Why Human Editing Still Matters in Photography

Why I don’t use AI software to cull or fully edit my photos

A lot of photographers are using various softwares to speed up their workflow. Culling, editing, sorting galleries as it promises to make everything quicker and more efficient.

For a while, I thought that was something I needed to keep up with.

If I wasn’t faster, was I falling behind?

Was I just being inefficient?

Am I a bad business owner?

So I signed up for a month of one of these platforms.

I uploaded so many galleries to train it on my style, and let it learn how I shoot and edit. Then I put it to the test.

What the AI missed

The first issue came up in the culling stage.

The software is designed to select technically “good” photos, but that’s not always what I’m trying to capture.

It skipped over:

• photos where faces weren’t in focus because I was focusing on presentation slides
• intentional motion blur where I wanted to keep attendees anonymous
• wider, more atmospheric or “artsy” shots that didn’t centre on people

These weren’t mistake photos, they were deliberate choices I made.

But the AI couldn’t recognise that. It was trained to prioritise clarity and faces, not context or intent. (obviously)

Editing wasn’t cutting it either

Then came the editing.

I expected to be able to tweak the results and refine them. But instead, the whole image felt off.

In comparison, my usual process felt far more consistent. I either work from presets I’ve built over time or create something specific for each event, then apply and adjust across the gallery.

Who does “faster” really help?

Who actually benefits from this being faster?

Not me. I enjoy the culling and editing process.

Not the client. Their gallery would miss important moments and feel less consistent with the work they booked me for in the first place.

I wasn’t missing deadlines.

So what’s the point?

Efficiency doesn’t always need to be the goal

There’s a lot of pressure to optimise every part of a business, to make things quicker, more scalable, more streamlined, yada yada.

But not everything NEEDS to be.

Some parts of the process is where the value of a service actually is.

Culling is where I pick with my judgement, taste, and experience what photos best serve the client.

Editing is where I sprinkle my magic, changing super dark or weird lighting to become a banger photo.

Rushing or handing it over completely changes the outcome.

Keeping the Human Side of the Work

For some photographers, AI tools might fit their workflow perfectly. But for me, it took the soul and purpose away from the process.

So for the forseeable future, it is me Tahlia who will be picking and editing all of your photos