Is the photographer still needed? ChatGPT gets a major update

Wednesday 2 April 2025, 20:40 by Elja Trum | 3,938 views | 5 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

You could already make some pretty nice pictures with AI. Last week, the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT rolled out a new image generator. This feature is now even available to use for free, and is already getting quite close to replacing photographers.

From mediocre selfie to LinkedIn profile picture
For example, take a photo of yourself without paying attention to the lighting, your clothes or the background, and with one short sentence ChatGPT will turn it into a fairly decent-looking professional profile picture.

I have to admit, I don't look entirely like myself, but I think many people would already be perfectly happy with this for their online profiles. And just as easily, the chatbot can place you right in the middle of London or turn you into a cartoon version of yourself.

In fact, it's already good enough for many people to save the cost of hiring a photographer. In more and more areas, photographers, and other professions just as much, are facing serious competition from these AI tools.

I already make extensive use of the AI features in Photoshop and Lightroom myself. Ideal for quickly removing unwanted parts of your photo.

Do you use AI for your photography? And what do you think of this form of competition for photographers? Let us know in the comments.

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About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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5 comments

Gina Heynze wrote on Wednesday 2 April 2025 at 21:33 | reply
I don't think it's competition. People who use this are for the most part people who wouldn't go to a photographer anyway. Is this feature in a paid version of ChatGPT or can you try this out for free?
Translated from Dutch.

Elja Trum wrote on Wednesday 2 April 2025 at 22:05 | reply
You can already use it in the free version. There is still a limit on the number per hour (I believe 3). But that limit will probably also become less restrictive in the coming months.

It also works very well, for example, to turn a product photo into, for example, a product photo in a setting or with a model. Or to add a logo to it convincingly.

And of course these tools will only get better. I think we can already say that stock photography is no longer necessary for many companies for the most part.
Translated from Dutch.

kok.f@ziggo.nl wrote on Friday 4 April 2025 at 12:03 | reply
Learn to live with it, that's my advice. You're not going to be able to stop it anyway. In the 19th century, portrait painters said the same thing when photography emerged. Make sure that as a photographer you have the skills to retain enough clientele who prefer you over a computer.
Translated from Dutch.

Jan Valkhof wrote on Tuesday 8 April 2025 at 17:01 | reply
As a street photographer, you are a witness to something. You then capture it. After that, the photo, edited or unedited, is a lasting memory of something that "touched" you. An emotion that AI or a robot will never give you. That is also why people go to a concert, to "experience" the artist. Taking photos with AI or even using photo AI without taking a photo to make something is like sex with an almost lifelike doll. But it remains a doll. Period.
Translated from Dutch.

André Kremer wrote on Tuesday 8 April 2025 at 22:08 | reply
I recently supervised a graduation thesis on this subject. Newspapers hardly pay for photos anymore, and this is increasingly happening with magazines too. This study was about landscape photographers. There too, media will increasingly choose AI as an illustration. Only reputable magazines like National Geographic will continue to choose a "real" photographer. You can't stop that. It would be good if a certification mark/watermark for AI/no AI were introduced. And if the AI companies would pay a fee for the materials (in this case photos) on which their systems are based.
Translated from Dutch.

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Elja Trum

Photofacts; everything to do with photography!

Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about Photofacts

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