful strategies that you can immediately apply to your shots, and it will help you create better images and much more compelling stories that truly represent your vision.

Beyond the technical approach

In my personal opinion, half of the image creation process is photo editing, which extends beyond simply moving a bunch of sliders to fix shadows, highlights, or boost contrast and saturation. You need to be thoughtful when deciding which, when, where, and how to apply a specific adjustment.

You might think there’s only one right way to edit a photo, but that’s not true. You can generally explore different editing options. It depends on what you want to say and how you want to make people feel with your photos.

In my photography workshops, we always make time for multiple post-processing sessions where we review the images we’ve captured together. So, before we even touch any sliders, I like to remind my students to take a few minutes to really look at the RAW material, the framing, lighting, and any issues or distractions in the image. This helps establish a clear understanding of the image’s elements and come up with an action plan before making any changes.

Now, why am I mentioning this?

It’s because I’ve noticed a common mistake among photographers: they often rush into editing without giving their shots a good once-over. Many people tend to mix up terms like ‘tactic’ and ‘strategy’.

So, the deep meaning of post-processing lies not only in its ability to enhance the aesthetic quality of images but also plays a crucial role in shaping the viewer’s emotional response and interpretation of a photograph. You wanna make changes to the image in a way that effectively conveys the story you want to tell.

One of my photographer heroes, Jay Maisel, once said: “When you shoot, that is opportunity number one to make a statement. When you edit, you have opportunity number two to make your statement.”

Adjustments for emotional impact

I want to give you two very effective ideas on how to approach photo editing from a different perspective.

The first one, perhaps my favourite, is inspired by an exercise I used to do with my guitar students back when I taught at the music academy, and it’s about trying to associate a feeling with each element of the photo.

Photo editing boils down to a few keystone elements:

• Exposure
• Contrast
• Color
• Texture
• Distortion
• Crop

Each of these elements influences how the viewer perceives and feels about the photo. Therefore, when you define the adjustments to apply to an image, you directly shape the way people will perceive that image. That’s why it is so important to be intentional about every adjustment you make.

So, the idea is to try to set aside post-processing as a collection of techniques for a moment and instead think of it as evoking a range of visual emotions.

Let me give you a few examples:

Exposure and contrast

Exposure itself is a very powerful adjustment in altering the mood of a photo and, subsequently, the mood of the person viewing the image.

This change can turn a picture of snowy mountains like this, which might give off feelings of calm and peacefulness, into one that conveys a more surreal feeling of drama, mystery, and power in the play of light and dark.

High-key photos, characterized by brightness and openness, usually convey positivity and are those images we often describe such photos as bright, airy, and even dreamlike.

In contrast, low-key photos, with their darker tones and shadows, create a more sombre atmosphere, darker and moody.

Colours

Colour also plays a key role in influencing our emotions when viewing photographs. Different colors evoke different feelings like drama and power (red), serenity and peace (blue), happiness and optimism (yellow), calm and refreshness (green).

Texture and distortion

Texture is another critical aspect of landscape photography. Adding texture to a photograph can evoke tactile sensations. For example, we can describe images with rugged rock formations or rough terrain as ‘raw’ and ‘wild.’

Conversely, smooth textures like calm water surfaces or soft clouds can evoke feelings of tranquillity and serenity.

Distortions, on the other hand, can create unsettling or surreal effects.

Cropping

Cropping is another incredibly effective editing technique because it has the power to dramatically change the essence of a photo, its perceived meaning, and the emotions it evokes. The way these meanings and reactions shift depends on the specific type of crop used.

What you include or leave out of the frame can totally change how people see the photo. If you include something that complements the main subject, it really reinforces the message you’re trying to convey. On the flip side, cropping it out can totally change the story.

Even empty space around the subject can serve to change the feeling of the photo, offering a more expansive view, giving it openness and freedom, as opposed to if the crop is very tight, creating a restrictive and confinement feeling.

I highly recommend watching the video I made about visual balance where I’ve covered more of these concepts.

