Author Topic: Has GPT-4o Made Photoshop & Stock Images Obsolete? (Read 2741 times)

Mcrstckfllw · « **on:** March 29, 2025, 23:19 »

With the recent advancements in AI image generation, particularly GPT-4o's ability to create high-quality visuals from simple text prompts, many are wondering: Is this the end for traditional graphic design, Photoshop, and microstock platforms?

The Shift in Image Creation
For years, Photoshop has been the go-to tool for designers, while microstock platforms provided affordable visuals for content creators. However, AI-generated images now offer:
✅ Speed – Get an image in seconds, no editing skills needed.
✅ Customization – Tailor images precisely without searching through stock libraries.
✅ Cost Efficiency – No need for expensive stock subscriptions or professional designers for simple projects.

Who Wins and Who Loses?
🟢 Winners:

Marketers, bloggers, and small businesses who need quick, unique visuals.

AI developers and companies monetizing AI-generated content.

🔴 Losers:

Stock image contributors who rely on licensing sales.

Some freelance designers, especially those handling simple, repetitive design tasks.

Is This the End or an Evolution?

Here are some Redditors trying out the GPT-4o :

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1jkaaxh/gpt4o_image_generation_is_absolutely_insane/#lightbox

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fgpt-4o-image-generation-is-absolutely-insane-v0-4mnoq2q8a6re1.png%3Fwidth%3D558%26format%3Dpng%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D2faa6f2033af736e2557f814b8abffd6a2e0a4d7

DiscreetDuck · « **Reply #1 on:** March 30, 2025, 03:58 »

And the winners of perpetual income are... ?
And the governments complicit in the plundering are... ?
And the humans who have become useless are...?

alexandersr · « **Reply #2 on:** March 30, 2025, 19:51 »

Very sad!

alexandersr · « **Reply #3 on:** March 30, 2025, 20:04 »

Quote from: DiscreetDuck on March 30, 2025, 03:58

And the winners of perpetual income are... ?
Marketers, AI company owners
And the governments complicit in the plundering are... ?
USA,China and others countries which have development in AI.
And the humans who have become useless are...?
Graphic designers, stock images contributors among others...!

In my particular case, I don't have images made with AI, I would never pay for programs like Midjurney.

angelacat · « **Reply #4 on:** April 01, 2025, 04:25 »

Unless they are sued into oblivion for copyright, IP infringement - hope so.

Mcrstckfllw · « **Reply #5 on:** April 01, 2025, 08:45 »

The scary thing about GPT-4o image generation is that it really enables people with no knowledge of graphic design to create the exact image in their mind—just by putting it into words. In seconds.

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #6 on:** April 02, 2025, 07:42 »

HalfFull · « **Reply #7 on:** April 02, 2025, 08:48 »

Quote from: Mcrstckfllw on April 01, 2025, 08:45

The scary thing about GPT-4o image generation is that it really enables people with no knowledge of graphic design to create the exact image in their mind—just by putting it into words. In seconds.

As long as you want a six fingered person with three arms and half a leg sitting in a chair that is floating in a room with two sources of sunlight.... ok, I exaggerate... they might have one full leg.

Ultimately, any illustrator photographer will find a hat full of things that need amending so, you do need to artistic skills to complete the image.... or you can use an image that will make your clients think your a bit daft... or lazy... and don't want to pay an artist / photographer the going rate... being a cheapskate. It will do wonders for a companies PR because AI imagery is still very easy to spot.

Mcrstckfllw · « **Reply #8 on:** April 02, 2025, 10:48 »

I believe what you said to some extend, or i won’t have my BME in Feb. Ppl still willing to pay for good images, anyway, will see where this goes in half a year or a year time, as March was just average, will monitor the sales this month. I wish to ignore this AI development too and hope no one care much but personally, it seems harder to maintain my earnings on microstock since AI steps in. Sorry for my rant. 😔🙏🏻

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #9 on:** April 02, 2025, 11:41 »

Quote from: Mcrstckfllw on April 01, 2025, 08:45

The scary thing about GPT-4o image generation is that it really enables people with no knowledge of graphic design to create the exact image in their mind—just by putting it into words. In seconds.

The problem with photography is, it enables people to make an exact image, without having the skills or knowledge to draw or paint. Just by pushing a button on a box.

I don't like AI and I don't use it to make things, except humor or quick fun, but I also recognize that just like computers and cameras and other technology, you can't fight progress or or stop change.

Quote from: HalfFull on April 02, 2025, 08:48

As long as you want a six fingered person with three arms and half a leg sitting in a chair that is floating in a room with two sources of sunlight.... ok, I exaggerate... they might have one full leg.

That too. And three legged chairs or impossible mechanical features.

