Testing AI tools

 

MyHeritage. Enhanced Photos tool.

MyHeritage has a number of tools using artificial intelligence, from colorizing old photos, an AI Time Machine (displaying how you or an ancestor might look through different eras), photo enhancing, and DeepStory (allowing photos to "talk" through animation) and Deep Nostalgia editing (bringing photos to "life" without sound). This is my first attempt at using the tool. I've uploaded to MyHeritage's Enhanced Photos a cropped portion of the photo that I believe shows Agnes Atherton O'Brien performing at Kirchner's German Village pavillion in Omaha, Nebraska in July 1898. The result is a little off.

MyHeritage. After AI enhancing.

I've begun using more AI tools with family history. Anthropic's Claude has become a really useful tool. Yesterday I used Claude to help generate a photo editing prompt, which I took over to another platform called Ideogram. This platform does text to image conversion, and allows you to "remix" an uploaded image with the prompt. I tried to see if I could use the cropped portion from the Omaha performance, combined with an image generation prompt, to create a suggested image for how Agnes might have appeared on stage in the 1890s.

Claude was useful for suggesting descriptions for the time period and setting, her costume and appearance, pose and expression, the visual style, and a sample complete prompt. I made some edits to the wording, then copied the prompt over to Ideogram. Ideogram has a feature that interprets the language with its "Magic Prompt" to "optimize and embellish" wording, to add variety and beauty to images generated.

The suggested prompt from Ideogram became: "A sepia-toned vintage portrait photograph captures a captivating vaudeville actress poised on stage, showcasing her timeless beauty and grace. She wears a flowing stage dress from the 1890s featuring a loose art nouveau bodice, bare shoulders adorned with a delicate floral pattern, and a full-length skirt that cascades elegantly around her ankles. Her hair is meticulously styled in the fashionable curls and waves of the era, framing her face as she gazes directly at the camera with a subtle, enigmatic smile. Behind her, a large window with grid panes casts a soft, diffused light across the scene, and a single velvet curtain is partially drawn, hinting at the grandeur of the theater setting." Using this prompt, Ideogram returns four photo options.

"Agnes", Ideogram.AI

Another option might be closer to an early 1880s version of Agnes. This suggestion looks more like my grandmother Blanche in high school.

"Agnes" via Ideogram.

While I haven't been able to make work just yet on Ideogram, I could use the Omaha snapshot as a base and see what the AI does using my grandmother Blanche O'Brien's high school senior photo as a facial influence. As Agnes' grand-niece, there may have been a facial resemblance.

There's yet another AI tool called Runway, which generates amazing video from image prompts. This will need to wait for another day, and I may try it once I'm back from upcoming travel.