ACD Systems’s Refreshing Stance on Artificial Intelligence in Photo Editing
The team from ACD Systems, maker of ACDSee post-processing software, took time out of their busy schedules to give PetaPixel the full rundown on the company’s approach to the ethics of artificial intelligence.
Full disclosure: This article is brought to you by ACD Systems
I recently had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Mark Cosgrove, the Vice President of Product Development at ACD Systems and Daniel Howill, the Team Lead and Product Manager.
We regularly speak with companies regarding the rapidly changing atmosphere around artificial intelligence, not just reporting on breaking news as the latest tools are released but also what’s going on behind the scenes. It’s crucial to share with readers these companies’ ethics, things to look out for, and privacy concerns to help protect photographers in the industry as this emerging technology develops.
To that end, my conversation with ACD Systems centered around its approach to artificial intelligence (AI) and how it is utilizing AI in the latest iteration of its software as well as where the company stands on sensitive topics such as training AI models, user data use, and privacy.
The simple answer is that ACD Systems takes a customer-driven, ethical stance that secures customer’s data and relies upon local, on-device processing.
‘Nothing’s Getting Sent To ACDSee Servers’
The thing about many competing AI apps these days is that you upload your photos into the cloud using the application. The tricky part about it is not every company has the same standards of ethics, some of them are using your data, and some of them are not. Unfortunately, because they all have different rules about how they handle this, it’s up to the consumer to understand every single app that you use and read those terms and conditions or at least research it.
Fortunately, users do not have to worry about ACDSee since its AI is baked into the app, which runs locally on your computer. Howill and Cosgrove both confirmed that none of ACDSee’s tools utilize the cloud to perform AI actions. In fact, users do not even share their images with ACDSee at all as everything is run on the user’s computer.
‘We Take Copyright and Artist Rights Seriously’
As for training its AI, a hot topic across the photo and tech industries right now, ACD Systems assures photographers that it takes a similar stance of respecting customer data and only utilizing AI to provide a service, to give, not take. Rather than train on user data, the company uses other proprietary methods, fully maintaining user privacy and autonomy over their work.
When asked how ACD Systems ensures photographers’ images and data are not used without permission or misused in this process, Howill explains that ACD Systems is “very mindful” of its approach to data and takes copyright and artist’s rights “seriously,” reiterating that the company’s stance on running tools locally is intended to give users peace of mind.
Additionally, ACDSee, as a post-processing app, does not utilize a catalog-based system, meaning it’s not like Lightroom where you have to upload your photographs into a catalog file or cloud catalog; then, when you want to use a finished image, you have to export and save it. With ACDSee, photographers can use the files already saved on their internal or external hard drive.
Customer Driven, Service Based Approach
This simple yet effective approach to AI is borne out of ACD Systems’ company culture and atmosphere; they are a small team with an active following. ACD creative software as a post-processing app has existed since 1994 and has a passionate fan base. It incorporated artificial intelligence into the software to keep up with technological advances and out of the desire to serve its photographers by listening to their needs and finding solutions to save time and make post-processing less of a chore.
“As we know, AI is the future. If you’re not at least pushing the envelope there, you’re going to be left behind,” Howill says.
Time is a precious commodity for creatives, and ACD Systems’s approach to AI aims to give users some of that time back, to focus more on creating rather than performing the tedious editing tasks. The team views AI as an artificial assistant, just there to help.
In addition to writing for PetaPixel, as a photographer myself, I can relate to using tools to help in one’s workflow, especially for photoshoots with a large number of images. I would rather have more time for taking photos than sitting at my desk.
User-Friendly Workflow
ACDSee is also not an oil and water situation when it comes to utilizing multiple different companies’ apps to service your workflow, for example you can bounce back and forth between ACDSee and Photoshop with ease. Similar to its user-friendly approach to AI, it also has a customer-first approach to not locking you into the ACD Systems ecosystem.
Howill explains that ACDSee has a full layered editor within the app that he likens to a Photoshop “light” in addition to a Lightroom-like aspect with its develop mode. With both integrated into one package, users can enjoy a simple all-in-one experience.
At the same time, Cosgrove added that there are options with the ability to bounce between external editors like Photoshop using the main interface. The theme of user-friendly design really allows users to adapt ACDSee to their workflow and preferences, whether for its browsing capability, digital asset management, or editing abilities.
ACDSee’s AI Tools
ACDSee’s AI-based tools are centered on solving common problems and saving photographers time. AI tools including things like sky replacement, making complex selections, retouching portraits, and advanced editing with AI Keywords, AI Face Detection and Facial Recognition, AI Super-Resolution, AI Sky Replacement Software, AI Face Edit, non-destructive RAW editing with AI Photo Editing Tools, and AI actions with Advanced Photo Manipulation.
Another tool customers appreciate even if they use multiple different software in their post processing workflow is Light EQ. This tool is similar to HDR with more nuance, pulling data out of areas of your image. It’s commonly used to fix blown out sections or brighten harsh shadows. Unlike just a highlight or Shadow slider, Light EQ is a smarter tool to apply dynamic range adjustments to lights, mids, darks, and equalize the scene by analyzing the entire composition. There are also a number of sliders to fine-tune its automatic selection to your taste.
In addition to AI selections, ACD Systems also developed AI to handle Digital Asset Management (DAM). As veteran photographers know, it is easy to amass a vast collection of files and photos. DAM is the concept of managing your files, and ACDSee offers sophisticated AI tools to help photographers find the perfect photo in seconds.
With AI Keywords, ACDSee analyzes a person’s photos, identifying key aspects such as subject matter and automatically applying the keywords. Now with a simple word search, the app can quickly show a photographer all of their photos of a specific subject (like cat) or scene (such as beach). It also includes face detection and recognition, which could be a boon for many working pros. The AI keywording and face recognition are performed without manual user input with some exceptions. Users will need to label individual people’s names, of course.
“Our goal is to continue to make AI a smart assistant, basically one that speeds up editing and improves organization, like photo culling. We’re always looking at more ways to help photographers find what the good photos are in their collection,” Howill explains.
Navigating Rapidly Changing Technology and Customer Needs
Looking ahead, both Cosgrove and Howill referred to their active customer base as driving factors in the direction of ACDSee’s future developments.
“We have a very active forum on our website. You’ll get good conversations. We have some really experienced 25 year long customers that are on that forum every day helping new users out,” Howill says.
Howill describes a constant flow of information and ideas at ACD Systems. It’s not unusual for Cosgrove or someone else to share new customer support or forum posts and discuss how the company may want to react through product developments and updates.
The photo editing landscape changes quickly and frequently, and ACD Systems believes it is in a great position to respond to photographers’ needs as they evolve alongside the broader technology.
Full disclosure: This article is brought to you by ACD Systems
Image credits: ACD Systems