Mcrstckfllw · « **Reply #10 on:** April 02, 2025, 11:56 »

Well said, Uncle Pete.

zeljkok · « **Reply #11 on:** April 02, 2025, 12:14 »

Maybe you can not fight progress, but real question is: Is AI a progress?

Andrej.S. · « **Reply #12 on:** April 02, 2025, 14:12 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 02, 2025, 11:41

Quote from: Mcrstckfllw on April 01, 2025, 08:45
The scary thing about GPT-4o image generation is that it really enables people with no knowledge of graphic design to create the exact image in their mind—just by putting it into words. In seconds.

The problem with photography is, it enables people to make an exact image, without having the skills or knowledge to draw or paint. Just by pushing a button on a box.

I don't like AI and I don't use it to make things, except humor or quick fun, but I also recognize that just like computers and cameras and other technology, you can't fight progress or or stop change.

Quote from: HalfFull on April 02, 2025, 08:48
As long as you want a six fingered person with three arms and half a leg sitting in a chair that is floating in a room with two sources of sunlight.... ok, I exaggerate... they might have one full leg.

That too. And three legged chairs or impossible mechanical features.

We've discussed this topic many times before. It depends.

For simple motifs that are essentially only used as one-day images for Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram, AI delivers very good results and greatly simplifies the work for photographers.

You don't need to waste your time with the photo setting or wear out your equipment for these simple motifs.

However, for complex motifs, AI is not good enough. In this case, it's worth preparing the setting and using the expensive equipment as a photographer.

The future is clearly a mixed work of AI rendering and classical photography.
Professionals will likely use AI for image editing (AI photoshop) for classical photography to increase their efficiency.

So, yes, AI is definitely a progress.

Bauman · « **Reply #13 on:** April 02, 2025, 14:17 »

The advent of AI is the revenge of those who have never learned any skills in life. Those who have never sweated over books, those who do not have the patience to wait, those who prefer everything immediately to those who invest in the long term, those who drink a young wine rather than an aged wine.

We will be overwhelmed by a tsunami of content of all kinds, but our human attention span remains the same. Who will watch all this content?

Maybe AI will watch content made by AI. There are already bots created by AI that increase the engagement of social profiles ... made by AI.

For many people, it is all very beautiful. I will continue to take photographs while traveling, walking, and cycling ... until someone who appreciates the effort of a human and not a machine buys them.

I hope that this type of person who loves things made by humans will continue to exist.

zeljkok · « **Reply #14 on:** April 02, 2025, 15:19 »

Quote from: Bauman on April 02, 2025, 14:17

The advent of AI is the revenge of those who have never learned any skills in life. Those who have never sweated over books, those who do not have the patience to wait, those who prefer everything immediately to those who invest in the long term, those who drink a young wine rather than an aged wine.

We will be overwhelmed by a tsunami of content of all kinds, but our human attention span remains the same. Who will watch all this content?

Maybe AI will watch content made by AI. There are already bots created by AI that increase the engagement of social profiles ... made by AI.

For many people, it is all very beautiful. I will continue to take photographs while traveling, walking, and cycling ... until someone who appreciates the effort of a human and not a machine buys them.

I hope that this type of person who loves things made by humans will continue to exist.

Gave it a +. Can't disagree. My main issue with AI is that it is wrong direction. There are way more pressing issues that impact our elementary existence, main one environment degradation due to human caused climate change. Once this beautiful planet can't support life, there will be nowhere to go. For some scientists we are already past turning point. Yet we keep polluting and destroying; encouraged by leaders that advocate further destruction with "drill baby drill" or supposedly super intelligent people that claim stupidities like "population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming" - when population growth is exactly what's causing all the problems World has.

Efforts should be how to solve this existential problem. All these Googles and Apples (and Adobes) should direct efforts into that direction, but it doesn't bring profits. So they wont. It's like a smoker that knows smoking will eventually destroy its body, but keeps doing until it's too late.

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #15 on:** April 03, 2025, 12:07 »

Quote from: zeljkok on April 02, 2025, 12:14

Maybe you can not fight progress, but real question is: Is AI a progress?

Not in the sense of things like, refrigeration instead of ice chests, or flying instead of railroads, but AI in many fields, may be able to simulate or discover things, that are useful, from data. I think too many comments here are using AI and a catch-all for computer generated images, when the whole field of machine leaning, goes much deeper and further.

Quote from: Bauman on April 02, 2025, 14:17

We will be overwhelmed by a tsunami of content of all kinds, but our human attention span remains the same. Who will watch all this content?

There are already bots created by AI that increase the engagement of social profiles ... made by AI.

