2025-11

4th November 2025

With a Little Help from My Friends

The posts in this blog are almost all about the nature we see in Israel, with an occasional comment or two concerning current events that we experience. All the photos in the blog were taken by me (with the exception of just one or two, which I indicate are from other sources).

This post is going to be quite different. First, it is not specifically about nature – it relates to an ethical dilemma, as I will explain. Also, one of the photographs is not entirely my own work – it has been enhanced with the use of AI, artificial intelligence.

During a trip to the Hula Valley, I photographed a marsh harrier. It’s a wonderful bird and not a bad photograph. However, the bird was in flight at quite some distance above the ground, so the photo is far from perfect. The bird isn’t completely sharp, particularly around the edges of its wings, and the bird’s eye isn’t as clear as I would like. All in all, the definition could be considerably better. But I’m not a professional photographer, and though I have a good camera, it’s not one that a professional would use. It’s not a bad photo, but for sure not a prize winner.

A friend told me that AI can enhance a photo really well, so I submitted my photo to ChatGPT (the free version) and was really impressed by the results. You won’t need me to tell you which is my photo and which is ChatGPT’s version. But hasn’t it done well? It really is the same photo, but with the definition and sharpness improved considerably. It is my photo with a little bit of help from my friends (as Lennon and McCartney would say).

I would have been truly proud to take such a photo – but I didn’t. And though I could include it as my work, would it be right to do so? Ethically, for sure, it wouldn’t be right – unless, of course, I were to declare that the photo was enhanced with AI.

You might ask me whether it’s any worse to use AI than to use the sophisticated built-in tools within my camera, such as ‘image stabilisation’, which I don’t give credit to for improving my photos. Or if it is worse than using Lightroom or other such software to manipulate the image after the camera has finished its work.

Let me declare that I do indeed use Lightroom (as very many photographers do), which enables me to make minor tweaks to sharpen the image and/or to adjust the intensity of the whites. In fact, my camera is set to produce ‘raw’ images rather than JPEG images, because raw images keep all the data that the sensor records, whereas JPEG files are compressed and compacted to allow them to be conveniently distributed. So, for example, I have greater control over the white balance in a raw file.

Likewise, my poems are my own work; they are not written or improved by using AI – there would be no satisfaction whatsoever in my computer producing a really great poem, which it could certainly do.

I have thought long and hard about whether to use AI to enhance my images, and I have decided that I will not. If I were to do so, I might just as well use someone else’s photos to illustrate my blogs. So what I’m presenting to you is my work – my writing and my photos – albeit photos that are adjusted in a very minor way.