In today’s world of socially shared imagessure win ph, the urge to post a “perfect” photo, free of distractions and blemishes, is nothing new — the practice of manipulating photographs can be traced back to the 19th century. But instead of using laborious darkroom techniques and other manual methods, artificial intelligence and machine learning built into sophisticated smartphone apps now makes it easy for anyone to significantly alter a digital picture.

Vanity-driven repairs are popular, but A.I.-powered editing can even fix fuzzy focus or entirely remove that inebriated fellow photobombing your family beach portrait with just a few screen taps. Here’s an overview of what you can do.

How It Works

In a nutshell, apps that incorporate A.I. tools typically analyze an image and make adjustments based on what an aesthetically pleasing photograph is supposed to look like — sometimes even as you capture the picture and the camera software is processing the file.

ImageSmartphone cameras and photo-editing software have become increasingly sophisticated and use A.I. to analyze and enhance images. From left, Google Photos on a Pixel 7, a setting for iOS Camera on an iPhone 14 and the TouchRetouch app, which works on Android and iOS devices.Credit...Google; Apple; TouchRetouch

A.I. software can detect the subject of a photo and automatically enhance the light and color around it. If you want to remove an object from the photo, the software copies the pixels in one part of the image and uses them to blend and fill in the background where that object used to be.

What You Need

Phones from Apple, Google and Samsung include the company’s own photo-editing apps that use A.I. to enhance pictures, but you may get additional features based on your hardware model.

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