Sorry the human attention span, is not the same. It's much shorter now. Go watch any old B&W movie from the classic era and start to see how people want everything right now and fast. There's no drawn out, slow development and sub-plots, most of the time. Go to a website and try to read content, text. You are assaulted by pop up ads, videos that self start with noise and audio. What ever happened to reading?

Instead of a few network TV stations and some movie houses, we have streaming services and networks upon networks. New movies every month from places, that are churning out made for TV content. I sure can't watch all of that, and I don't want to. That's not AI, it's just making more and more, faster than ever.

The Facebook and other social media places, didn't call them AI, but since the start, we are led to believe that people with like minds, are posting what we agree with, and we are fed that, to keep us satisfied and interested. If your tendency is towards nature and the environment (as a simple example) and you are a liberal, you will get news that follows that and agrees. If someone is a conservative, and wants less government spending and waste, or a better protected border, they will get more stories supporting that. We are being programmed to think that the Internet, agrees and supports, our personal views, while opposing views are filtered out.

Sure I'd rather take my own photos, created by my hands and eyes. As amusement, artificially generated images are entertaining. The problem is, just like hand knit was replaced by machines, or any other craft that has been altered by machines, assembly that's done by robots, not humans. Machine made goods have replaced hand made, mostly. Clerical services that were done by people, have been replaced by computers.

AI isn't going to replace human made art and designs, it's just a new way to create easy and fast solutions for simple uses. Sure it's a killer for some crowdsourced images and will replace the need for many types or stock image. But AI can't replace, real photos of events, or real objects that need to be accurate, and can't cover the news. AI is too stupid to understand how things work and function.

manionzus · « **Reply #16 on:** April 03, 2025, 12:57 »

Don't think so, GPT4-o images still not able to generate such hi-quality images like a real stock photographer!

Mantis · « **Reply #17 on:** April 05, 2025, 13:48 »

Quote from: Uncle Pete on April 02, 2025, 11:41

Quote from: Mcrstckfllw on April 01, 2025, 08:45
The scary thing about GPT-4o image generation is that it really enables people with no knowledge of graphic design to create the exact image in their mind—just by putting it into words. In seconds.

The problem with photography is, it enables people to make an exact image, without having the skills or knowledge to draw or paint. Just by pushing a button on a box.

I don't like AI and I don't use it to make things, except humor or quick fun, but I also recognize that just like computers and cameras and other technology, you can't fight progress or or stop change.

THIS^ And it will only get better.

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #18 on:** April 05, 2025, 23:58 »

Quote from: zeljkok on April 02, 2025, 12:14

Maybe you can not fight progress, but real question is: Is AI a progress?

Correct, "ai" is not thinking, "ai" by the major companies (chatgpt, midjourney/etc) is simply sophisticated theft. And MASSIVE theft on a massive scale.

The real question is - at what point to people (in general) get together and actually do something about it - instead of basically b*tching and wh*ning about it and waiting for "somebody else" to "save" them, and "somebody else" to do something about it? That..... is the big question. I've already proposed a few solutions. Perhaps some people are acting on it - I don't know. But I do see a lot of people just whining like children. If you don't like it - DO something about it.

And lol - yes, not sure it one would call it "progress", but rather - regression. A small group of companies collectively (and yes, they do work together - its soooooo funny how midjourney/chatgpt are related - they accidentally "leak" code that makes it quite obvious) - a small group of companies are collectively stealing the works of other people, repackaging, - and then trying to resell it to them at a premium. Designed to make people lazy and dependent on "tech" - and basically push buttons like monkeys - but - after most people VOLUNTARILY suffocated themselves for TWO FREAKIN years (SOOOO very dumb) - ADULTS TOO! (children would be one thing, they don't know any better and take their cues from adults - but ADULTS? sooooo dumb) - and then poisoned themselves with shots beacuse "they had to" - and now are suffering SO BADLY from essentially stockholm syndrome - justify their actions and double down on stupidity - anyhoo - many now have actually become too dumb to really do anything else than push buttons... which was one of the big purposes of CONvid... because it was a big con.

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #19 on:** April 06, 2025, 00:31 »

One other thing though...

a) For some people - typing prompts is "too much work". They still like it prepackaged and done for them. They still will.
b) "The more things change, the more they stay the same". I just met a "young" guy (20's) who was using a camera from the 1980's because film is "making a comeback". Polaroid is making a comeback (I actually bought one because it is cool printing it right away). People still use print for 'retro' effects. A good portion of the movie industry actually still films on "film" (not digital, I've spoken with reps that have said its simply because there is a certain 'quality' they can get that they can't with digital). People still take art classes. People still draw. People still like the chance of meeting their favorite actor in person (although some could actually literally be 'robots' and/or 'clones', but entirely different topic).