Refine your vision with variants

The second idea I want to share with you is very practical and super effective, and it’s more related to the workflow I adopt to refine my vision during the editing process of an image.

When we edit photos in Capture One or whatever software you prefer to use, it can be hard to tell if the changes we make actually improve the picture. So, to streamline the process and reduce guesswork, we can utilize something called “variants”.

Unlike physical copies that take up additional storage space on your hard drive, ‘variants’ are simply variations of the same image metadata, allowing you to experiment with different editing adjustments without creating multiple files.

They are very convenient to try out different edits without messing up the original. By making these copies, we can compare the different versions of the same shot and see which one looks best, making the editing process smoother and less confusing and helping you refine the changes that truly enhance the storytelling you envisioned.

Let me pull up this example image of an Icelandic wintery scene. This is the RAW file straight out of the camera, without any editing.

I won’t cover the entire editing process; that’s not the point of this article, but I’d like to show you a practical application of how generating multiple versions of an image can greatly assist you in determining the optimal approach for editing that better aligns with your personal vision.

In Capture One Pro, we have two nice handy functions: ‘New Variant’ and ‘Clone Variant’.

‘New Variant’ is useful when you want to explore a completely different edit. So, it creates a virtual copy of the file using the default settings regardless of any adjustments that have been applied already.

The ‘Clone Variant’, as opposed to a New Variant, creates an exact copy of the selected image variant, including any adjustments that have already been applied.

Here, you can see that we have three different versions of the same file. The tiny number at the top is the variance position, which can be used to set the image that holds the winning position.

The darker colour bar, instead, tells me that all these variants are associated with the same raw file.

Now, circling back to the main focus of the video, this fantastic feature proves to be incredibly helpful in guiding your decision-making throughout the editing process.

Here is the original RAW file with no edits:

The second variant is the edited version, where I applied some basic adjustments like the exposure, contrast and white balance.

This is an example of a very minimal and simple editing that can be perfectly fine for people who enjoy getting a natural look and don’t like to play around with sliders too much.

Try asking yourself: how does this image and editing move you? What’s the perceived feeling?

Another idea is to crop out a bit of the blue sky. This will help draw more attention to the snowy mountains and make the scene feel even more expansive.

On the third version, I’ve cropped the top of the frame even more, using a different aspect ratio to create a pronounced panoramic feeling.

Notice how just the crop factor can dramatically alter the feeling of the image and our perception of it. The tone and colour adjustments remain the same; we’ve only changed the aspect ratio.

Moving on to the next variant, I took a different approach by desaturating the blues significantly, reducing the contrast, and slightly increasing the exposure.

As you can see, it’s the same shot, the same scene, but with a completely different interpretation.

Is this version better than the previous one? There is no right or wrong answer. They’re both okay, and they simply convey a very different feeling.

Let’s explore a different direction for the image.

This version is totally different. I used the same panoramic crop, but it’s much darker and moody, with a higher level of contrast. I played with the Levels tool and some Luma Masks to target shadows and highlights separately in order to make the light more dramatic.

And to really enhance that wintery vibe, I went for a desaturated cold colour grading.

Next, I converted the image to black and white, removing the colour element to shift the viewer’s focus to the interplay between shadows, highlights, and shapes, rather than the sensation of coldness.

In this next example, I took the image in yet another direction by significantly reducing the contrast to get a sort of oniric interpretation of the scene with these soft pastel blue tones.

How does this version resonate with you? It evokes a completely different feeling compared to the previous contrast-rich and stylized versions, doesn’t it?

Your thoughts?

People react very differently to the various forms of edited changes. The same adjustment can be seen as pleasing to one person and completely off for another. The same adjustment can be noticed by a person, and at the same time, it goes completely unnoticed by another one.

We don’t edit for perfection; we edit for connection. And when people look at your images, they’ll feel the impact of your unique vision.

I hope you found the article/video useful.

How do you approach photo editing? Let me know in the comments!