Taking photos on your smartphone is supposed to safeguard them against accidental loss. Pictures are automatically backed up to the ‘cloud’, and when you delete them they’re sent to a Bin folder for 30 days rather than being instantly erased.
But I still sometimes find – or rather don’t find – shots missing from my photo library. I’m sure I didn’t deliberately delete them, unless they were particularly unflattering, so they’re forever lost to the digital ether.
With the recent advances in AI-powered image generation, I wondered if I could recreate lost photos from text prompts. I decided to find out by using three free AI tools to try and replicate three pictures from my library: a photo of a fox on my garden wall, a scenic Scottish campsite and an old picture of me (see the ORIGINAL column right).
The first AI image generator I tried was Microsoft Designer’s Images tool (www. snipca.com/52444). This lets you create 25 free images a day (compared with ChatGPT’s measly two) and gives you four results to choose from each time.