Experimenting with AI

I have been restoring photos for many years - well before AI came on the scene.

But I have been increasingly experimenting with AI to see what it is capable of. I have been surprised and sometimes "wowed" by its usefulness.

Can AI do everything? No it can't! A lot of what it can do is because the person using it (ie., me) is careful about the precision of "text prompts" (instructions to the AI agent) - and that can be a painstaking process.

Here is a recent photo I was asked to restore. Much of the foundational work I had to do myself - ie manually. But AI came into its own when I needed to dress the boy and create the wall behind.

HERE IS THE ORIGINAL

PART WAY THROUGH

NEARLY FINISHED

I used Photoshop and Topaz tools to get the photo to the midway point. From thereon it was AI: getting rid of noise on the face, creating the checked gingham shorts, the finely woven knitted jersey and the marbled effect on the wall at the back. All that remains to do now is finishing clean-ups and some light and shade effects.