Review: "AI-Powered Workflow for Photographers" - video course from AlexOnRaw

[lindsay]

Our own @TimHughes was chosen/offered to carry out a review of this video course, and here are his thoughts:

TLDR: Highly recommended! This course will unlock the potential of AI tools to transform your photography creativity and your photography business. Priced at a fraction of a single photoshoot it's great value for money.

I recently completed AlexOnRaw's course "AI-Powered Workflow for Photographers". The course has 14 lessons in three sections, beginning with workflow, moving on to editing, and then switching to the business side and how to get more clients. Although I was picked to do the review as a Capture One user, Lightroom is also covered and in any case, I don't think it matters which photo editor you use as that is only one small part of the whole topic. It's an entirely online self-directed course offering either videos to follow, or the same content laid out in written form with illustrations, so you can choose which form suits you best. The course includes links to many AI tools and practical examples and guidance on how to use them.

The standout aspects of the course for me were:
- its emphasis on demonstrating how AI serves as a supportive tool for creativity rather than a replacement.
- showcasing how AI can streamline workflows, freeing our time to focus more on the artistic aspects of our work.
- recommendations on tools to use and how to use them, saving a lot of trial and error.

Overall I was going to say this is a journey into the future of photography. But it's not as the future is already here and developing fast!

Full disclosure - I received the course as a free offer. However, having completed it, I would have been happy to pay the price.
Additional disclosure - this review was written by a human, not a generative AI tool

Thanks Tim. This sounds interesting, and as you say, relevant for users of other software, not just CaptureOne.

 

[TimHughes]

Thanks again @lindsay and AlexOnRaw. If anyone has questions, I'm happy to try and answer.

 

[vintageman]

Ive not seen Tim's course but grateful for having it bought to my attention

Its definitely here now! The problem I find is that current AI apps are only great at one particular aspect of post processing e.g

• culling
• RAW adjustments
• sharpening
• resizing

This fragmentation makes what should be a harmonious continuous workflow a constant switching between apps so it ends taking more pp time rather than less. May be the answer is to trust the in camera adjustments and remove the RAW adjustments stage?

AI Sharpening with AI masking now seems to have got to the point where it can upgrade lens performance to match expensive glass.

Is it now time to consider upgrading software and computer rather than GAS?

 

[TimHughes]

Ive not seen Tim's course but grateful for having it bought to my attention

Its definitely here now! The problem I find is that current AI apps are only great at one particular aspect of post processing e.g

• culling
• RAW adjustments
• sharpening
• resizing

This fragmentation makes what should be a harmonious continuous workflow a constant switching between apps so it ends taking more pp time rather than less. May be the answer is to trust the in camera adjustments and remove the RAW adjustments stage?

AI Sharpening with AI masking now seems to have got to the point where it can upgrade lens performance to match expensive glass.

Is it now time to consider upgrading software and computer rather than GAS?

It’s AlexOnRaw’s course, I just had the chance to do it and share a review.

I agree about fragmentation, however, some tools are emerging that are improving the integration.

My main use case is event photos and I do take a lot of images as people blink, eyes move, people make strange shapes with their mouths when they speak or sing, etc. so it can be tricky to get great images. I’m not bad at anticipating when the good moments will come but it’s still a lot of frames, especially with Canon R5 e-shutter stuck on 20 fps. I’m also taking care to get correct exposure and good composition. With all that said, I will usually come back with several thousand frames.

To be efficient in my view does need discipline with the workflow. Complete the culling, make the selection then any edits to finalize. Hopping back and forth can cost a lot of time even without tools to support.

Last week I tested automated culling so for fun I was a bit more trigger-happy and came back with 9k frames. It took my computer which is a bit old about 4 hours to recommend a cull and suggest highlights. Taking so many frames was a mistake as the cull was still thousands. However, the suggested highlights of around 100 were impressive. It was relatively quick to go through those see if I could remember any better moments or missing people then find those in the full set to finalize a selection. Once that was done all that was needed was a small crop here and there and some minor edits to finish. I was pretty happy with that. I think it won’t be long before it will be relatively easy to train the tools to apply your style of cropping and editing too.

 

[gramps]

Did AI do that??