The concept that Suzanne, Zoey, and I are doing for the Media Literacy Project focuses on natural phenomena fauxtography. The idea that I chose to do was aurora lights being seen clearly in Charlotte as realistic as can be because nowadays, in the 21st century, we constantly consume images through social media, and with AI rising, it is getting tough to know what photos are real and what photos have been generated or altered with AI. The chances of the aurora lights happening in Charlotte are almost none. Although there were a couple of aurora light sightings in Charlotte last year in 2023, with the light pollution and clouds, it wasn't visible at all. Even if we didn't have to worry about light pollution or clouds, the aurora lights would have been vaguely visible in Charlotte.
The image of the Charlotte skyline is the photo that I've taken. The two different aurora lights and the people taking pictures of the sky are all AI-generated in Photoshop using the generative fill using prompts I typed out.
Dominique Rodriguez
ReplyDeleteFake it
Looking at this piece of work, we see the Charlotte city skyline with visible northern lights lighting up the city along with people taking pictures in the foreground. Middle ground contains the city buildings and the background has the northern lights. There is a very cool temperature in this work which contrasts with the building on the far left which I believe brings out the lights even more.
This work to me is about how the northern lights can be visible anywhere without the air pollution. The lights have never been seen this far south and being able to see them in Charlotte is almost unheard of, so with this image, it can be seen as a natural phenomenon to be able to see them from Charlotte. It can also be seen from a different perspective as if we stop the constant air pollution, we’d be able to experience something this amazing. Air pollution often tends to interfere with the sky’s view which is why you always have to go to the mountains or somewhere with zero air pollution to be able to see beautiful sights such as the milky way or the northern lights.
The technique in creating this image is extremely well done. The whole image looks very believable and all the elements combined give a great image. The people in the foreground were a great touch and the shadows and lighting for them make them seem as if they are in the image, I thought they were already in the image until I saw they were added. Adding on, Changing the lighting on their phones and making them darker helps with that aspect. I also notice the added shadow and lighting on the middle highest building that we all know but don't know that actual name. Adding the green light to it makes this much more believable.
When it comes to why, this image does a great job executing the deep fake propaganda. People who live in Charlotte may know that the lights are never visible here but this image can definitely have people second guessing themselves. The purpose of this is to show how easily something can be constructed to look real, which is what this photo does successfully. I think we are all living in a time where we tend to think that if it’s an image it must be real because it's on a polaroid, that because it is physically seen on something then it is true. This image, being as believable as it is, does a great job of misrepresenting what we can see.
All in all, I think that she did a wonderful job with this assignment. The picture itself looks very believable and it can definitely be seen as misleading. When I saw this picture, I thought it was real so the assignment was well executed. Everything blends well together and it looks very real through the screen.
-Madyson