bocastephen

Just back from Taiwan and Japan and I must have 300+ photos to go through that I can't get to. Normally I would go through each photo, run it through Snapseed to spruce it up, then discard the duplicates or ones I didn't like - but this seems like an overly daunting task.

So, I was hoping to find an AI based editing tool that could simplify the workflow process by making each photo look its best with some HDR-ish touchups (without looking phony), balancing, etc - and I can run my photos through the workflow and then only need to go through the ones to keep or discard.

I haven't been able to find such a tool - or at least one that didn't cost an arm and a leg and was geared to professionals. Any suggestions? Maybe even a plug-in for Lightroom?

allset2travel

I fully share your anxiety regarding organizing, editing and sharing of photos. That's how I felt some 15 years ago, except I'd be shooting a lot more images (count).
Fast forward to today, I have been using an Adobe subscription Ps+LrC to manage my collection of over 600,000 images. Without this subscription, I'd be a nut-case!
I get it, you want something less costly or even free. I am AWARE of (but never use) a lite version of Adobe Lightroom (free, I heard) that you can try. In order to have "any" plug-in to Lightroom, it implies you already have Lightroom. Is this the case with you?
If you don't have Lightroom, you might want to try the FREE version a try and moving from there. Here is a link (hope it works, otherwise search online for it):
https://www.adobe.com/products/photo...h&gad_source=1

bocastephen

I actually have an Adobe photo subscription, so I have Lightroom, Photoshop and I think some bucket of storage. Is there an AI plugin that goes into Lightroom where it can analyze the qualities of each photo and make the best adjustments automatically? Not just curves/exposure like other apps do (including LR), but really enhance the image to make it look its potential best - without looking fake or overprocessed.

Polytonic

Lucky for you, Lightroom does, in fact, have an Auto button! I find it does an okay first pass. It's a convenient way to decide which ones are keepers and/or worth editing further, or just to get some ideas on how to adjust the photo.

allset2travel

You beat me to it.
The "AUTO" button tends to make the image "HDR" like. More warm tone, and slightly more contrasty.
Another method (not one button tho) is to tweet the white balance by holding down the SHIFT key and double click on Exposure, Contrast etc down the sliders in the Basic Panel.

mreynolds767

I am not sure LR's auto option uses any AI calculations. It most likely makes adjustments based on the histogram.
I would say a good idea to see what it does and then either keep it or edit it yourself if you don't like it, in most cases you should be able to outdo the results without spending much time on the image.
I am not positive but suspect you could set your LR's import settings to automatically apply AUTO settings upon import ; which would give you the no effort you are asking for.

You could also within LR perform your edits to one photo and then "select all images" and then go to SYNC SETTINGS in the menu which performs those exact edits on each photo - very useful for photos taken at the same location/timeframe.

Topaz Photo AI and Luminar or is it Skylum (same thing but goes by both names I think) both claim to use AI to make edits/improvements to your image so are more in-line with what the OP is using. I have a couple of Topaz plug-in's but not Photo AI. I do know they offer a free trial so may be worth downloading that and checking it out. The free trial I believe stamps a Topaz watermark on each image so is really just for you to test and see if the product can do what you want.
I am not sure if Topaz supports any type of batch processing so you could have it's AI edits performed on multiple images.
I have Skylum but it is years old so not sure how relevant my experience is with that program. It's AI function is done via a slider and I have tried it on images but never been happy with the results even at a low percentage ; though I will say I usually enter any of these plug in programs after I have already made all of my LR adjustments and often some PS adjustments as well so I may see better AI results if I started with a unedited or very basic edit starting point.

My $.02 ; you may be just as happy with shooting in JPEG and choosing an in-camera processing mode.
You will always get the best possible results shooting RAW and editing each specific image on it's own merits but that takes time and thought to do well.

I am not sure AI editing of photos is "there yet" but quickly things could advance to that point.
Many AI photo enhancement options on the market (not those I mentioned above) will replace parts of your image with other imagery which is not really what you want. For example instead of sharpening an eye in a photo it uses someone else's eye entirely.

mreynolds767

OP: I think the real answer is not AI editing but being your own worst critic and culling your images
Do you need 300 images from one trip?

Once you eliminate any images with obvious flaws (wrong exposure, wrong focus, etc...)
If making a photobook how many images do you need for that? That could give you a target.
Otherwise identify a top 25 or top 10 from a trip and then edit those. Edit a couple of alternates as well in case the edit does not go as planned or you change your ranking post editing.
I can usually cull quickly from the unedited thumbnails in LR ; and sometimes the smaller view makes a quick analysis of compositional quality easer as odd as that sounds.

sea_jeff

For quick and dirty batch processing I love Topaz Photo AI. Just shot an event for a dog rescue group. Grabbed all the .heif images, dumped them into TPAI and off it went.

Saved to a folder, quickly cropped/straightened and sent a link to the organizers. On the plus side if you utilize "Enhance Faces" algorithm you can get some overly smooth but great for social media images that non-photographers will love.

allset2travel

But that takes all the fun away!

sea_jeff

I am the worst post-photo processor ever.

For the longest time that is part of why I loved shooting Fuji so much. The ability to dial in a look with the film simulations and get close to what I wanted SOOC is really nice.

gkyu

Personal favourite: leonardo ai