Photographers who want to earn a portion of their living in the future creating images need to quickly learn and start using Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) skills. (See
this story)
In the not too distant future there will be no need to hire a product photographer to shoot pictures for a catalog or advertisement. Once a product has been created, or even a model made, it can be moved, altered, lit, and reused indefinitely to create photo realistic images of it in all types of space or background. If the color needs to be changed, or a scene needs to be lit differently, that can be easily done at any time up until going to print. And the costs will be much less than hiring a photographer to take some pictures.
People photography for commercial use may also soon disappear (See
this story). The image creator will no longer need to find models to photograph. All that will be needed is a computer, the right software and some technical skill.
The people the CGI artist has easy access to can be of any sex, race, ethnic group, adult, teenager or child, with any expression or dressed in any clothes. They will look as real – if not more so – than any human anyone would be able to can find on the street. No model releases will be required because none of these people will be real.
There may continue to be some work for news photographer who are actually supposed to be photographing real people doing real things, or real events actually happening. The problem, however, is that there will be so much FAKE, that no viewer will be able to be sure that what they are seeing is an accurate recording of something that happened, or something that is designed to totally mislead.
This change is taking place very rapidly, almost at warp speed.
People will still take pictures of their family and friends with their cell phone, but such images will be purely for personal remembrance. They won’t want to pay anyone to take these pictures. If they weren’t there when the picture was actually taken, they, or no one else, will be able to tell if the picture is actually real.