AI vs Artist. Can a Pro Photographer Beat Midjourney?

I’ve just published my latest video: AI vs Artist. Can a Photographer Beat Midjourney? You Tell Me!. 

AI vs Artist. Who can make the best art. In Round 2, I explore Mexica culture and ritual to create a photo with narrative depth. Who wins: photographer or the AI machine?

#narrativephotography #aivsartist #emotionalhonesty

AI vs Artist

I’m a narrative photographer and I’m taking on AI in Round 2 of my series to see who can create the best art. First, I explore Mexica culture and ritual to create a photo with narrative depth. Then, I feed my concept into Midjourney as a text prompt to generate my favorite variation. After that, I create my own interpretation and explain how I built a set of stones surrounded by Mexica symbols to create the narrative photo. Despite setbacks due to strong winds during the shoot, I manage to capture a few frames.

Limitations and Potential of AI Art

Comparing my photo to the AI-generated image by Midjourney, I note that while the AI art is aesthetically pleasing, it lacks emotional honesty and authenticity. Although AI art can mimic patterns in human art, it cannot express emotions, ideas, values, and stories that resonate honestly with human audiences. Human art is an emotional exchange between the artist and the viewer, and that’s something that AI art cannot replicate.

AI vs Photographer

I pit myself against AI in a challenge to see who can create the best art. While I explore Mexica culture and ritual to create a photo with narrative depth, AI generates images using Midjourney.

In discussing how AI art can mimic patterns in human art, I explain that it cannot express emotions, ideas, values, and stories that resonate honestly with human audiences. Human art is an emotional exchange between the artist and the viewer, and that’s something that AI art cannot replicate.

Narrative Photography and Storytelling

My Mexica-inspired art is a testament to the power of narrative photography and storytelling. I explain how I built a set of stones surrounded by Mexica symbols to create the narrative photo, and despite setbacks due to strong winds during the shoot, I manage to capture a few frames.

Emotional Honesty and Authenticity in Art

I note that the perfect aesthetic won’t always make the best art. The missing sense of emotional honesty is a real point of difference between artificial art and human art. Art can be an emotional exchange between artist and viewer, which remains a human thing.

Takeways from AI vs Artist

Here are five action points you can take away from this AI vs Artist video:

1. Consider the limitations and potential of AI in art and photography

2. Learn about Mexica culture and its rich history

3. Explore the creative process of narrative photography and storytelling

4. Evaluate the emotional honesty and authenticity of art created by humans vs. machines

5. Decide for yourself whether JP or AI is the better artist, and why.

Learn Narrative Photography with JP Stones

Join me on one of my award winning Photography Workshops in Mexico.

Watch my free online course: Storytelling for Photographers!

AI vs Artist Transcript

Introduction

Hi, I’m JP and I’m a narrative photographer.

In this series, it’s Artist vs AI. Human vs machine. I’m taking on the AI Art platform Midjourney, to see who can create the best art.

Wish me luck.

In the last video, I took this AI generated image of a tribal warrior, and tried to create something similar with Melankayotl, a Mexica dancer I’ve been photographing for a decade this is the photo we ended up making. And it was challenging. It took some jungle set design, a bunch of strobe lights in trees and some nifty smoke machine skills. But we got there in the end.

Round 2, AI vs Artist

For round two, I wanted to create an image with some narrative depth. A photo with a story to tell.

Every 52 years, the Mexica faced their greatest fear: that the sun wouldn’t reappear in the morning. On the evening of this ominous day, they extinguished every single fire in the empire. Out of that darkness, a high priest, a messenger of the gods, would light a new fire. And the flames front that fire were distributed to every household in the land. Encouraging the sun to reappear and ushering in a new cosmic cycle.

I love this story, and I think it can work as a narrative photo. I’m hoping to depict the sun as this ring of flames with the priest inside, holding that crucial fire in his hands.

Right.

Photographer vs Midjourney

Here’s how this will work:

Now I have a concept in mind,

I’ll feed it into Midjourney as a text prompt.

I’ll pick my favorite variation.

… and I’ll have a go at creating my own interpretation.

The Photoshoot

I’m less nervous about making this second image. It should be easier because we’re building a set. A circle of stones surrounded by some Mexica symbols. As long as the set looks good, the whole composition should work.

So this shoot didn’t go as planned. Maybe I jinxed it with that last comment. It turns out Midjourney had another big advantage over me. It didn’t have to put up with the strong winds that rolled in the second we started shooting. They kept blowing the flames out, not leaving me much time to shoot. Then we ran out of petrol, and then light, and we had to call it a day.

I did get to fire off a few frames though, so it wasn’t a total fail.

Here’s what I ended up with. It’s so close to working. But there are some issues with subject separation that ruin it for me..

This hands and arms disappear into the circle of fire. That wasn’t planned.

And I clearly needed more backlighting to make that headdress stand out against the dark sand.

Even though this image isn’t all i hoped, it still has something that no AI image does:

Emotional Honesty.

Let’s taken another look at that Midjourney image. At first glance, it looks great. But get in closer and you’ll spot some bizarre details.

First up, Midjourney didn’t **get the whole ring of fire thing. ZOOM IN Instead, it set fire to the subject’s head. Definitely not what I asked for. Even weirder are these ZOOM IN giant – human sized – feathers surrounding him.

It’s not unusual for AI Art to feature nonsensical artefacts like this. The algorithm doesn’t understand what it’s creating in the same way humans do. It doesn’t really need to. It’s following mathematical rules that aim to mimic patterns in human art. It’s showing us what we want to see.

This approach has some incredible benefits: AI Art is eye candy. Every infinite iteration tuned to pull at our sense of aesthetic. But Art is more than just beauty. It’s the convergence between beauty and emotional expression. And Narrative Photography, which is what I do, leans heavily into that latter category.

The Limitations of AI

Which is where the limitations of AI start to appear. Where the algorithm’s lack of understanding starts to matter. The AI can’t fully understand our world because it can’t experience it directly. So it simulates. Simulating aesthetic patterns we find appealing is one thing, but mimicking emotions is different.

An AI attempting narrative art feels dishonest to me. Empty. Soulless.

My photos get repurposed in beautiful and surprising ways. As paintings, tattoos, murals… Human art can express emotions, ideas, values, and stories that resonate honestly with human audiences. . I’m not sure AI can do this… not yet.

No matter who you thought came out on top here, me or Midjourney, the writing’s on the wall. Generative AI will soon blow anything I can create… out of the water.

But here’s the silver lining: that perfect aesthetic won’t always make it the best art. That missing sense of emotional honesty is a very real point of difference between Artificial Art and Human Art.

Art can be an emotional exchange between artist and viewer. And right now at least, that’s just a human thing.