"ai is so cool." Shen Siyuan said.
When creators were worried that they would be replaced by artificial intelligence, he had already started using AI photography.
In the eyes of many viewers, Shen Siyuan's works are full of "divinity", revealing mysterious and strange colors and compositions that seem to come from another world. The overall presentation of the subject matter sometimes makes people feel scared, but it does also leave boundless imagination.
From Shen Siyuan's perspective, imagination is the most important thing to him. He will be happy when viewers imagine his works, and he will also use whether a work is imaginative and whether it is homogeneous as a basis for judging the quality of the work.
He said: "AI will generate a lot of imaginative things. It will generate various errors, but the errors sometimes turn out to be correct. It is a manifestation of imagination."
His photography died three times until aię„äŗ
When Shen Siyuan was in his twenties, he thought that he would become the most expensive commercial photographer in China.
Although he did not fully achieve it, looking back on Shen Siyuan's traditional photography career of more than 20 years, he has worked as an imaging director in magazines such as "Men's Wear" and "Harper's Bazaar", and he has reached a starting point that is difficult for most commercial photographers to reach. . That was his photography 1.0 era.
ās experience in commercial photography has brought me a sense of professional satisfaction: I have been in contact with most of Chinaās first- and second-tier artists, there is a dazzling array of equipment to choose from, a professional imaging team, considerable income, and a resounding reputation.
However, all migrant workers in the workplace seem to have started with the same script. Apart from fame and fortune, Shen Siyuan cannot escape Party Aās torture and editorās urging. The days become boring. Such photography no longer has any appeal to him.
"As I was shooting, I discovered something. My photography with is worse than ." In order to break through the creative bottleneck, he turned around and left the magazine.
shoots girls and publishes a personal photo portfolio. Becoming a freelance photographer, Shen Siyuanās Photography 2.0 era began.
Cover of "Despicable Flower" - Shen Siyuan's 2.0 era
His photography has developed into a new world, and "Despicable Flower" and "Wild Girl" have become his masterpieces. The camera revolves around the girl and the wilderness, and he began to focus on collecting his own emotions and daily feelings.
Later he took pictures of animals, cats and fish, and anything he found interesting. Throw away distracting thoughts and various complicated components, and let photography breathe air, becoming the simplest thing.
But the next turning point came soon. Shen Siyuan said that he was not a "long-term" person. "After taking enough photos of girls, it's really just the same thing." Just like that, Shen Siyuan's photography "died again" .
Later, he began to plan to do something with deep and serious thinking. He would hold a solo exhibition as an artist and make personal theme works. The world has become his creative material. Stones, rivers, insects, plants, all materials come from the details of the world.
Soon, Shen Siyuanās photography era 3.0 is coming.
He especially likes rivers and castor. He wrote the poem "The Photographer's Mental Minefield" and wrote "Twenty thousand moments, sixty springs and a river of existence." He asked his fans: "Why are you here? I found mine as a misunderstood castor bean in a mud pond overgrown with weeds."
However, Shen Siyuan discovered that in the real market, images are not highly valued in the art field. The viewing process of the audience standing in front of the video works seems to be a boring process, which makes Shen Siyuan feel that he is not a popular artist, or even a failed artist.
I canāt seem to find a purpose in making art.
He gave a pessimistic evaluation of his 3.0 era. He said: "My photography is dead again."
The opportunity to save himself came from the invitation from the musician Song Dongye. Shen Siyuan photographed his first The MV of the art song "Guo Yuanchao". From that time, he began to shoot videos and artistic short films, and tried to transform into a director. In the comment section of Chen Li's music videos for "The Seventh Day" and "Endless Love", music fans praised who made such great works.
Today, Shen Siyuan has entered his photography 4.0 era. As a director of photography, one person needs to take over all the tasks of DP and director. In his words, he ācan do everything.ā
People without ambition are the most romantic
After the heavy snowfall, Beijing was covered in snow and the coldness was more severe than in previous years. It was at this time that the 751 Park held a science and technology art festival, and there were still people gathering here to discuss art topics. TMTpost Media app met Shen Siyuan:
with short, shoulder-length hair parted in the middle, a dark blue outdoor jacket, and black trousers, a free and easy old Beijinger.
You asked him how he came into contact with AI. He said that he got it by watching short videos when he had nothing to do. He used midjourney and chatgpt to try them out, and became more and more attracted to them.
"When AI came, I found that my photography was great. I don't know why." Shen Siyuan told the story of art and AI, "AI can do many things, and I feel so happy."
Once upon a time, Shen Siyuan I briefly thought that with the arrival of AI, "humanity will be completely defeated." Now, he has become "friends" with AI.
He will even chat with chatgpt in a child-like tone, and chatgpt will also respond in a more humane and gentle manner.
"I asked chatgpt, brother, please write me a script about a man who is so happy. It said yes."
