Quote from: Zero Talent on March 29, 2023, 07:18

Quote from: Firn on March 29, 2023, 04:10

If the AI can generate a famous building there really is no need for a real photo.

Yes, there is. Once the NEW building is built. There is a window of opportunity of a few months before enough samples made by photographers are made to get the AI trained.

I hope you are aware that there are photorealistic 3D models and architectural visualisations in the location with all the engineering models etc. of the future building that exist long before ANY building is built nowadays even without any AI.

What wil be the job of the photographer? To take a photo of it against the clouds on the specific day?

I mean seriously... do you really think that buildings are built on the site and not on the computer first?!

Training AI with simulated input is a fallacy. Or, for that matter, training AI with AI generated inputs.
That's not how AI works.

You don't need AI to publish simulations instead of the real stuff. These are available today, indeed and yet, you don't see them used instead of the real stuff.

I saw some fools taking for real video games screenshots, instead of real war photos from Ukraine. But you can only do that for so long until you lose all credibility.

Quote from: Zero Talent on March 28, 2023, 15:50

You didn't get my point.
I will repeat: Reality must happen first, before AI can learn from it.

Using a different example, what you are saying is that you don't need photographers to document a soccer match, because the match already took place inside AI.

That is ridiculous, indeed.   

What I am saying is that there is no need to document reality with a clumsy human photographer, all the cameras around you on every corner of the street do it 24/7 - and this is not even their intention yet.

Nobody needs a clumsy photographers, indeed. Those clumsy photographers re-hashing over and over again the same old, same old concepts will have to give up their dreams.

But professional photo/video graphers will continue to document the reality as it happens, before AI could be taught new concepts.

You may have seen one too many science fiction movies and misunderstood what AI is.

Quote from: Zero Talent on March 27, 2023, 09:31

Product photography. For new products. AI can't replace it.

You are more optimistic than I am. You can upload a snapshot cell phone photo to midjourney, give it instructions and it will create something for you. No product photographer needed.
I don't think it would work for product photography yet, because MJ doesn't do texts and writes in its own alien language, so every product packing with text on it would not work and I don't think it can  really completely reproducing an object yet, just another version of it, but it's absolutely something I can imagine for the future: Just take a snapshot of your product, upload it to MJ and tell MJ "make me a beautiful advertisement shot" and voil�!

But besides this, I did actually start looking for other jobs, but it's not like someone is searching for a product photographer anywhere in my area. As said, I am not considered as "trained" with my university degree since I did not work in that field for 15+ years and the only very few job offers where being trained wasn't a requirement were not an option for me for various other reasons, like not having a driver's license.

I though portrait photography might be one that would always be in demand, but I've already seen sites where you can send in a couple of cell phone selfies and it will create 100 of professional looking portrait photographes with your face. 

As I said before AI is always months behind reality because reality must happen first before AI has something to be trained on.
If a product photo can be generated by AI, then it's not about a NEW product anymore. AI needs a lot of NEW product photography, made by real product photographers before it becomes trained enough to generate that product photo.

If a brewery is launching a new brand of beer in a new style of bottle, the brand will require real photographers to make a set of real photos of that new brand, before AI can come up with something similar.
And manufacturers are extremely picky about the smallest detail, the perfect color match, etc, before they expose their new brand to the public.
So no, in such cases, AI will always be useless.

Of course, AI can be used to generate all sorts of enhancements using that initial real product photo, but that real product photo with perfect lighting, perfect color match, etc, will still be needed.

Those AI survivalists will be in short supply once the majority will give up, so I expect such rare skills to be better paid than today.

Quote from: Zero Talent on March 24, 2023, 09:06

Today editorial photography is less profitable than commercial photography, also because of its reduced shelf life.

True, but my editorial photos only made like 5% of my income and my commercial ones 95%, so I don't really see how that's going to bring in enough income to live from, at least for me.

As I said, your 95% will reduce significantly, and, if you don't quit, your 5% might go up in value. But very likely not enough to compensate your losses to your AI competitors, indeed (especially if you helped them train with your assets)

Quote from: Zero Talent on March 22, 2023, 19:55

Quote from: Noedelhap on March 22, 2023, 19:46

Cashed out some revenue: what should have been �140, was now $140, which converted to EUR and Paypal fees included, resulted in �125 to my bank account.

A more than 10% decrease in revenue. Thanks Adobe.

Welcome to the club many of us outside the eurozone were part of since the very beginning.

Still, that's different; most other agencies outside Europe never had a � payout option, so you accept the $ currency when you sign up, simply because there was no other option.
Fotolia had �-accounts from the beginning, so you sign up for that and expect � payments for life.

Suddenly Adobe decided to change it unilaterally and practically overnight. It's a disservice and a big middlefinger to all contributors overseas. It's taking away a service that should be standard for any international agency.

It is not different. Since the very begining, I was asking for the correct dollar exchange rate for the sales made in the eurozone. Fotolia and then Adobe didn't listen.

We had a major disadvantage when 1 credit was exchanged for 1 dollar, instead of 1 euro (a "big middle finger" to contributors outside the eurozone).

This is why I'm (sarcastically) saying again: "Welcome to the club"!

Cashed out some revenue: what should have been �140, was now $140, which converted to EUR and Paypal fees included, resulted in �125 to my bank account.

A more than 10% decrease in revenue. Thanks Adobe.

Welcome to the club many of us outside the eurozone were part of since the very beginning.

Good for a February.

Everything stems from 2020 when free checks worth $3 Trillion were dropped on the population + 3 more Trillion injected into the economy by the Fed. All this is on top of the regular money printing.

This massive money-printing business generated massive inflation (there is no free lunch -> payback time).
In order to fight inflation, the Fed raised interest rates.
The interest hike triggered a drop in the bond and government obligations, because new bonds yield better interest than the old ones.
Banks are the primary customers for these bonds, and many had to trade the old bonds at a loss (global losses from these investments are currently at over $1 Trillion).
Smaller banks are the most vulnerable. Among them, SVB was incapable to absorb this shock.
There may be more.

Same hypothetical delusion as those who plan to become rich by playing the lottery 🙄

... and Musk suspended the photographer's account accusing him of blackmail, because he asked to be paid.
And a mob of Musk fan bois are cheering him for that!

 

Good February for me.

Quote from: HalfFull on March 03, 2023, 02:42

Quote from: trabuco on March 03, 2023, 02:28

Quote from: MatHayward on March 02, 2023, 12:13

A quick note to confirm the last few questions...

Due to the current conversion to USD, a withdrawal is temporarily not possible.
As of Friday, March 3, the payout will be possible again.

Future payouts will be processed in US Dollars.

Thank you,

Mat Hayward

thieves.

? Bizare comment... a US company pays you in US $ for you to convert into your own currency at the official exchange rate and you call them thieves?

...while the same US company charges its EU customers in a higher � price.

It's a bit sad to see how fiercly you are defending Adobe's latest actions, just because you and a very few people from one single country profit from it, when you very well know that in the whole sheme it means Adobe pays out much less of what it gets from customers to its contributors and this is just a sheme to maximaze profit on the backs of contributors.

Did anyone check if the taxes are included in both euro and $ prices?
Usually, EU taxes are included in the listed price, while in the US, taxes are added during checkout.

Moreover has anyone checked how much of the EU price is made of taxes? Not just VAT (usually higher than the US sales tax), but also import taxes or similar?

Obviously, the higher EU taxation cannot be blamed on AS.

And again, I expect that a large majority of contributors complaining about the price for Adobe apps in euros are already getting them for free, so this is a moot point, anyway.