Is AI killing advertising photography?

Thank you to Grant Campbell for his generous words in this film, and to Laura Hamilton at Korn Ferry for commissioning me on this unusually complex government project.

This assignment is a useful example of how the discipline is changing. Not just in output, but in how work is planned and executed.

I was asked to produce both portraits and video of military personnel against a green screen, enabling us to easily change the background to AI generated military environments.

Combining stills and motion in one production creates a structural challenge. For stills, I prefer flash for precision, sharpness and colour accuracy. Film requires continuous light and a different exposure approach. The same camera effectively becomes a different system.

The solution is orchestration. Lighting has to work for both disciplines at once.

Our goal was to create a soft, directional light that felt convincingly outdoor. The setup required to achieve that was significant.

Conrad Atton played a key role here, combining continuous lighting with AI-generated mock-up environments. This gave us something that is often missing in these productions: context.

The final backgrounds were added in post, but without reference imagery there is uncertainty at every stage. By generating scenes in AI, we were able to direct with intent. The client could see the direction, the subjects understood their environment, and the lighting could be shaped with the final result in mind.

There was also a practical advantage. By constructing environments artificially, we avoided exposing sensitive locations or revealing details that would not be appropriate to capture in a live military setting. In this context, AI acts as a control mechanism as much as a creative tool.

AI is not replacing photography. It is reducing ambiguity and enabling work that would otherwise be constrained.

Advertising photography is becoming more demanding in this environment. For photographers who can adapt to AI-led workflows, it’s not a threat but an opportunity to extend both control and value.

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