Adobe and UC Berkeley have teamed up to develop a new image editing method, and it’s got some intriguing implications. It’s called Generative Image Manipulation.It intelligently considers the original image and considers what you’re asking it to do and generates a new version on the fly. It’s pretty cool, and if you’re capable of implementing it (I’m not!) you can download the code and work with it yourself. Here’s the website with the complete paper and links for downloading, and here’s the demonstration video:

As I watched the demonstration video, I was reminded of a scene from the movie Willow when Willow is using magic to transform an animal into a series of different animals and finally into a woman. It looks to me like this new tool is exactly  that sort of magic. Willow was an important film because of its advances in special effects. I suspect that this new tool will give that sort of wizardry to the masses.

I know using this utilizing this code for the unrefined tool is currently beyond reach for most of us. I’d simply like you to consider what it might imply. Adobe has a history of making really cool technology accessible to people like us. How could you utilize this in your photography?

If you get this working, I’d love to see the results you make with it.