"What should I do? AI can do everything, how annoying."
Maybe there is no material too much There are many constraints, or perhaps the achievement has already been achieved. Most of Shen Siyuan's creations are without ambition and purpose. He can accept both good and bad feedback calmly.
saw an old man riding a car called a "one-legged donkey" in the Northeast Park, so he used AI to generate a work with the concept of a "one-legged donkey", although in appearance it had nothing to do with the old man's car.
He uses AI to create, and rarely thinks about whether his AI photography will be recognized by the mainstream photography circle and whether the market will accept it or question it. "I am not recognized by the mainstream photography circle. I have never been recognized." He laughed at himself.
However, he believes that in the final analysis, the photography works created by AI and the non-AI works are all pixels one by one, and there is no essential difference.
To create an AI work, he often has to sit there with his mind far away, for hours, a day, or two days... AI creation itself is not his main business. With a playful mentality, it doesn't matter what is finally generated.
"Sometimes I think the word creation is too heavy or too serious for me. I think it is just play. Sometimes I use AI to create a work, such as the recent electronic sheep and one-legged donkey. You Can this name be considered a serious creation?"
But everyone has equal access to AI, and not everyone's creations using AI can be called "arts." "Not everyone can do this, I believe that... ordinary enthusiasts may not have that much time." He said.
He also talked about the relationship with AI in the future: "Now AI is a friend, not an enemy, but who knows, it may become an enemy in two days, who cares."
In life, Shen Siyuan is constantly pursuing something. Romantic, he once saw a sentence: "People without ambition are the most romantic." He was caught off guard and deeply warmed by this sentence.
The following is the transcript (abridged):
Titanium Media: What was the opportunity for you to start AI photography? Which factor accounts for more, artistic creation itself or financial interests?
Shen Siyuan: is more imaginative. I used to collect a lot of materials from all over the world, such as shooting a sheep here and a mountain there, and then did various synthesis and post-production on them, and finally presented something that I felt was imaginative. In the past, I could only achieve these things with my own imagination. I think this process is very difficult because I need to shoot a lot of material. There may be millions or tens of millions of pictures that I have taken. Give them permutations and combinations. The initial arrival of
AI was devastating to me. They were based on the human knowledge base and easily completed my tasks.ai will generate a lot of imaginative things. It will generate various errors, but sometimes the errors are correct. It is a manifestation of imagination . I asked it to generate a 6-legged sheep, and it might have generated a phoenix growing on an alpaca, and an alpaca growing on it, but I can't imagine this result. If my treasure or most important thing to me is imagination, then am I not "humanity has failed miserably"? or I failed miserably in this regard.
He used his mistakes to defeat me. People's correctness may not necessarily touch me. This is what I think is very awesome.
Titanium Media: Iāve noticed your recent AI photography works generated using midjourney, such as Electronic Sheep, One-Legged Donkey, and Shui Changdong. Can you talk about your creative process?
Shen Siyuan: Because I saw a sentence before, that sentence is called "People without ambition are the most romantic." I think that sentence deeply warms me. In fact, I donāt have much purpose in doing things. When I do things with purpose, itās like Party A placing an order. But my current creations try not to let him have this feeling of placing an order. No one can control me in whatever I want to do. , I think itās pretty cool.
So the way I work has always been to take a gap year. One year is called the business year, and the other is called the creative year. During my business years, I try my best to meet the needs of others. I also have to know what the world requires of me, and cultivate myself to become a person who can satisfy the world. When
was created, I actually wanted to satisfy myself, or go against other people's previous requests. I would make it something you didn't like, and I would make it something weird and willful, which I think is more satisfying. .
Titanium Media: Is AI photography real photography? Is it recognized by the mainstream photography circle?
Shen Siyuan: A question or sentence can only be understood from different thinking dimensions. One of the thinking dimensions of
, for example, the photos we see on the Internet and on our mobile phones are all composed of pixels, and AI photography is composed of pixels. Everywhere is a pixel. If I can use AI to control these pixels, can we call it photography?
On the other hand, AI photography cannot replace experience for us. If we summarize photography as something that interacts with human emotions, for example, if I want to take a photo of a dying relative, those photos are precious to me, but if AI generates the same photo before death, then for me Say, what does it have to do with me? If understood from this aspect, then AI photography is not photography.
I donāt think I have the ability to answer this question. I can only say that he may be approximately equal to or similar to or may be.
Titanium Media: Will colleagues in the photography circle have such a debate on this?
Shen Siyuan: I donāt know about , because I am not recognized by the mainstream photography circle. I have never been recognized myself, so I donāt know how everyone thinks about this. Even I always say that sometimes I feel that I am not a photographer, or that I always feel that I am in a retired state. But let me think about it, I think it is a great and impactful thing for me.
Titanium Media: From the perspective of a professional photographer, what are the commercialization possibilities for works generated by AI painting software?
