Do you agree with this AI judge? Real photos rated by a robot in Excire photography competition

Black and white travel portrait of cormorant fisherman on lake against backdrop of hills, Model in robe backlit against balcony window, and Studio portrait of model with white, purple and green flowers in hair

The three winners, selected by an artificial intelligence judge (Image credit: Excire / Mike Timmer / Thorsten Junike / Michael Schnabl)

The Excire “People in Focus” Photography Competition winners have been announced, with the three winners listed below. There’s been much talk of AI imagery’s place within photography comps, but there’s been little talk of AI judges. And while “People in Focus” only accepted real photography, it shook things up by including an AI judging panel.

This certainly fits Excire’s MO: a software company that helps real photographers manage real photos using AI algorithms. As such, “People in Focus” is a showcase of Excire Foto’s AI-powered culling and aesthetic ratings, two essential processes when judging a photography competition. To make matters even more interesting, entrants could enter one image per day and were judged upon entry, with access to a top 20 leaderboard, changing in real time.

Studio portrait of model with white, purple and green flowers in hair — Michael Schnabl's studio portrait was selected by the AI judge as the winner (Image credit: Excire / Michael Schnabl)

Black and white travel portrait of cormorant fisherman on lake against backdrop of hills — Mike Timmer's mono image of a cormorant fisherman took second place (Image credit: Excire / Mike Timmer)

Model in robe backlit against balcony window — Thorsten Junike’s naturally lit portrait achieved third place (Image credit: Excire / Thorsten Junike)

The competition, which ran through June, was launched in celebration of Excire’s 10th anniversary and developer, Pattern Recognition Company’s [PRC] 20th anniversary. It enticed entrants with a rather generous prize fund of $4000, $2000 and $1000 for first, second and third places respectively.

Third place was awarded to Thorsten Junike’s boudoir portrait of a model, backlit by balcony doors. Mike Timmer took second place with a black-and-white travel portrait of a cormorant fisherman. But top honors went to Michael Schnabl’s close-up studio portrait of a model with a bouquet of flowers in their hair.

According to Professor Erhardt Barth, CEO of PRC and a machine learning researcher at the University of Lübeck; “We’re excited to celebrate not just our company’s milestones, but also the creativity and vision of the global photography community”.

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Mike studied photography at college, honing his Adobe Photoshop skills and learning to work in the studio and darkroom. After a few years writing for various publications, he headed to the ‘Big Smoke’ to work on Wex Photo Video’s award-winning content team, before transitioning back to print as Technique Editor (later Deputy Editor) on N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine.

With bylines in Digital Camera, PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine, Practical Photography, Digital Photographer, iMore, and TechRadar, he’s a fountain of photography and consumer tech knowledge, making him a top tutor for techniques on cameras, lenses, tripods, filters, and more. His expertise extends to everything from portraits and landscapes to abstracts and architecture to wildlife and, yes, fast things going around race tracks...

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