{"id":178189,"date":"2026-10-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/?p=178189"},"modified":"2026-10-15T18:17:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T18:17:05","slug":"ai-photo-editing-jobs-human-judgement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcfade.co.uk\/blog\/ai-photo-editing-jobs-human-judgement","title":{"rendered":"Seven editing jobs AI can help with, and the judgement it still needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part 2 of 3: AI and photography<\/strong><\/p>\n

AI-assisted editing can shorten the fiddly work of selecting, cleaning up and consistently presenting photographs, but you still have to decide what the picture needs.<\/p>\n

Quick answer:<\/strong> The useful jobs include removing distractions, selecting individual objects, separating landscape areas, retouching portraits, cleaning backgrounds and products, matching a reference look, and cropping headshots consistently. Some of these are tools I use; others are features I’m describing as examples. The point is to reduce repetitive work while keeping control of the finished photograph.<\/p>\n

When I get back from a shoot, that’s when a different sort of work begins.<\/p>\n

The photographs are there. The expressions, the light and the composition have been captured. Now there are little things to sort out, and a batch of images to turn into something useful.<\/p>\n

This is where AI has been a help. A lot of these jobs used to involve careful manual selections and repeated adjustments. You could do them, but the time added up, and some were tedious enough to take the fun out of the job.<\/p>\n

\"Paper-cut<\/picture>
AI-generated editorial illustration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1. Can AI help remove a distracting object?<\/h2>\n

Imagine you’ve taken a photograph of a group and there’s something in the background pulling your eye away from them.<\/p>\n

Cleaning that up used to mean working out what could sensibly replace it, then blending the result until the join wasn’t obvious. I could often remove the object. Making it look as though it had never been there was the harder part.<\/p>\n

In Photoshop, the Remove tool lets you brush over or draw around a distracting area. It then fills that area using the surrounding image as part of the process. Adobe’s Remove tool guide<\/a> explains the controls.<\/p>\n

The useful question afterwards is still: does this look believable? The tool doesn’t take that judgement away from you.<\/p>\n

Also think about what the photograph is for. A decorative portrait and a record of a construction stage have different purposes. Removing the thing the photograph is supposed to document would defeat the point of taking it.<\/p>\n

2. Can you select something by describing it?<\/h2>\n

I’ve got a tool that lets me describe the object I want to select.<\/p>\n

So let’s say someone’s wearing white trainers and they look a bit grubby. Previously I’d have to draw around them carefully before making a colour or brightness adjustment. With this tool, I can ask it to select the trainers and use that selection for the edit.<\/p>\n

That gets me to the useful part of the job more quickly. I still need to decide how far to brighten them, and whether the selection has caught the right area.<\/p>\n

It’s particularly useful when a similar adjustment needs applying across several photographs. The time saved is in the repeated outlining, rather than the decision about how the trainers ought to look.<\/p>\n

3. What does landscape masking actually do?<\/h2>\n

A mask isolates part of a photograph so you can adjust it without affecting everything else.<\/p>\n

In a landscape, you might want to bring a bit more detail into the sky without making the foreground darker, or adjust foliage without changing the water. The fiddly part used to be making those boundaries convincing.<\/p>\n

Lightroom’s landscape masking can identify areas such as sky, mountains, water and vegetation. You choose the areas you want to work on and then make your adjustments. Adobe’s landscape masking demonstration<\/a> shows the principle.<\/p>\n

The software helps separate the areas. It doesn’t decide the best interpretation of the scene for you.<\/p>\n

If you apply similar edits across a set, look at how each photograph responds. An adjustment that suits one frame isn’t automatically the right strength for the next.<\/p>\n

4. Where has portrait retouching changed most?<\/h2>\n

When I started in 2010, I used Photoshop alongside Capture One, before moving into Lightroom. Careful portrait retouching could involve several different techniques, all taking time.<\/p>\n

There was skin work, eye cleanup, teeth adjustments and the light-and-shade work that gives a face shape. Frequency separation and dodge and burn were part of that world. They’re methods for working on skin and tonal detail without simply blurring everything away.<\/p>\n

I tried an early automated portrait tool in my share-the-shoot sessions. It was quick, but I never found the result particularly satisfying. Faces could end up looking flattened and a bit mannequin-like.<\/p>\n

