After completing our
Ai for Photographers course, Olivia contacted us to share how she applied the knowledge she gained. As a forward-thinking artist, Olivia leverages MidJourney, an Ai-powered image generation tool, to visualize her shoots. Using Ai as a launchpad for her creative ideas, she produces breathtaking photo series featuring sequins, vibrant colors, and surreal landscapes.
Before jumping in to the interview, here’s a look into the images she generated in MidJourney as the source of inspiration. We'll also include the final photos throughout the article.
Tell us more about your process, from planning to executing this shoot.
I’m working on an ongoing project surrounding sparkles - I just love sequins and sparkles! So I was playing around with MidJourney and seeing what ideas I could come up with, and the more I played, the more ideas were coming to me. The idea was genuinely born through experimenting in MidJourney.
I used the images I made in MidJourney as my mood board. It was such a nice way to translate the ideas in my head without using images already created on Pinterest, for example.
From there, I pitched the concept to Mojeh magazine, who was keen to publish it. I gathered my team, and we brought the story to life!
What are your thoughts about using Ai in photography?
At the moment, I'm purely using it as a tool to experiment and explore my ideas, and I love it for that purpose!
I think it's essential for us photographers to stay ahead of the curve and know what the next technologies will be. We can't just get annoyed that the world is changing and then not adapt. I don't know what the future looks like—all I know is that I like to create, and this tool is currently helping me to do that.
Has Ai changed from when you first heard about it?
I’m never really one to worry about things like this, so when I first heard about Ai, I was curious more than anything. I have many friends who are very concerned and skeptical - and I get it!
It’s powerful, and we don’t know what will happen. The unknown is scary.
For now, I'm choosing not to panic and repeating my mantra that "everything always works out"—because it really always does!
What interested you about the Ai for Photographers class, and were there specific things you wanted to learn before going in?
It all comes back to wanting to be "on it" with technology. I saw so much of Pratik's work online and loved how open and creative he was.
When I saw that he was creating a course dedicated to AI, how to use it, and how we can adapt it to be used in conjunction with photography, I signed up immediately!
I wanted to learn how to use MidJourney, which felt confusing and clunky. I had made an account but needed help understanding how it worked. While I could have spent hours looking things up on YouTube, I love that this course had everything in one place. I went through it in an evening and got an excellent grasp of MidJourney in that time.
I mainly wanted to use it for mood boarding and bringing the ideas in my head to life—and that's exactly what I can do now!
I love it, clients are loving it, and my team members are loving it.
Did you have an "AHA Moment"? If so, what was it?
One of the tools I've been using the most is the "describe" function, where I upload an image and ask the system to describe it back to me. I use those prompts to develop my ideas further, which helps speed up the process of understanding the language I need to use in my prompts.
That helped so much!
After the shoot, what did you learn about using Ai as part of your creative workflow? Was it impactful compared to not being able to use it?
Yes definitely.
One thing I learned was that the Ai's lighting isn't always very accurate for real-life situations. That's okay because I'm only using the Ai imagery as a starting point. It just meant that we couldn't recreate any of the images perfectly (at least not in the studio we were in with the available equipment for this shoot), which was no problem.
But more than anything, it's made me think more creatively and get excited about the possibilities of how we can continue to merge Ai and Photography. There is definitely a world where they can live in harmony, boosting one another up. It's such early days of this technology that I can't wait to see where we are in 10 years.
What would you say if you could impart wisdom to other photographers who may be unsure about Ai?
Give it a try. Don't just shut it down because you're afraid. If you try it and don't enjoy it, that's fine! There's no need to use every tool available to us. But if you try it, you might find that one aspect of it is helpful and boosts you creatively or professionally. You won't know until you try.
What does the future of photography look like from here?
I genuinely don't know, but I hope that it just means we'll see more creativity. I think photography will become even more of a luxury choice for businesses, which is not a bad thing for us. A premium!
Ultimately, however, Ai will not be able to capture real-life moments happening in front of us as a camera can.
Photography will always be around in some way, shape, or form - that I know for certain!
Want to see more of Olivia's work?
