Vibe coding for photo/video apps

[TimHughes]

Has anyone tried the “vibe coding” tools like Lovable or AI Studio for custom photography or video apps?

One of my recurring bugbears is tagging people in metadata after events. I spent a few minutes describing the problem and the workflow I envisaged, and within about ten minutes, it had understood the issue, mocked up a plausible, cool-looking UI to solve it, and, with one more click, published a working web app. Stunning power. And within modest usage limits, free.

Not a finished app, obviously, but the leap from “annoying workflow problem” to “testable prototype” is incredible.

Has anyone else tried this sort of thing yet?

 

[TimHughes]

Coming back to this with all the chat about *craft. I have tried it, and it looks ok but it will be yet another subscription model.

Today's challenge was to think about replacing my copy of Photo Mechanic, as it will not work on future versions of macOS. I still like it for culling; I don't like the Capture One import interface very much, and I tried Aftershoot, but I don't like its selections, and I am faster anyway.

So I set Claude Code the challenge of creating an app with a simple interface to help me cull cards from events by opening each photo zoomed in to 100% on the face (s), or zoomed out just enough to fit them all.

Less than 10 minutes later, I have a correctly functioning app that does the job. Now onto some fine-tuning.

I think the days of software-as-a-service are numbered.

 

[TimHughes]

"Stage Cull" app is working well; it now includes a thumbnail for the whole image and displays the camera's focus point. All the code checked for security issues and neatly filed on GitHub.

Next up, "Camera Prep" app to make sure the date/time and metadata are correct on the cameras, as Canon's app is flaky. On a roll this afternoon.

 

[LongLensPhotography]

I have vibe coded c++ vectorscope app, and started working on photoshop plugin. It is already miles better than nobe system hog thing, but it looks like I have no idea where to even start marketing it, and signing binaries is another expensive hurdle (if you don't sell any). It is at least a bit useful to me as adobe intentionally leaves proper functionality out of their apps.

Next up I am eying up floor plan solution aimed at estate agent standard, not your typical home improvement designer or remodeler. I only know 2 workable solutions as of now and these are spend hours in inkscape or illustrator drawing it out, or send off to four walls in the far east and end up paying about £60 or most of what you have charged client for it. This presumes large complex property not a 1 bed flat. I hate plans, and don't offer it unless client demands. The app may just flip it. sweethome3d could form the basis for it, or I may go AI native. I pretty much no longer care about bypassing open source model.

I will also have a go at hugin recode to better match my architectural requirements. It has a good libpano foundation with confusing GUI that is not particularly optimised for wide and precise rectilinear projections as opposed to 360s and all the other options that don't make much sense to me (such cylindrical and variations - what for?!?!!)

I am very interested to see where artcraft apps will go. It is oss so anyone can fork at any time. The company is selling AI media model subscription service which is fair enough, and on the first look it appears to be on the more expensive side but who cares. Precise selections and minor high quality reconstructive fill is where I normally stop. Very keen to move away from windows for good too. Either linux or mac. Just no more vibe coded Ms junk.