Imagen AI Review: Can it replace a human editor?

A collage of images of an Albertan elopement at West River's Edge

You need to try Imagen AI — here is my Imagen AI Review. There are three main AI-based editing software. There is FilterPixel, Aftershoot and Imagen AI. If you want to edit like another photographer, Imagen AI has built in talent profiles and you can upload your own presets as a lite profile. While I have not used the other two, I have remained with Imagen AI as the continuous improvements they make for the app is mindblowing.

An Imagen AI review collage of images edited for a wedding

My Imagen AI Review: It saves A LOT of TIME!

I would not say that Imagen AI would replace a human editor. I used to edit for other photographers up until spring 2023. When I tried Imagen AI, I basically stopped editing for other photographers. Why? Because Imagen AI get it very close. It was easier to refer them to trying Imagen AI instead. My favourite way of using Imagen AI is to use my own customized preset and I answer the survey Imagen AI provides about how warm, how bright or how magenta I want my photographs.

It gets it very close! I prefer to use the masks and do the cropping myself. The way that Imagen AI straightens the horizon for me is worth every penny, literally. All I would have to adjust is mostly the crop, the white balance & tint as well as some tweaks or retouching the final selected photos. For proofing purposes, Imagen AI is spot on enough.

Once the edits are run on Imagen AI, I can use this time to catch up with other tasks — you can’t run Lightroom at the same time while Imagen AI is working for you. This means, you can work on your website or SEO, schedule posts for social media and/or – ahem – doom scroll, if you so choose. How fast Imagen AI edits depends on how big the gallery is. The wedding above was edited with Imagen AI; it struggled with the ceremony photos, which I did a lot of manual tweaks. However, overall for a small intimate wedding that has over 500 photos, Imagen AI did very well with the preset I created.

Imagen AI Culling

Culling is still in beta mode. I much prefer to cull in Photomechanic. I do a second cull in Photomechanic before storing the final files in a dedicated folder. From there, I actually like to run it through Imagen AI for ratings — that way, it makes it faster to decide how much time to focus on a photograph. It generally flags great overall facial expressions at 5-stars. Just a caveat on this Imagen AI Review that it won’t catch blurry faces — that is one of the cons I have found so far.

When you have got enough confidence with how Imagen AI “culls”, you can actually use it to filter only the 4 and 5 stars and only edit those. You actually get to decide how to rate 3-stars, 4-stars and 5-stars for photos. To save on costs, you can further cull after using an Imagen AI cull and change the ratings to only edit the ones marked 4 and 5 stars.

What ImagenAI does not do

In this Imagen AI Review, I have to put a caveat that if your Straight Out of Camera raw photos are not properly exposed, it cannot fix lighting issues. Generally, as a rule of thumb for photography, we do not want to go below 2/3 stops of light. Learning how to meter in camera correctly is a more precise way. Under-exposing severely means you have severe noise.

My one peeve is that it sometimes tends to over-expose some of my photographs, but I have yet to meet the 3,000 photos requirement. The more I upload correct images, the more accurate it becomes.

Imagen Pricing

You can choose a pay as you go option (which is what I am using as the photo is approximately $0.06 per photo – with straighten) or if you edit a lot, there are better plans.

If you wanted to try ImagenAI, use my referral link: https://imagen-ai.com/?ref_id=129144673 and use the code “blackfriday23” during the month of November 2023 to get 30% off! It is of no cost to you to use my link; I get a credit towards my Imagen AI account. You will also get 1,500 free edits!

If you liked my Imagen AI Review, please share it with your photographer friends.

Edit (August 2024) – I tried Aftershoot and Aftershoot appears to have better culling capabilities. It can identify blurry photos a lot better! Use my referral link to get 10% off your subscription!

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