Show HN: AI-powered batch photo editor for real estate photographers (4ditor.com)
I got tired of repetitive editing tasks, so I built a tool that simplifies bulk edits using text prompts and AI workflows.
Now I can quickly handle things like virtual staging, changing backgrounds, adding/removing objects, adjusting brightness and exposure, color corrections, boosting contrast and clarity, fixing distortions, batch color grading and much more!
But most importantly, I can do this to all selected images, tens, hundreds or more.
I'm particularly interested in feedback on the workflow and UI from photographers/editors who handle large volumes of images.
I've increased the free plan credits to 40 so you can edit up to 40 images, if you'd like to help me trial it out.
Otherwise I'm happy to answer any questions about the implementation or roadmap.
15 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 48.7 ms ] threadNot one of the photos stays true to reality. I know AI will get better and more accurate and make less mistakes, but the end state is the platforms, or sellers, saying "Eh, let's just cover up that little hole or up the quality of the flooring or remove that branch that obscures the view."
Outside scenery is even worse with different seasons, it's ridiculous some times. But we've found for the most part, it tends to get it right. The other good thing is it's not a one shot thing, you get to keep revising it until it looks exactly as you'd want it. You can even target specific areas of the image you'd like to see and edit that part.
Now unfortunately some people will take this too far and cover up every hole and crack, completely obfuscating reality. That will be the unfortunate outcome from some
(When renters might be deciding entirely from photos, or be over a barrel when they arrive in town the last week of August, and are told to show up for a 5-minute tour with their checkbook in hand).
I'm starting to see people using photo enhancement for old apartments here in Boston, to obscure the condition of the apartment.
Originally, it was just the superwide shots that made the space look much bigger than it is. (Incidentally, be careful when removing distortion cues that this is going on, or you might make it even more deceptive.)
Then it started doing generated "staged" furniture and decorations, which are still fairly innocuous, although they can potentially cover up problems with condition and quirky architecture.
But now, with all-out "AI-filtered" "photos" (or sometimes 3D renders, like for new-construction apartment floorplans), you can't necessarily tell that a $3K 1BR is 150 years old, and minimally maintained, with grime that can't be cleaned, and suspended ceiling panels hiding the collapsed original ceiling, and the only renovation in the last few decades was a can of paint sloshed onto unfinished sheet of plywood wall from a budget apartment conversion.
Given, some people will use this to deceive their customers by blowing things out of current proportions but we can't help much in that case. Should I find any way to help though, I shall!
My impression is that the people that would be willing to pay for this, are the top producers who are likely to have a professional photographer doing it anyway. And the people who need it the most are the ones who seem to be the most thrifty -- the long-tail that aren't top producers. Maybe there's a middle ground in that grey area there that they're targeting?
(For reference: I'm head sys admin for an MLS; in the arena but not directly working with agents)
A good number of photographers are already paying a big deal of money for different services to help them get professional photos, and a good number outsource editing - and it's quite pricey. So we're targeting this demographic so we can do some of that work for them. Granted, we will not do everything they have been getting professional editors do, but we should get them somewhere that is good enough for most people. Same thing for realtors.
With this, you're giving over the control of that choice to improve a photo to a system that is difficult to align. Let's give a scenario. The AI improves the photo by inserting power outlets where they are not. Or removes some sign of rotting wood on an exterior feature that later causes injury. Both the sellers and owners could reasonably have a cause of action against you for fraudulent manipulation of the truth.
If it was something much smaller than a house, I'd be less worried about it. But you're targeting the largest purchase someone is likely to make in their lifetime generally.
Obviously, there's lots of things that happen when buying a house that that mitigate this sort of problem, but as mentioned you're offering a service which affects the initial point where a potential buyer would interact with an ad in a way that's difficult to constrain to being truthful. Sure human editors can do this sort of thing too, but here it's being offered as a service. I'm guessing that "The AI did it" isn't an excuse you'd want to have to try to argue in a courtroom.
That said, my goal is to simply make the process of repetitive editing much simpler, easier and cheaper - sort of like the things they already do. But AI is super powerful and it can do much more than that and we may not be able to prevent that from happening. This should not make us leave the good things from the table though.
Your customers might not notice such a problem, in the same way that lawyers submitting AI generated court pleadings recently and being sanctioned by the courts did not notice that they were full of hallucinations. But the house buyers and renters will. And that may be a problem for your customers.