Exploring AI

Testing Photoshop’s Generative Fill feature

We want to begin marketing for theatre productions as early as possible to maximise publicity and ticket sales well in advance of the performances. In the case of Tartuffe we were planning the artwork at the very beginning of the production process, which is itself only six–eight weeks’ before the launch date. Set builds and costumes are often not supplied until much later in the process, so knowing that we would not have the use of such scenic items - a set, or costume for the leading character, we had to find other ways of communicating the themes and tone of the play.

For Tartuffe, the use of shamanic iconography gives a nod to the nature of the main character, whilst the actor’s smirk really conveys their sly charisma. The portrait itself was shot in the actor’s regular clothing, with the idea being that we can ‘fix’ this in editing, a perfect opportunity to test out Photoshop’s Generative Fill feature.

It took some experimentation with prompts to achieve the desired look, and some clean up editing also to fix areas of bleed around the actor’s face. My main concern was that the print quality would not be sufficient but the final pieces printed at A0 size with no discernible quality issues (granted, I added a soft focus and some colour toning to the final piece which would have masked some possible pixelation).

I won’t go into the ethics of AI imagery… or AI in general for that matter, but as a creative I do feel the need to embrace new technologies. I have used Generative Fill in other pieces where it has not been at all successful but for this project I found the results quite impressive and certainly provided a solution on this occasion.