Yes, the "ai" companies (which aren't actually "ai", but simply sophisticated theft) are trying to make people dependent on it like a drug. But there is, and will still be a demand for people who can do sophisticated 3D rigs in blender 3D.

c) There literally are "flying cars" (aka drone hover cars, arabian "princes" using them), jetpacks, etc. But the pyschos want to keep all that 'tech' for themselves, so 100 YEARS later, people are still "driving" to work, "driving" to the beach, etc, etc. And there is actually lol a massive push for "EV" vehicles which is simply designed to restrict people's movement and even discourage driving. (Easier to keep the slaves all huddled up in their screens in apartment boxes in a dense city)... But you COULD fly in a car. You COULD hoverboard to work... yet... you probably still drive.

Yes, the "ai" cartel is here, was here before they announced it in 2023... (lol serious, it was SOOO funny - 2023 the "news" stations started broad-casting "AI OMFG! AI!") and then so many people considered themselves "knowledgeable" on the topic of "AI" because the "news" said so... but "ai" has existed 40-50+ years (probably even longer, but I personally know of it being around for 40-50 years simply because I USED "ai" languages a long time ago and actually programmed in them, and those languages were around for 40-50+ years).

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #20 on:** April 07, 2025, 08:52 »

I just bought into Midjourney last week to try out the fun and I have to say, it is terrible for getting anything usable. Can’t create any kind of cohesive series of non people images, like similar backgrounds with different objects from different angles. The clothing on people is terrible, pockets that don’t match, clothing pieces connected, things attached in weird places. And if you get a character you like, you can’t repeat it. Honestly I’m amazed anyone gets anything useful out of this.

Sure, for a fun one off of something fantasy, it works. But repeatable reality?

jamesbenet · « **Reply #21 on:** April 07, 2025, 17:18 »

Sean,

yes it is inconsistent now but we are a few years away from all of us stock people to become obsolete, even in video. I had access to see what is in the latest iterations in the lab and they are working on getting a consistency and series of images with the same people, even videos. Now the limit is videos of 3 to 15 seconds of consistency; they say in less than 5 years it will be 90 minutes videos and entire movies could be created.

We should be very afraid, only thing that may save you is if you are a true original that not even AI can match, I'm sad to say even in my best years as a 3D modeler/ animator, I couldn't approach what these AI tools can do in seconds.

Maybe we can generate our own blockbusters and make bank that way lol!

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #22 on:** April 07, 2025, 20:59 »

Quote from: jamesbenet on April 07, 2025, 17:18

Sean,

yes it is inconsistent now but we are a few years away from all of us stock people to become obsolete, even in video. I had access to see what is in the latest iterations in the lab and they are working on getting a consistency and series of images with the same people, even videos. Now the limit is videos of 3 to 15 seconds of consistency; they say in less than 5 years it will be 90 minutes videos and entire movies could be created.

We should be very afraid, only thing that may save you is if you are a true original that not even AI can match, I'm sad to say even in my best years as a 3D modeler/ animator, I couldn't approach what these AI tools can do in seconds.

Maybe we can generate our own blockbusters and make bank that way lol!

It's sad that a small group of people (it really is a cartel that owns midjourney, chatgpt, runway, etc) have stolen so much work from others, just for power & control. That's what the "ai" tools are - sophisticated theft based tools. What's sadder, is it seems many people instead of doing anything - just like to complain about it.

You actually CAN get character consistency - it's just not super push button easy. (Not "that" hard either, but not super easy).

The blockbuster idea is a good idea - you can do that "now" (don't have to wait 5 years) - but one of the major 'issues' is distribution. How do you get people interested, and then get renumerated for it?

angelacat · « **Reply #23 on:** April 08, 2025, 12:57 »

If creators aren't getting any compensation from AI and seeing their work being regurgitated for big AI bucks - why would anyone bother uploading anything of value to the internet. What will AI "train" on then?

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #24 on:** April 08, 2025, 16:08 »

Quote from: jamesbenet on April 07, 2025, 17:18

I'm sad to say even in my best years as a 3D modeler/ animator, I couldn't approach what these AI tools can do in seconds.

Don't I know it. What it would take to get some of these single images would take days or weeks. Heck, you can even have AI make you a 3d model now!

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Author Topic: Has GPT-4o Made Photoshop & Stock Images Obsolete? (Read 2741 times)

Mcrstckfllw

DiscreetDuck

alexandersr

alexandersr

angelacat

Mcrstckfllw

Andrej.S.

HalfFull

Mcrstckfllw

Uncle Pete

Mcrstckfllw

zeljkok

Andrej.S.

Bauman

zeljkok

Uncle Pete

manionzus

Mantis

SuperPhoto

SuperPhoto

Sean Locke Photography

jamesbenet

SuperPhoto

angelacat

Sean Locke Photography

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