Quote from: LASteve on December 09, 2025, 03:02:03 AMI'm sorry this thread became a little dark, not the intent.

Good comedy is often on the edge of dark thoughts.

The thread has been very thought provoking, as well as being the first time I've seen some "AI" photos without the usual faults like people with 3 arms or 6 fingered hands. (That'll be the "Norfolk'n'Good AI".)

As stated, it's a bit of fun, but it has pushed me to look into it. As a result, I'll be taking a 4F, BG coach and snowplough to the club on Wednesday with a view to creating a view of the club layout which I can add snow to and make an e Christmas card to send out to all our members.

Granted its all been a light hearted bit of fun, but what if rather than tutu's the instruction was to make the group in the photo naturists and remove all clothing...possibly with genitalia blurred as its a family forum... It might make a few people chuckle, but those "victims" in the image might think otherwise..

What's concerning me is how quick AI is progressing now that its freely available.  Soon it will be designing the next level of data centres to take AI to a new level.. some of those sci-fi films like I-Robot could well become reality.

As I said in my posts with the James Street snow pics I'm a Luddite with regard to AI. However, I do think it is possible to go a bit over the top with complete rejection of it. Yes, it COULD make you naked, it COULD be used for harm, but so can a car, a gun, drugs, social media, war, etc, pick your own choice of harmful things that we have become accustomed to. Keep your head down, don't go broadcasting your life on social media and try to avoid getting whipped up into a frenzy by click bait headlines on TV, internet or newspapers.......thats my recipe for a better life!

Dave

As they said in the excellent Full Monty movie, "Just think of the most boring thing you can think of"

A Dire Staits double album!

Quote from: Bealman on December 09, 2025, 11:12:36 AMAs they said in the excellent Full Monty movie, "Just think of the most boring thing you can think of"

A Dire Staits double album!

Heathens 

Quote from: Bealman on December 09, 2025, 11:12:36 AMA Dire Staits double album!

See what happens when you use AI spellcheck? Not to be trusted ...

Ooops, it's worse than that - that was my own doing, completely unassisted by spell check or AI!

In a possibly vain attempt to get this thread back on track, here is a photo of LNER Class J72 number 68736 that I took at Newcastle Central Station back in the winter of 1962 when I would have been nine years old. 

This locomotive acted as station pilot at York before transferring to Newcastle in 1961.  It has been painted in NER green and carried both the NER emblem and the BR crest. 

Dapol is planning to release this model in the same livery and I have already got mine on pre-order. 

Thanks to AI, I have been able to colourise this photo to remind me what the prototype looked like and I will probably make a print of this colour photo for my railway room.  This is what I see as one of the benefits of AI. 

It is a pity that I did not manage to get the entire loco in the photo.  Well, I was only nine! 

Ian

P.S.  I did specify that the loco be colourised in NER green but the result is possibly a little dark.  But I still like it!

Nicely done! Which AI tool did you use? It's interesting to compare the merits/demerits of each.

Quote from: LASteve on December 09, 2025, 10:06:46 PMNicely done! Which AI tool did you use? It's interesting to compare the merits/demerits of each.

@LASteve

I took your advice in Post #7 above and used Google Gemini. 

However, I found that several iterations were necessary to achieve the final result. 

I started off by issuing the command "Colourise this photo."  The result was a loco in LMS red (similar to Newportnobby's DMU photo in post#16). 

So, I became more specific with my next command: "Colorise the locomotive in this photo North Eastern Railway green." 

This was a better result but the boiler remained uncoloured. 

I then stated (using the colourised photo): "Colourise the locomotive boiler North Eastern Railway green but leave the smokebox and chimney black." 

This produced a good result but I was not satisfied with one detail, so I gave the instruction to "Colourise the lion inside the emblem on the right of the number 68736 dull red."  And, Hey Presto, it did it! 

I tried several other commands to colourise the locomotive (a) Saxony green, (b) lighter green, and finally, (c) lime green.  None of these had the desired effect of getting the loco colour a bit lighter.

But overall, I am pleased with the result.  Probably more details could be done with additional specific commands.

Thanks for the idea to use Google Gemini, Steve! 

Ian

It's interesting that it's followed your instructions to the letter - the surrounding areas including the train are virtually untouched.

I'm currently 2/3rds way thru an OU photography course "Creating and sharing better images" - which explores the use of Digital Darkrooms and digital cameras. As an established 35mm 'operator' this has been mind boggling to find how far from reality one can actually 'push' a photograph!
Without using AI, which must have parameters or algorithms limiting the range of tweaks, there are ample opportunities to 'push' photos from their origin into another dimension. I'm using an iPad and the Apple photos controls but it's not limiting the scope to change images.
You might need an Apple Pencil if you want to colour bits where the AI does this for you, however the pencil can be loaded with more precise colours from a large palette. It could boil down to 'horses for courses' as I can appreciate the coloured versions of B&W images and films as an improvement in the presentation.
As the layout progresses I'll try and produce some improved photos to accompany postings - OU course ends in January '26 and layout activity recommences

Quote from: Greygreaser on December 10, 2025, 08:14:00 PMWithout using AI, which must have parameters or algorithms limiting the range of tweaks ...

It's more the opposite, you can get AI to pretty much replace the original with something entirely different; it's all about the prompts you give it.

It's interesting that you're using Apple Photo for some judicious editing. I've done the same thing in Photoshop to take "noise" out of vacation pictures - for example I had a photo of St. Paul's Cathedral taken very early in the morning as the sun was coming up from across the Millenium Brdge. Unfortunately it looked like two tower cranes were growing out of the dome so I cropped those out. The latest version of Photoshop has what they call "Generative Fill" which does the same thing with AI, just a whole lot quicker.



Look Ma, no cranes!

Quote from: Greygreaser on December 10, 2025, 08:14:00 PMYou might need an Apple Pencil if you want to colour bits where the AI does this for you, however the pencil can be loaded with more precise colours from a large palette.

I was never any good at staying within the lines in 'painting by numbers'