Adobe's New Generative Fill? The Boudoir Photography Community is NOT Welcome...
By now I'm sure you've heard about the amazing new Generative Fill tool from Adobe. It's incredible. When I first saw Generative Fill, my mind started swirling with all the possibilities. Wow, think of how this could impact my work. Imagine the possibilities! I couldn't wait to download the beta and give it a test...
If you haven't heard or seen this yet you can take a quick peek at Aaron's great introduction to this tool on the Phlearn channel:
Amazing, huh!
Well, let me cut to the chase-- at this point Adobe has made the decision for you that this tool isn't for boudoir photographers...
What do I mean? Well, after a few excited moments of Wow, I can give this woman an entire new lingerie set, or I can now easily change the bra color in this set of photos... I loaded up some test photos to try it out, but, quickly, and sadly Adobe has made the decision for me that these simple requests, and many others like it that are typical work for a boudoir photographer, make you a policy violator.
Simply stated, as a boudoir photographer, Adobe has decided you cannot use this new tool to do your work.
Although I have not exhausted every word or combination of words in the Generative Fill tool... Adobe has determined that using words such as "bra", "lingerie", "boudoir", etc., are off limits, and not to be entered into the Generative Fill tool-- you will immediately be shown a warning that you are violating user guidelines.
Generative Fill User Guidelines
User guidelines? Wait? Aren't I using this on my PC?
Well, here we go! As amazing as our new world of AI can (and will) be, the AI overlords are now controlling what is "acceptable," and my dear friends, as a boudoir photographer your work is not acceptable...
The Adobe page you are pointed to can be found here: Adobe Generative AI Beta User Guidelines
As a creator, this is extremely frustrating. I understand this is a new tool, but Photoshop is software that serves a massive community of artists and creators-- removing this ability to create based on some crippling draconian AI censorship is a step backwards. I seriously hope this changes. Adobe must understand that creatives of the world aren't just people removing telephone lines from a landscape photo.
And just a quick note to Adobe: A "bra" really isn't a big deal in 2023. The censoring is a bit over the top.
Shouldn't I be able to determine my own level of safety? Or appropriateness? ...At least to some degree? Somehow I feel that I should be able to locally set my threshold of what I feel is OK... being the work is done locally on my private work PC.
There is something that is such a creepy over-reach going on here. Even on the privacy of your own PC.
Now, I understand this tool is still be a "beta" stage and changes will come, but going by what other AI image generation tools have done, such as Midjourney, this heavy censoring will not likely change...my hunch is it will get worse. I don't quite understand it.
If you ever want a real laugh (cringe?) take a look at some of the words that Midjourney censors...
What can be next? Will Adobe block me from using Lightroom because it spotted a lingerie photo in my timeline?
I also understand that the entire universe of AI tools are brand new... and to keep things from going off the rails a bit of caution may be needed at first, but I seriously, seriously, hope this isn't an indication of the future of AI editing tools. Imagine one day, as a boudoir photographer, opening your copy of Lightroom, and getting a "policy violator" notice because your thumbnails photos are displaying a recent boudoir session photos on a woman in lingerie that you took.
Imagine Adobe blocking you from editing your client's boudoir photos. See where I am going with this? It is real scary.
There is hope...
I'm not much of a message board person, but my exasperation drove me online to see if to anyone else was having a similar experience. After a some Google searches regarding this issue, I could see I was not alone. The Adobe message boards are filled with people noting similar issues of policy violations for the most random kind of requests. I recall reading one post where a user was trying to add a cigar to a subject's hand, and he was blocked. I recall others noting they were blocked from trying to change backgrounds on portraits.
I guess all you can do at this point is make Adobe aware, and hope that smarter brains prevail and dial back the over-the-top censorship found on the initial beta release of this tool.
I am nothing but super-excited for such advancements in technology, but for every plus... not there seems to be a big minus in the terms that YOU are no longer in control of what you want to create.
Hopefully a reasonable middle ground can be found which will work out for all involved.
Stayed tune...