I Let Gemini Edit My Travel Photos — And It Surpassed Expectations

Enhancing Travel Photos with Gemini AI

Google's Gemini AI has significantly improved its capabilities when it comes to photo editing, and the best part is that it's now free for everyone. I've been accumulating a large number of travel photos over the past two years, which means there are hundreds of images that need some attention before they can be added to my digital photo library for safekeeping.

Initially, I wasn't very optimistic about Gemini's ability to edit photos, especially considering that AI image generation still has challenges with certain elements like hands. However, this process is more about adjusting brightness, contrast, saturation, and color filters in existing images. Despite my doubts, after testing 20 of my travel photos, I realized that Gemini might actually be better at editing than I am.

The Testing Process

Why would I let Gemini handle the photo editing if I can do it myself? Well, I have a lot of travel photos that need editing, and I don’t have the time to do it all manually. My travel photos aren’t exactly winning photography contests, and I usually use them for personal projects or occasionally post a few on social media. This made it a worthwhile experiment, especially since I can no longer use my favorite photo editing application, and GIMP just doesn’t offer the same experience.

Despite my initial skepticism, I decided to test Gemini by selecting an assortment of 20 travel photos from different locations, including underwater shots of coral formations and sea creatures, landscape photos, and animal pictures. I felt this was a good balance between security and experimentation.

Instead of giving specific commands, I opted for a general prompt, asking Gemini to prepare the photos for Instagram. I expected the above-water photos to be easier for Gemini to edit, while the underwater ones would pose more challenges due to light filtration and color loss.

How to Use Gemini for Photo Editing

Getting Gemini to edit your photos is straightforward. One of the easiest ways is to install the Gemini app and upload the photos directly. This allows me to upload them straight from my iPhone without going through extra steps like copying from an SD card or emailing them to myself.

It’s important to note that if you're using Google Photos, it might default to Google's Magic Editor instead of Gemini's AI editing. While not a bad feature, it’s not quite the same technology.

Land-Bound Edits

Editing my land-bound travel photos with Gemini was effortless. Loading them into the app took just moments, and the edited versions were returned almost instantly. Although the RAW images weren’t in terrible condition, they could use some tweaks to stand out more. I typically adjust brightness, contrast, and color levels, and sometimes add a filter for Instagram.

Gemini’s edits were mostly subtle, with improved lighting and contrast, along with gentle filters. Some photos looked barely edited, which might reflect the quality of my phone camera.

Underwater Edits

Gemini struggled a bit with my underwater photos. These images include coral formations, fish, and crustaceans, but they suffer from color distortion due to light refraction in water. My underwater camera, an older SeaLife DC2000, isn’t the best, and my smartphone probably has a better camera.

Despite these challenges, Gemini did an admirable job with my photos of juvenile spotted drum fish, flounder, trunk fish, stonefish, and coral. However, the AI took longer to edit this batch, and the colors and lighting could use some improvement. Each prompt to tweak the edits took more time than doing it manually.

Can Gemini Replace Photoshop?

In short, no. Adobe's Photoshop remains the industry standard for photo editing, offering features that Gemini can't match. However, for casual users, Gemini's editing capabilities could be sufficient for preparing photos for social media.

For me, I may use Gemini for batch editing in the future, particularly for animal and landscape photos. I tend to post my travel photos on social media, where they’re often indexed by AI systems anyway, and I’m not too concerned about copyright issues. Still, I avoid uploading photos with people in them to Gemini for editing.

The main drawback of using Gemini is that it adds a watermark in the lower right-hand corner, indicating the photo was edited with AI.