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submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) by mgenehoffman@sh.itjust.works to c/pics@lemmy.world

I guess some people thought it was AI, but just a cool moment in my basement window well.

Edit: taken with my iPhone several years ago since that’s all I had with me when it happened so quickly.

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[-] Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 32 points 15 hours ago

To be fair, I totally understand why people think it's AI. Between the phone camera processes and the extreme postprocessing, this looks more deep fried than some memes I've seen. It almost looks like it's got a cartoon filter applied.

Add on the fact that OP is trying hard to down play how much editing has been done, it starts to feel like it doesn't add up. If OP posted the unedited photo to show the bad phone sharpening and admitted how much editing was done on top of that, people would understand what they are looking at.

Don't get me wrong, it looks cool, but when someone says "oh, no I just took this with my phone", I look at that and think that's not the whole truth.

[-] mgenehoffman@sh.itjust.works 12 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Thanks for your meaningful, informed, and helpful contribution.

Of course it’s edited. Pro tip: every image is edited. Nothing anyone sees is raw from the sensor. It’s all completely arbitrary. Even people who shoot film show edited photos, they just offload the editing to the film lab. Someone else is doing the processing for them.

Even direct from a digital camera to jpeg, the camera is performing countless transformations and adjustment s before burning to jpeg. See film emulations on Fuji cameras for example.

The entire point of photography is to present to people a compelling vision that feels the way you did when you saw it.

That being said, this is basic curve and a vignette.

[-] INHALE_VEGETABLES@aussie.zone 2 points 27 minutes ago

Post original or its AI

[-] spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 hour ago

So you don't have the original anymore?

[-] Smc87@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 11 hours ago
[-] UntitledQuitting@reddthat.com 5 points 11 hours ago

+1 OP, I wanna see it without

[-] FluorideMind@lemmy.world 9 points 11 hours ago

Bro got caught and is trying to say everything is edited.

[-] KingOfTheCouch@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 hours ago

I mean, it's basic settings in like every fucking phone for the last 15 years? Get over yourselves - you aren't judges at National Geographic photographer of the year, it's a neat pic dude wanted to share.

Let people share neat things.

[-] Hackworth@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 hours ago

Right? It's a standard color pass. People acting like it has to be RAW/LOG to be real.

[-] jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works 0 points 9 hours ago

raw should be the default phones take

[-] misteloct@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

I mean even your sentence is edited. Nobody forms a true thought without altering it in their mind. Talking is the art of representing the thoughts and atoms in your brain in the way we want you to see it. Literally everything is a lie. So lying is always morally acceptable. /s

[-] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 14 hours ago

Yeah exactly, it's a cool shot, but to me it looks like a scan of an oil on canvas painting.

[-] Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

If reddit was a thing before Photoshop was around, I assume they'd block not only that too, but stuff like changing hue, exposure, etc.

[-] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Thomas Kinkade's pinecone.

[-] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 17 points 17 hours ago

The default subs are controlled by people involved with karma farming. Some of them are so bad that the mods will ban anyone with a high number of upvotes to prevent them from competing with the bots.

Funny enough, I bet the same mods will let a bot report your pic in a few months.

[-] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 66 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

I remember trying to warn people on Reddit that their anti-AI crusades were going to hurt real people making real art, especially surrealists, and got banned from a bunch of art subs for being “pro-AI” as a result. Actually, they phrased it in far more hurtful and inflammatory ways, like “advocating theft.” Apparently caring about not hurting real human beings making real human art is “advocating theft.”

I don’t miss Reddit. That place was bad for my mental health.

P.S. This photo is beautiful and I’m happy you had a mind to capture it and share it. Thank you.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 4 points 14 hours ago

Well, also AI is hurting actual human beings. We should be fighting against it too. Yeah, be careful of crossfire, but it doesn't mean you shouldn't fire at all.

[-] chunes@lemmy.world 6 points 17 hours ago

It's the same thing for writing. Use a single emdash and you get accused of using LLMs. It's like, no, I'm literate. I read books. Sorry for paying attention in class..