The tools I use now help with things such as blemishes, shine, stray hairs, teeth colour and eyes. That cuts down a lot of manual work.<\/p>\n

But \u201cflawless\u201d isn’t a useful target if it means the person stops looking like themselves. Texture, natural colour and believable detail still matter. A selection around someone’s teeth is only useful if the adjustment doesn’t wander onto their gums.<\/p>\n

5. Can AI help clean a studio backdrop or a product?<\/h2>\n
\"Paper-cut<\/picture>
AI-generated editorial illustration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyone who’s worked with a paper studio backdrop will know the footprint problem.<\/p>\n

People walk on, people walk off, and dusty marks build up. You then have a photograph that needs a clean-looking background, with a collection of grubby footprints asking for your attention.<\/p>\n

I use a plugin to help with that cleanup. I also have a tool for removing dust specks from product photographs, with control over the size of the specks it’s looking for.<\/p>\n

These are good examples of the repetitive work I mean. Cleaning one speck manually is straightforward. Cleaning a photograph covered in them is a different proposition.<\/p>\n

The finished surface still needs to look like the surface you photographed. The cleanup is there to help the picture, rather than turn it into a featureless patch.<\/p>\n

6. How can a reference image help with colour?<\/h2>\n

I was once given a sports photograph as a reference for a personal-trainer shoot. It had a warm palette: brownish colours, skin tones and white. The gym we were photographing in was fairly blue.<\/p>\n

Getting those two looks closer with traditional colour adjustments would have taken quite a bit of fiddling.<\/p>\n

I’ve got a tool that lets me open the photograph and a reference, then use controls to bring the palette and brightness closer together. It helps me get towards the look the client has shown me.<\/p>\n

\u201cCloser\u201d is the useful word. The reference and my photograph are different pictures. I still need to decide which parts of the reference suit the actual image, and when to stop.<\/p>\n

7. Why is automatic headshot cropping useful?<\/h2>\n

Imagine photographing a whole team over a couple of days. The lighting and background are consistent, but the people are different heights. Their eyes land in different places in the frame.<\/p>\n

Manually cropping each photograph so the set looks even is a tedious job. It also depends on comparing things by eye, which isn’t always as precise as you’d like.<\/p>\n

My cropping tool finds the eyes and positions a configurable crop around them. I can run it over the batch, then produce another shape where a different crop is useful.<\/p>\n

The benefit is consistency across the set. It’s also another case of using my knowledge to set the job up and letting a tool handle the repetition.<\/p>\n

Does this mean AI can do the whole edit for me?<\/h2>\n

That’s a separate question.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen demonstrations of AI agents controlling editing software and working from examples. I haven’t properly tried that myself, so I’m not going to tell you it can reliably learn my look and get through a whole catalogue unattended. I don’t yet know how well that would work or what it would cost.<\/p>\n

For now, the useful bit is much more specific: tools that help with particular jobs I understand.<\/p>\n

It’s the same practical question I ask about buying more camera equipment<\/a>. What problem will this actually help me solve?<\/p>\n

You don’t need every tool on the market. Find the bit of editing that repeatedly eats your time, then see whether a tool can help with that bit. Keep the photographic decision in your own hands.<\/p>\n

Cheers,
\nAde<\/p>\n

\n

Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n

Will AI editing make a weak photograph good?<\/h3>\n

It can help with selections and cleanup, but it doesn’t replace decisions about the subject, light, expression and composition. The seven jobs here describe processing work, rather than a way to avoid learning photography.<\/p>\n

Do you use every AI tool mentioned here?<\/h3>\n

No. I’ve described tools I use alongside examples of what editing software can do. I don’t use Aftershoot, for example, and I haven’t properly tested an AI agent working through my photo catalogue.<\/p>\n

Can I apply an edit to a whole batch?<\/h3>\n

Some tools support batch processing, and I use that for tasks such as headshot cropping. The result still needs to suit the individual images. Batch processing is a help with repetition, rather than a guarantee that every frame wants the same treatment.<\/p>\n

How do I avoid overdoing portrait retouching?<\/h3>\n

Keep asking whether the person looks believable. Preserve natural texture and colour, and use adjustments for a reason rather than applying every effect because a tool offers it.<\/p>\n