Fort Collins Digital Camera Club

You are invited to join us on ZOOM for the "Synthetic Photography SIG". I expect that this will be a controversial SIG as the topic of AI generated art seems to polarize people into 2 camps, they either love the concept that now they can make beautiful art or they hate the idea that "unskilled" people can make better art than they can. I am sure that we will have different views, but I hope that we can get along and respect everyone's views.

"I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It" - Evelyn Beatrice Hall (not Voltaire)

ATTENDEES
Mike Barry
Mark Bolles
Jim Fellion
Jim Limburg
Jack Lipscomb
Walt Lyons
Albert Wang

We discussed several topics at the November meeting:
1. Composite images created using AI generated components - I am very interested in combining images of models with generated components. Some of the composites were very good, and Jim made a watercolor card that was better than Hallmark.
2. We talked about computer requirements to run AI. I have an INVIDIA RTX 2070 with 4GB of VRAM and I can generate SDXL (1024px x 1024px) images in a few minutes or longer if I include more refinements. Mark has 24GB of VRAM and he is generating 1024px x 1024px images in less than a minute. Some of the new Apple computers (with the M4 processor) are supposed to be quite fast and will probably work even better.
3. There are lots of YouTube videos about "The Best AI Image Generators". Blake Rudis likes Magnific.ai. Someone else liked Playground.com but I wasn't impressed by it. Test out some of the online tools and report back to us at the next meeting.
4. FLUX has changed. They used to give us 20 credits every 6 hours, and now they only give us 10 credits every 24 hours in the FREE account, and the FREE account can't use the PRO version and it has new content restrictions.
5. I showed a few examples of the Control-Net IP-adapter-faceid extension. It did a good job of creating images of me using 4 sample images for face details.
6. I was able to run Stable Diffusion with the Automatic1111 user interface during a ZOOM session, so I showed a few examples of what I have been working on.
7. We also talked about making money from AI generated images. I don't know why more people aren't selling AI generated images at Comic Con. I will include a couple interesting YouTube videos in the Resources section.
8. We also looked at CivitAI for model and image ideas
9. We also talked about what SIG members want to learn about AI image generation.

10. Mark Bolles will demo Stable Diffusion with the Invoke AI user interface running locally at the next meeting.

11. We decided to create more images using AI generated components for the next meeting. You can mix photographic components with AI generated components, or just create AI generated images.

RESOURCES (Where you can find sources of inspiration)

Civitai.com
One of the best sources for Stable Diffusion models and image prompts

Github.com
Great source for AI information and tools
They have started requiring accounts to access the site, although there is a basic FREE account.

I Started A Printable Art Shop With AI (Step-By-Step Guide) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej8BmHifZu4

I Tried Selling AI Art For 30 Days (Realistic Results)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXPQ-fg507o

AGENDA FOR OUR NEXT SYNTHETIC PHOTOGRAPHY SIG MEETING - Tue 12/3/2024 @6:00pm
1. Discuss composite images that we created with AI components
2. Mark will demo Invoke AI with stable diffusion running on his local computer
3. Discuss questions, ethics, techniques, what is happening with AI in general
4. Decide what we want to do at the next meeting

Please email Mike, info@fcdcc.com, when you find mistakes, missing information or if you have suggestions for the Synthetic Photography SIG and I will try to address the issues.