AI Is Only as Good as the Human Using It
AI shouldn’t be so easy that you stop thinking. It’s not magic. I didn’t type a question and walk away while something brilliant happened in my absence to create this post, which was written with Claude as my assistant. In fact, we brainstormed the structure and then wrote 5 different drafts in between the idea to posting this.
AI should feel more like a collaboration with someone who is very fast and very well-read, but lacks the experience of being a human. AI has been training for a short time on extensive computer models. I’ve been training as a human with thoughts, feelings, and learned experiences since I was born in 1981. You have too.
That gap — between what AI can produce and what a human actually brings — is what I keep thinking about, especially as a photographer. In brand photography, showing up truthfully is the core. AI cannot do that for anyone.
Where AI Actually Fits in a Photography Workflow
AI is feared by so many people who think they’re going to be replaced by a computer. I think it’s about learning to embrace this tool to work differently. There are areas where AI is an immense help and areas where only a human can be there.
In photography, I’m beginning to embrace the ways I can incorporate AI into my photos and my processes, while still maintaining that entirely human foundation and the trust that comes with it.
Here’s what my process looks like right now:
Before the Session: AI Is My Assistant
This is where AI has the most legitimate role in photography work. Mood board research, concept exploration, location scouting ideas, helping a client articulate what they want their brand to feel like before we ever pick up a camera. AI can help surface visual references quickly, suggest ideas, create mockups of my own human ideas, and help a client work through what they actually want to communicate — which makes the session itself more focused and productive.
Think of it as prep work. The stakes are low, the output is directional rather than final, and a human is reviewing and shaping everything before it becomes part of the actual plan.
We also meet as humans a couple of times on a virtual call before a session. First in your Discovery Call, we figure out whether we’re a good fit to work together. You get to ask questions, we discuss your initial vision and hopes, and review processes.
Then during your 1:1 Strategy Call, where we go over the outline I’ve created and you give me your feedback in a conversation that only humans can have. I read your face and listen to your voice for signs of hesitation and anxiety so we can address those feelings before your session date. No AI in the room for any of that.
During the Session: Entirely Human
It takes a human to read emotion.
I observe, interact, and respond to the human in front of me. AI can’t do that. It can’t read the energy in a room or understand how to respond when someone is nervous and needs reassurance that it’s safe to be themselves. It can’t build the trust that someone needs to relax and stop performing.
A big part of what I do is help people feel comfortable enough to show up looking relaxed and confident — to present their genuine personalities rather than a version of themselves they think they’re supposed to be. Because we’ve already built a working relationship during the human side of the prep work, clients often find themselves relaxing and having fun pretty quickly into their session.
AI can’t hold a camera and elicit genuine emotion and expression. That’s not a limitation that’s going to be engineered away.
After the Session: Assist, Don’t Decide
Post-processing is where AI tools have become genuinely useful in photography — speeding up editing workflows, writing captions or alt text. Real time-savers, and I won’t pretend otherwise.
But I keep the human element in post-processing too. After I’ve selected my initial favorites and applied some edits, I send a client’s gallery to my retoucher, Meghan. She is my second eye — pulling the best of the best so you don’t end up with too-many-images overwhelm. She matches my edits and sends the gallery back to me.
Then, I do any retouching needed to add the final polish before the images go back to you. I do use AI to help with the first pass — it’s genuinely good and fast at removing stray hairs and glasses glare. But I always check it, and sometimes finish what it started in Photoshop. AI does not catch everything.
Use the assist. Keep the judgment.
A Quick Word on AI-Generated Brand Imagery
If you’ve read Part 1 of this series, you already know that AI-generated images are everywhere — and that audiences are getting better at feeling when something isn’t real, even when they can’t name exactly why. Generated team photos, invented spaces, faces designed to signal something that isn’t actually true. It’s a growing pattern, and the trust cost is real.
The short version: a photograph is evidence that something happened. Nobody else has access to you. Read Part 1 for the full breakdown on spotting AI imagery and why it matters for your brand.
Before You Post: Five Questions Worth Asking
Whether you’re working with a photographer, building your own visual library, or using AI to assist any part of your brand content — these are the questions I recommend asking yourself:
1. Does this image or content represent something real about my business?
Not aspirational. Not invented. Actually real. Your audience is building a relationship with what you put out. Make sure it’s with the actual you.
2. Am I using AI to get somewhere faster — or to avoid showing up?
Speed is a benefit. Avoidance is a different thing entirely. If generated imagery is standing in for real photography because real photography feels vulnerable — that’s worth figuring out.
3. Could my audience tell the difference — and would it matter to them if they could?
People are getting better at spotting AI imagery. But even before they can name it, they often feel it. Think about what that means for the trust you’re building.
4. Have I actually verified what this content says?
AI presents everything with equal confidence, including the things it gets wrong. If your content is making specific claims — about your process, your services, your results — those need a human check. Your name is on it.
5. Is there anything here that only I could have said or shown?
The most valuable thing in your brand content is your specific experience, perspective, and presence. If none of that made it in, it might be worth another pass — or a real session.
Still Figuring It Out, Together
This is genuinely new territory and most of us are navigating it in real time, making judgment calls with incomplete information and updating as we go.
What I do know is that the things that have always mattered — honesty, intention, showing up as who you actually are — still matter. Maybe more now, not less, precisely because it’s gotten so easy to fake.
If you’re a business owner thinking about what your online presence says about who you are, I’d love to talk about what real photography could do for that. Not because AI imagery is the enemy — but because there’s an enormous amount of trust that builds when you actually show up. And it helps you stand out from everyone else when it looks like you and you alone.