Mario Bautista
Pixel Studio and “Reimagine” photo editing: Sure, why not
I don’t know if it’s the former newspaper journalist in me, concerned with photos of record, or a general lack of visual arts experience, but I’m not sure what to do with Pixel Studio, other than create ridiculous, obviously AI-generated images to send to friends. Google’s example in its launch demo was creating a party invite that included a friend, a bonfire, and the Golden Gate Bridge. That’s exactly the level I’m aiming for, too.
If you want to generate images while you’re waiting in line at a store, on public transit, or in other scenarios where you have a phone instead of a full computer, you might enjoy Pixel Studio. You can erase objects from pictures, and AI will try to fill the image in with contextual clues. Google could already do a version of that; now, however, you can ask it to “reimagine” pieces of an image. Using this tool, I have done the only thing I really need to do with it: reimagine my surly yet adorable cat, Cork, as a traveler through space and time.
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Background selected, reimagine as “a jungle waterfall.”
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Reimagine as “a solar system”
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Background selected, reimagine as “a jungle waterfall.”
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Reimagine as “a solar system”
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Reimagine as “a medieval battlefield”
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Reimagine as “a Van Gogh painting” (it took this in a weird literal direction, adding a painting and then warping his cat pillow into Van-Gogh-esque flowing form.
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Reimagine as “a medieval battlefield”
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
Reimagine as “a Van Gogh painting” (it took this in a weird literal direction, adding a painting and then warping his cat pillow into Van-Gogh-esque flowing form.
Kevin Purdy / Gemini AI generation
There are, of course, more concerning aspects about asking Gemini to change a photo, or fill it in with prompted words. In my non-serious testing, Gemini stopped me a few times, refusing to create images of distinct people or certain scenarios (war, death, the usual). But not everybody stopped where I did, and Gemini seems to need more guardrails and restrictions.
Other tricks made possible by Gemini
As The Verge’s Allison Johnson has noted, Google is the frontrunner in asking us how much realism and imperfection we want in our personal photos (Apple’s AI is soon to follow). I didn’t have time to dig into Google’s AI-inflected editing offerings: “Add Me” group photos, Auto frame (automatic backfilling for different ratios), Night Sight in panorama photos, and Magic Eraser for video sound. Video Boost is due to arrive soon. How much you’re comfortable stretching the products of light, lenses, and human perspective will be up to you.