[-] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 9 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

It's the same shit on lemmy

I was watching a video yesterday where the video author said it was sketchy that another ytber had used an AI voice but still credited the original voice actor the Ai voice was based on, the voice actor also chimed in that they agreed and were still being paid even though the AI voice was being used.

Literally every time I see arguments against AI from creative it's because losing income/stealing, he hit both those and yet that is still not good enough.

The goal posts will ever shift and the rage will never end.

[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

I got banned from a fandom subreddit for pointing out that a certain fan remaster was (partially, with tons of manual work) made with ML models. Specifically with oldschool GANs, and some smaller, older models as part of a deinterlacing pipeline, from before 'generative AI' was even a term.

[-] pixeltree 1 points 13 hours ago
[-] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Yep.

It's not the best upscale TBH.

Hence I brought up redoing it with some of the same techniques (oldschool vapoursynth processing + manual pixel peeping) mixed with more modern deinterlacing and better models than Waifu2X. Maybe even a finetune? Ban.

[-] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

In my own anecdotal experience, it’s been a lot better here, but I’m sure instance, communities, etc all have an impact. I have noticed a slight uptick in toxicity recently, but once I started using Voyager’s tagging feature I realized the perpetrators are almost always the same 4 people.

[-] jsomae@lemmy.ml 12 points 21 hours ago

I get these kind of reactions on Lemmy all the time. I say something that isn't the exact party line, people assume I'm their worst enemy even though our disagreement is very minor in the broad scheme.

[-] fakeplastic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 20 hours ago

It's the people who impersonate art with slop who deserve the blame for the confusion, not the people who object to the slop.

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[-] mgenehoffman@sh.itjust.works 8 points 21 hours ago

Thank you! And yes, I mean I realize it’s a two sided battle. I legitimately hate gen AI and what it was done to the art world. My current career is in the process of being completely devoured by AI and taking photos is something that brings me a lot of joy and connects me to the real world, so it’s infuriating to have both the loss of my career and denigration of my photography due to AI.

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[-] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago

serves you right for posting something so lewd.

stupid sexy pinecones...

[-] shark_phenomenon@lemmy.world 13 points 18 hours ago

r/pics is a massive joke anyways. Screw that sub!

[-] WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago
[-] hakunawazo@lemmy.world 12 points 19 hours ago

conus pineae divinae

[-] nthavoc@lemmy.today 8 points 18 hours ago

Since the light is hitting things just right, probably put some random objects or action figures in there to see if people notice. Every day is a new story! Cool picture by the way.

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 7 points 18 hours ago

the light is hitting things just right

[-] vxx@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago

Too much HDR. I can see why they thought it's AI.

Still a nice shot. The composion and framing is nice.

[-] mgenehoffman@sh.itjust.works 8 points 22 hours ago

It’s not HDR. It’s a single shot, slightly underexposed so we don’t lose the highlight detail. The rest of the work could have been done in a physical darkroom. But thank you.

[-] AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

I think it's just that the iPhone processing gives it a certain look that people associate with ai for possibly incorrect reasons.

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[-] OldManBOMBIN@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago

I have a mental image of you in a basement sweatshop in Philadelphia- the air is full of smoke and there's a constant barrage of German speeches and gunfire being played over the loudspeaker, broken only by the occasional steam whistle. You take a longing glance out the window, wishing you were on one of the higher floors so you could jump. And there is it.

Pinecone.

[-] k0e3@lemmy.ca 130 points 1 day ago
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[-] ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

TIL what a window well is. I would honestly love to see what it looks like from outside. Is there some kind of covered up grate on top?

[-] mgenehoffman@sh.itjust.works 33 points 22 hours ago

Here it is several years later. It’s an office that I rent. The landlord apparently does not care about maintaining the windows.

[-] jacksilver@lemmy.world 8 points 22 hours ago

I was so confused by the image initially as I hadn't seen a window well that deep before. This follow-up picture made it all click, thanks for sharing.

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[-] sprite0@sh.itjust.works 91 points 1 day ago

the ai witchhunt gets a bit silly, sorry you got caught up in v it. very cool photo!

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 points 21 hours ago

Lol when I first saw iPhone my brain read it as the default signature iPhones put in emails.

Sent from my iPhone.

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this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2025
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