Shen Siyuan: Before , I made an advertisement for Tmall, which was made using AI. Tmall invited five or six artists to a dinner for Double 11. The artists came here at 6 o'clock that day to take some photos, and the results had to be produced directly at 8 o'clock in the evening. They wanted to put the posters on the subway, the large posters between the buildings. For screens, the production time may only take two or three hours. In this case, AI may be more convenient.
The price of the AI-related jobs I received was also very high, even higher than traditional photography. This is why I work for AI, and I will be "accepted" by whatever they produce.
Titanium Media: What AI creation tools are you using now? The current consensus among users is that prompt is important for the generated effect. Do you have any tips in this regard?
Shen Siyuan: I mainly use midjourney and runway for . As for what kind of effect is generated, I think it is based on my own aesthetics or aesthetic preferences. Keyword prompts and prompts are not that important. For me personally, the more important thing is the mat map. The meaning of
mat picture is simply that the picture makes the picture. You need to make a rough picture or draw a picture first. The rough outline and other aspects are almost completed. For example, if the leanness level is 100% but you get it to 20%, then upload it. This is called a cushion picture. Using text to generate pictures is actually only a part of the AI āāgeneration tool. If you only use pure text to generate something, it is called visual conversion, and the finished product is sometimes too uncontrollable. Especially in midjourney, if you want his arms to maintain the posture you want, you need to plan the arm posture in the picture when you draw it. But recently, tools for drawing graphics to directly generate AI have come out. You can just draw a frame, and then roughly where your arms are and what kind of hair you want, and the graphics can be generated directly for you in real time.
I think the overlay is definitely a direction more suitable for creators like me. The direction of text is actually more suitable for the public. Try it and play with it. It is a relatively simple operation, but I need precise control, or a certain kind of degree of control.
Shen Siyuan recently updated his personal social account to conduct a personal subjective comparison between the midjourney v6.0 version and the 5.2 version.
uses the same keywords to produce pictures using v6.0 and 5.2 respectively. v6.0 has been optimized on the character's face, some texture elements and picture details. The overall image style is more realistic and has a clearer picture. But also because the sharpness is higher and the algorithm is more rational, the picture changes from "a-like" to more like CG. v6.0 also does a better job on the cliche "fingers", but not much better.
Personally, I feel that v6.0 is not as good as 5.2 in the atmosphere, imagination, and "chaos" of the picture. The picture of 5.2 is softer, while v6.0 is more eye-catching; 5.2 is more like a movie picture, and 6.0 is more like a commercial advertisement. Therefore, if you want to generate more imaginative photos, you will still use version 5.2. To generate more realistic pictures, especially close-ups, try to use the v6.0 version
Titanium Media: There are many AI drawing tools that have lowered everyoneās creative threshold, but It is generally accepted that not everyone can become an artist by using these tools. There is still a big gap between artists and ordinary people. The tools are there, but who can create better is actually a question mark. What do you think of this view?
Shen Siyuan: Sometimes when creating , you have to do multiple-choice questions. Your choice is based on your aesthetics and experience, and then based on your knowledge of this matter. When we were young, we just looked at pictures. We might see thousands or 10,000 pictures every day, so when I give it a description, I have to know exactly how to judge it. For example, I need to know whether my picture is in the style of Roy Anderson or Bella. Ā·Tal's style is still Zhang Yimou's style. I have been doing this kind of judgment every day since I was young, so I definitely have an advantage in controlling midjourney.
Not everyone can do this, I believe this. And my workflow alone is also a set of workflows that have been in this market for more than 20 years. For example, based on experience, how many pictures do I need to create this picture? Sometimes more than 100 pictures may be generated, and I can select 20 from them, and then carefully select 14 pictures, and then modify them and unify the colors.
In the series of works that you have seen, it seems that the colors of every picture look similar, right? In fact, I slowly adjusted the various conditions myself, and then finally entered the runway, let him control the movements, and slowly tried to modify it bit by bit to make it meet my own standards. It looks very simple, but in fact it takes 1 to 2 days to sit there and repair it. Ordinary enthusiasts may not have that much time.
Titanium Media: Do you have any advice for some of the young photographers today? Would you recommend them to try AI?
Shen Siyuan: I donāt dare to say because I think people always scold me. When I give any advice, I have to bear the consequences. You donāt know how many consequences I have suffered. Now I donāt dare to give blind advice.
Just for example, I will tell a story about my friend, everyone knows it. My friend once said a very normal thing, that is, we should be very free in life and creation, and to achieve our dreams, just normal chicken soup and inspirational words, everyone understands. Then someone who was a civil servant in a state-owned enterprise or something resigned and said that I was inspired by your words and I wanted to follow you. After that, you said are you afraid or not? In fact, it means studying hard and making progress every day. (This article was first published by Titanium Media App Author | Jia Yuwei Editor | Qin Conghui)
