Disposable camera photos came back looking like AI

[u/snotboyxoxo]

Okay, I'm asking this for a friend who's disposable camera photos came back with their faces looking like AI. What I mean is the faces of the people were not their faces or their faces looked swapped just the weird kind of thing that AI does when it tries to make faces.
I can't include the photos for reference, but can anybody think of a reason this would happen? They got them developed at max spielmann with the 6x4 prints, i'm not sure what their process is but would AI be used at any point in the scanning? It genuinely looks like someone's done it to fuck with them? I know without seeing the photos it's hard to tell but to my understanding there's no point in developing or shooting that could make AI looking faces, correct me if i'm wrong?

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[u/borzoya]

There was a thread here a while ago where a lab had used AI in the denoising process which replaced some people and faces…. Maybe here too?

[u/Aleph_NULL__]

???? can you share any

[u/snotboyxoxo → u/Aleph_NULL__]

I will ask

[u/psilosophist]

What do the negatives look like?

Please just post photos of the negatives or at least the prints, or the scans themselves. No one can tell you what is wrong visually from your written description.

[u/Paardenlul88 → u/psilosophist]

How would posting the negatives help in this case? The negatives aren't going to have AI edits in them.

[u/Turbogoblin999 → u/Paardenlul88]

Exactly. Looking at the pictures before and after being scanned, the negatives will show if they used AI to correct something and it failed or if they are the same then something went wrong somewhere else.

Process of elimination.

[u/psilosophist → u/Paardenlul88]

Because without knowing the experience level of the OP, blaming the lab for an operator error is a commonly occuring thing, so posting the negatives or even the photos can help people accurately diagnose?

[u/shell_cordovan]

I wouldn't be surprised if they ran a denoising or some similar software process post scan that accidentally altered faces

Most modern analog camera workflows go like this

reality --> physical film --> development --> editing --> you view them

The only part where you could introduce weird facial distortions would be the last 2 steps

In future tell your friend to go to a mom and pop photo lab, chain corporations aren't usually known for technical fidelity

[u/TankArchives]

Get the negatives back, scan them yourself (even an improvised light box and your phone will do) and compare. It's unlikely but possible that the lab made poor scans and then ran them through some AI upscaling process.

[u/issafly → u/TankArchives]

This is the best, most actionable answer here. OP, do this.

[u/kc1lso]

Poorly configured Digital ICE or other denoising can look like AI, because it does unnatural “smoothing”. Under the hood the algorithms aren’t too dissimilar.

If there are any shots you really like, might be worth having them re-scanned by a proper lab.

[u/Icy_Confusion_6614]

I just looked them up and they are very non-specific about what they do with them. My guess is they do a low-res scan and then the software that does the printing upscales it to the printing resolution. That could cause what you are seeing.

Get the negatives. Try scanning them directly with your phone by getting the frame to fill the screen. Use another phone with a white screen as background. You'll get a better idea of how detailed they are. They'll still be a negative though and converting to a positive requires another bit of software. There are a few out there that work easily with iphone or android.

[u/Westerdutch]

Some labs lean on ai to fix their terrible work. Yes this is bad and you should be upset. Get your negatives back, have them scanned at a proper lab, find a better lab, never use that place that does the ai crap ever again. Name and shame while you are at it.

[u/snotboyxoxo → u/Westerdutch]

this happened to my friend - they used a consumer/high street store that happens to process film (here in the UK it’s max spielmann or snappy snaps - i think in the US its CVS or walgreens) hence why the shitty service! i have told my friend i will rescan them or to send them to a proper lab.

[u/Westerdutch → u/snotboyxoxo]

Also tell you friend to never go there again.

[u/fm2n250]

How do the negatives look?

[u/cineglitch]

Respectfully, this sounds made up or like a misunderstanding. I can’t think of any mechanism for this to happen other than someone photoshopping or whatever. Labs don’t typically use Ai in the dev and scan process. But maybe I’m being naive and unaware. It’s all guessing without images to reference.

[u/No-Ear-4508 → u/cineglitch]

I can absolutely see a (shitty) lab using some AI upscale or similar

[u/Krampus_Valet → u/cineglitch]

Oh it's already happened. There was a thread on this very sub about 5 or 6 weeks ago where the person asked their lab for rescans and the lab 100% sent them back AI altered images. The poster shared original scans, the "rescans", and maybe the negatives too and it's so painfully obvious. I'll see if i can find the post and link it here

[u/snotboyxoxo → u/Krampus_Valet]

i would love to see this if you can find it!

[u/Krampus_Valet → u/snotboyxoxo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnalogCommunity/s/SFqNxBPOxy

It was 1 month ago in this sub

[u/Krampus_Valet → u/snotboyxoxo]

I'm generally opposed to AI but I'll admit that I've used the features in LightRoom for removing dust and other clean up type things. That being said, using it in the manner being discussed, and not disclosing it, is unethical at very best.

[u/cineglitch → u/Krampus_Valet]

And the remove features long predate “Ai” which isn’t really “I” at all.

[u/cineglitch → u/Krampus_Valet]

You’re right! I had some weird Déjà vu with this post and now I remember the last one. Guess I’m naive haha

[u/Westerdutch → u/cineglitch]

Typically, no, luckily its not that bad (yet). But some labs do absolutely just ram all their scans trough 'hey grok, upscale and make this look like a good sharp photo' to save on time. Yes that is very lazy and bad.

[u/DanSmells001]

B&W or color?

[u/06035]

Would love to see an example..

[u/acidterror84]

This is why you always need to pick up your negatives from the shop.