Abstract:

The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming creative practices and raising new questions about authorship, originality, and aesthetic evaluation. As AI-driven tools increasingly shape media production processes, media and design education must expand their competency frameworks to include AI literacy. This study explores how students in an introductory photography course within higher design education perceive, evaluate, and critically reflect on AI-generated imagery.

Text-to-image models such as Midjourney have advanced rapidly in recent years and are significantly changing how digital images are produced. Artists including Boris Eldagsen, Paul Trillo, and Laen Sanches have integrated generative AI into their creative workflows, experimenting with new forms of image production and challenging established photographic conventions. As these tools become more accessible, they are increasingly entering media and design education.

In the photography course examined in this study, students first learned the foundations of photographic practice. During the first phase of the semester, they were introduced to camera operation, lens selection, exposure settings, and the deliberate use of light to shape images. Practical lighting exercises were combined with theoretical and historical perspectives on photography. Students also learned digital image editing, allowing them to understand the role of post-production in contemporary photographic workflows.

In the final phase of the course, generative AI was introduced through the image-generation tool Midjourney. Students explored the concept of prompting and experimented with how text inputs can generate photorealistic images that imitate photographic aesthetics. This shift from capturing images to generating them encouraged students to reflect on the differences between traditional photographic practice and AI-based image production.

Following this introduction, a survey was conducted with 39 students from the Digital Arts program who had participated in the course. The aim was to investigate how students position generative AI within photographic practice and whether they consider it a meaningful addition to their creative workflow. The questionnaire asked whether students would use tools such as Midjourney in their photographic process, which tasks they might delegate to AI systems, and which they would reject. It also explored whether students would feel equally like photographers when generating images through prompts rather than capturing them with a camera.

Preliminary results show a generally skeptical attitude toward the use of generative AI as a primary method of image creation. Many students emphasized that photography is closely connected to engaging with the real world, something they felt is lost when images are synthetically generated. However, students did recognize supportive uses of AI within the workflow, such as background masking, generating references, or assisting in early stages of ideation.

Overall, students described prompting and photographing as fundamentally different practices. While photography involves direct interaction with environments, equipment, and light, prompting was perceived as a more abstract, text-based activity. The presentation discusses these findings within broader debates on AI literacy and the evolving role of generative technologies in photography and design education.

Keywords:

AI Literacy, Photography Education, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Text-to-Image Models, Midjourney, Creative Practice, Design Education, Authorship.