Imagen sounded too good to be true. Could I edit 100 photos in five minutes? With professional results? After doing event photography, I needed to edit 100 photos for my client quickly and professionally. Here’s a real-world example of how Imagen (formerly Imagen AI) worked.

Batch processing photos from event photography

I had a gig photographing people at a large gala fundraiser for Exceptional Children’s Foundation at Skirball Cultural Center. They provide high quality services for over 5,000 children and adults who are challenged with developmental, learning and emotional barriers. 

Over the course of the evening, I would take about 400 photos. I typically photographed groups of people three or four times to maximize the chances of everyone’s eyes being open. I figured there would be about 100 photos to process. 

Could Imagen speed up workflow?

Imagen describes itself as an “AI-powered batch photo editing desktop app for Adobe Lightroom Classic workflows” for both Mac and PC. And they’re not using “one size fits all” presets either, but true processing. 

How fast is it, you ask? Imagen says, “It depends on many factors of your edit, but our users report up to 4x speedup in their editing! Editors used to edit a wedding in an average of 14 hours, now take 3.5 hours to complete the same editing. It’s easy, high quality, and consistent.”

Also, I had read Bryan Esler’s review of Imagen on Photofocus. He was looking for a tool to dramatically speed up his workflow. His review sounded enticing. It sounded too good to be true.

Averting a snag!

I downloaded Imagen and fired it up. Imagen wanted to use a profile to batch process photos. However, I quickly found that Imagen wanted a minimum of 5,000 photos so it could machine learn my tendencies. Whoops. I had none. Zero. Almost all my photos were night photography photos!

At this point, you’re thinking, “Wait, you’re photographing millionaire donors at a gala fundraiser at a place like Skirball and you’ve never done event photography before?” Um, yeah. Guilty as charged. It’s alright. I knew I could do it.

After a minute pondering how to solve this riddle, I noticed that Imagen offered Talent Profiles. Yes! Free for the asking, Imagen offered several profiles to use. I chose two of them, Cinematic Luxury and Natural Feels, and downloaded them.

ImagenAI Home Page after choosing two Talent Profiles. Screenshot.
After initially wondering how to get around sharing 5000 of my photos so I could teach it my style, I ended up loading to AI Profiles, which Imagen offers for free.

Then I simply used the profile. Imagen was ridiculously easy to use. I had already “starred” the photos that I wanted processed in Lightroom after creating a catalog specifically for the gala fundraiser photos. I just simply uploaded them.

Naming and choosing LIghtroom photos in ImagenAI. Screenshot.
After choosing to edit through a Talent Profile, you name the project and choose with photos you wish to process. This reads Lightroom’s star and flag system as well as whether the photo is already edited or not. Then simply press the “ADD” button.
Uploading. ImagenAI screenshot.
After hitting the “ADD” button, the project uploads rather quickly.

Wait, it’s done already?

Download - ImagenAI screenshot.
Ready to download in just five minutes!

I went to get a quick drink. When I returned from the kitchen, my jaw dropped. All hundred photos were ready for downloading! Imagen took five minutes from the time I began the upload to the time that it said it was ready for download. Five minutes.

Imagen had notified me through the app as well as by email. I pressed Download Edits. This produced a warning box that said that it would overwrite all previous edits. No problem. I didn’t have any edits.

A dialogue box warning that downloading the edits will overwrite previous edits you’ve made in Lightroom.

Imagen also provided the means for me to launch the newly edited photos in Lightroom. Boom! Launched!

How did the photos look?

Although I leaned toward using the Natural Feels Profile, I had chosen Cinematic Luxury due to curiosity. Photographer and creator Charmi Patel-Pena describes it as “a soft and delicate aesthetic” while “the colors still manage to feel rich taking on the sheen of gemstones.” And of course, in a sweeping cinematic manner. 

How would this look with groups of people holding drinks and standing around tables? Surprisingly well, it turns out! The aesthetic was different from other event photographers who had worked for ECF. It was different from how I edit as well. However, ECF liked it. I went with it.

Above, you can compare the completely unprocessed photos (left) to how Imagen Cinematic Luxury interpreted it.

Did I have to process more?

In a word, no. I did anyway, but I would have felt totally comfortable submitting almost all of them as they turned out. Almost all the photos looked surprisingly great. 

While Imagen can also crop and straighten, I chose to do that myself. I also sharpened some of the photos, applied lens correction and lifted the shadows in some of the photos. But most of the heavy lifting had been done. 

Below are a few of the final processed photos.

ECF gala fundraising event at Skirball Cultural Center.
ECF gala fundraising event at Skirball Cultural Center. I edited this photo a little more, but Imagen had done most of the heavy lifting.
ECF gala fundraising event at Skirball Cultural Center.
ECF gala fundraising event at Skirball Cultural Center. I edited this photo a little more, but Imagen had done most of the heavy lifting.
ECF gala fundraising event at Skirball Cultural Center.
ECF gala fundraising event at Skirball Cultural Center. I edited this photo a little more, but Imagen had done most of the heavy lifting.

It works like magic

I rarely use the word “miraculous,” especially with software that makes bold claims. Imagen had sounded too good to be true. However, it exceeded my expectations. It speeds up the workflow dramatically. And it produces professional results. I am very impressed.

Ordinarily, if you sign up, they will process 1000 free edits. However, if you use this link, you will receive 500 additional free edits. After the free edits expire, you pay five cents or seven cents per edit, depending on what you wish them to do.