Portrait or landscape? I used generative AI to put an end to this photo controversy for good

One of the biggest annoyances about taking photos nowadays is that I need to adapt them to where I’m going to end up posting them. Usually my inclination is to shoot them traditionally in landscape, but then I run into the problem of not having enough room to share them in portrait on platforms like Instagram or TikTok. That’s why I’ve been leaning on generative AI for help.

Today’s best phones are powered by artificial intelligence, giving creators like myself new tools to better adapt photos to the respective platforms I intend on sharing them with. Gone are the days of wasting time or remembering to capture vertical and horizontal photos of the same thing because of how well today's generative AI tools work.

It’s changed my workflow tremendously and finally puts an end to this photo controversy for good. Here’s why.

Finding the right app

In the last year, we’ve been given AI-assisted photo editing tools that make complex tasks a breeze. From the Galaxy S24’s generative edit feature that can realistically remove subjects or photo clean up with Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, these generative AI tools do an amazing job of realistically editing images. But none of them really have a generative AI filling tool that can adequately extend an image.

The Pixel 9 has the closest thing I need with the ‘auto frame’ feature of Magic Editor, which gives me a set of photos at different crops. One of them is typically a wider composition, but it takes several attempts to get just the right one I’m looking for — so that’s why I’ve leaned on CyberLink’s PhotoDirector app instead.

It’s your typical photo editing app on the surface, but it has added several AI features that make it versatile for what I need. Not only does it have a background removal tool, but PhotoDirector also uses text prompts to fill in areas with my descriptions.

How I used generative AI

Since I shoot a lot of car photos, I wanted to test out how well PhotoDirector’s AI Expand feature works at turning my landscape photos into portrait ones. I started off with my original photo of the Chevrolet Equinox EV that I parked down by the beach near me, by using its AI Background tool to remove the background — which I then used the text prompt ‘colorful building in a city street’ to replace the background.

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