Fusing photography and AI

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — People have been touching up photographs for nearly as long as the visual art form has existed.

But a Sioux Falls photographer is now using AI to completely re-imagine portraits, blending traditional photography with artistic vision.

Rod Evans is no stranger to a camera.

“So, I’ve been doing photography probably around 30 years now,” Evans Portraits owner Rod Evans said.

The owner of Evans Portraits in downtown Sioux Falls says he’s known for doing family and painted portraits.

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“Portraits that are called legacy portraits, large portraits for your home that really make a statement and tell a story about you or your family,” Evans said.

As good as Evans is at his job, he decided to step outside his comfort zone.

“FUZE is a terminology that I use for hybrid art I’ve created,” Evans said.

It’s photography with an assist from artificial intelligence.

“As a photographer, it’s important to me to have a good representation of who I’m creating, their pose, their expression, that it’s the real person I’m photographing, but then fusing in the best of what AI can do,” Evans said.

After testing more than 100 AI programs, Evans now uses six AI image generation software for each image he creates.

“Backgrounds, scenes, props, even clothing, so it’s assisting me in creating the vision that I have for my clients,” Evans said.

“He’s such an incredible artist and it’s amazing to see the talent that he has to take me looking like this to these elaborate portraits that he’s able to make,” Sioux Falls resident Suzie O’Meara Hernes said.

Sioux Falls resident Suzie O’Meara Hernes is a longtime client of Evans.

“We were talking about different art that I had been looking at and he said ‘why don’t we create something with you in it?’,” O’Meara Hernes said.

He then told her about FUZE.

“I thought he was a little bit crazy (laughs), that you can do what?” O’Meara Hernes said.

But she trusted his artistic ability.

“He’s taken our family portraits a couple of different times and just fascinating as the work that he creates, so I was trusting in that, in his vision, but I also thought it was a little bit crazy as to what he can take from just a casual look to a glamorous portrait painting,” O’Meara Hernes said.

Evans believes he’s the only professional photographer in the country fusing images with AI at this level. He starts by sitting down with a client about their vision and taste in art.

“Whether it’s classic or modern or what will look best in their home,” Evans said.

They then make their way to the studio.

“I’ll bring them back for a portrait study where I’ll photograph them in various poses that are natural and comfortable and bring out the best of them,” Evans said.

Evans then presents the client with a sketch.

“I design an idea of what I want them to do, I show them what the clothing is going to look like, what the background is going to look like, the cropping of the image, the colors that I’m planning on using, and then from that once they see that and approve that, we move on to the painting,” Evans said.

He completes the process using AI technology, before printing the image on canvas. But that’s not where the process ends.

“I hand embellish it, so I go back in and hand embellish it. Every element is crafted perfectly to what I envisioned it to be, then I frame it and then it’s installed in their home,” Evans said.

“It is absolutely worth the time, the trust, and the investment,” O’Meara Hernes said.

After decades in the business, it was a life-changing event that spurred Evans to take a chance on AI.

“The reason I went into this is kind of unexpected. So, I had a massive heart attack,” Evans said.

That was two years ago, and led to a five-valve replacement surgery. He had a stroke during that procedure and even lost some vision in each eye. It was an experience that left Evans reevaluating his life.

“I had a list of things on my bucket list, Travis, that I wanted to create and I’m like ‘why haven’t I created them?’, well I have all these limitations of doing them, scenes, sets, gowns, all the things that were just limiting me to create these pieces and I found a way to overcome those hurdles to create these pieces that I’ve always wanted to create,” Evans said.

The biggest challenge at this point is keeping up with the technology.

“It’s just like South Dakota weather, if you don’t like it stay an hour, it will change, and AIs the same way, in the next hour there will be another AI or another process that will allow you to do it,” Evans said.

It’s a product he never thought he’d use and now couldn’t live without.

“If I can tell that story of overcoming or success or a vision a person has in a portrait painting, that’s what I really want to do and I want that for everyone, to tell that story in a beautiful, meaningful piece,” Evans said.

Evans says the final product ends up being about 30-percent photograph, including a person’s body shape and features, and 70 percent AI.

If you’d like to connect with Evans Portraits about the FUZE process, click HERE.