Photo Details
| Title: | Highland Mary Lakes, Weminuche Wilderness, Colorado |
| Taken: | 3 August, 2022 |
| Location: | |
| Camera: | NIKON Z 7 |
| Focal length: | 24mm |
| Shutter speed: | 1/15s |
| Aperture: | ƒ/16 |
| ISO: | 500 |
In 2022, I took a short overnight backpacking trip to the Highland Mary Lakes in the Weminuche Wilderness near Silverton, Colorado. I didn’t have a lot of time, so I did a shorter loop with just a single night in the wilderness before hiking back out. But in that short trip, I was hit by a crazy afternoon monsoon and then treated to a beautiful, soft sunset that you only see on those days when there’s a lot of moisture in the sky. Perfectly Colorado!
During that late afternoon window, after the rain and before it got dark, I ran up and down the trail capturing as many photos of the scenery as I could. I have a bunch of winners from this set, and I just haven’t gotten around to publishing any of them. Most of the set arrived ready for standard Lightroom touch-ups. But one photo haunted me: I loved the scenery, but I hated the framing.
I wrote previously about how generative AI can become a tool in the toolbox for a photographer, and so far this is the first and only time I have reached for that tool. Using Photoshop’s new generative AI capabilities, I added some padding to the top and right-hand side of the image, subtly changing the framing and creating something just a bit bigger. I like the final image, but I acknowledge this is still a controversial area. For comparison, here’s a version without the AI framing or any other AI edits:
For the AI enhancements, I made a few versions trying to find the right look and feel. In the link above you can see version 5 of my AI attempts; and this post now has v6, which is the final one (for now).
The future will undoubtedly bring more AI into these situations, and we’ll have to determine how and when we will use it. I like having a forum where I can share the background behind how I took a photo and why I made the choices I did. Now that I have finally published this photo, I look forward to sharing some of my other work.
