AI in Photography and Fine Art with Adam Chin (Online Learning – Three sessions)

About

Online Learning

Explore the evolving intersection of photography, fine art, and artificial intelligence in this three-session online course focused on creative experimentation and process. Designed for artists ready to engage with emerging tools, this class emphasizes AI not just as a utility, but as a collaborative partner in image-making.

Students will work hands-on with platforms such as Midjourney, ComfyUI, Stable Diffusion, and Flux to generate, transform, and refine images. Students will learn common AI techniques such as image-to- image, consistent characters, upscaling, control nets, and LoRAs. Through guided exercises, participants will experiment hybrid approaches that merge original photographs with AI-generated elements. The course encourages exploration, play, and critical thinking around authorship, aesthetics, and the role of the artist when working with machine learning systems.

Across three two-hour sessions, students will develop a body of experimental work and a deeper understanding of how AI can expand their creative process. Group discussion and critique will support the development of individual approaches, with an emphasis on process and discovery.

Whether you’re a photographer, fine artist, or creative professional, this course offers a space to test ideas, challenge assumptions, and explore new visual possibilities at the frontier of art and technology.

NOTE: While the class is accessible to a range of creative artists, participants should be comfortable navigating new software and following technical demonstrations, as sessions will include practical setup and workflow guidance.

Adam Chin is a fine art photographer who spent a career as a computer graphics artist for TV, commercials, and film. He was one of the original employees of Pacific Data Images, a pioneering computer graphics studio which later became part of Dreamworks Animation. Adam did computer graphics lighting on the Shrek, Madagascar, How to Train Your Dragon, and Kung Fu Panda series of animated feature films.

Adam practices using Machine Learning neural networks trained on databases of real photography to render images. By augmenting traditional photography with neural networks, he is exploring the concept of how much information is contained in a given photograph.

Adam studied darkroom photography under Barry Umstead at Rayko Photography in San Francisco. From 1995-2000, he was a board member and chairperson of Intersection for the Arts, a multi- disciplinary arts organization in San Francisco.

In 2020, he was named one of the Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 photo portfolio award winners, and in 2022 he was a Critical Mass finalist. In 2022 he also won the 30 Over 50: In Context award from the Center for Fine Art Photography.

Adam also manages the photographic archive of his late uncle, Benjamen Chinn. Chinn was a student of Ansel Adams, Minor White, Imogene Cunningham, and Edward Weston, and he photographed San Francisco’s Chinatown and Paris in the late 1940’s and early 50’s.

Adam has a BS in Computer Science from Yale and a MS in Computer Science from Stanford. He lives in San Francisco.

View instructor profile here.

Details

• Three Sessions
• Dates: Wednesdays, July 15-29, 6 pm – 8 pm
• Enrollment Limit: 10 students
• Skill/Experience Level: Open to all levels.  A Mac laptop running the Chrome browser with at least an Apple Silicon M1 chip (2020) with 8GB of RAM and 40GB of free disk space. Students will need to sign up and subscribe to Midjourney before the class begins. ($30 per month)

• Tuition: $355 (Become a Member today and receive 5% – 20% off!)

• Location: Online

A details email complete with the Zoom link will be sent to the attendees prior to the start date. If you have additional questions please email info@lacphoto.org.

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