“Real” has already been redefined

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‍In modern wedding photography, “real” is no longer a fixed concept.
Editorial shoots with models representing marrying couples, perfected skin, refined silhouettes, cleaned backgrounds, removed distractions, editing made with AI — all of this reshapes reality. Adding elements is not something separate. It’s simply the next step in the same process.

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Tools don’t replace creativity, they enable it.

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‍As a small creative studio, we don’t have the budgets, permissions, or scale of large productions like Netflix or Warner Bros. They can close streets, control environments, and spend millions on a single scene.
We can’t.

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‍But what we can do is protect the idea.

So the real question is: what matters more — execution or idea?

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If execution is everything, we will always lose. If the idea is what leads — we stay competitive.
AI helps us bridge that gap. Not to fake reality, but to reach the level of visual storytelling we envision.

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So when we add elements — like Dalmatians inspired by the concept itself — it’s not about faking reality. It’s about completing the idea we couldn’t physically execute at that scale.
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‍Reality on set is never “perfect”

When we shoot in a place like Paris, we don’t get empty streets or controlled environments. We get reality. We shot the editorial during our Sparkling Moments workshop with 20 participants working alongside us.
And yet, we still have a vision of how the final image should feel.
That’s where tools, including AI, come in.

The real responsibility lies in transparency and intention.

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‍If something becomes a false representation of your work — that’s where the line is.
This is about inspiration, not deception.

The most crucial thing is that we don’t present these images as a literal, documentary truth.

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This shoot is a source of inspiration — a direction for what can be created when the budget and conditions allow it. It works as a moodboard. And moodboards today can be created with any tools.
The intention is not to mislead clients or colleagues, but to express a vision and shape future possibilities — even if the resources are not there yet. Ethics are defined by transparency
The real question is not whether AI is used — it’s how.

The photo,
the idea,
the light,
the emotion are real.

The six added Dalmatians with God knows how many legs - not.

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And that’s ok, as long as it is clear.

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Because the industry already accepts emails to our clients written by AI, captions for Instagram posts created by AI, and the removal of unwanted elements from photos to make them look perfect — all done with AI. We don’t want to create documentary photos (otherwise we would work as journalists), we want to be a part of something inspiring, to create something visually perfect.

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AI doesn’t break ethics — lack of transparency does.‍

As a co-owner and creative director at Sparkling Moments, my task is also to create a supportive, mutually inspiring community. For me, that means creating a space where ideas can exist freely — not only when they are perfectly executed, but when they are still evolving, experimental, or even imperfect. A community where creatives are not limited by budget, logistics, or fear of judgment, but are encouraged to think bigger than what is physically possible at the moment.

Then why? Why add Dalmatians to photos that are already great enough?

Simply because it’s our creative vision — a game, an experiment. We allow ourselves to explore ideas beyond what is physically possible at the moment, especially in editorial work. We use AI not to replace reality, but to expand it.

And we’re not afraid to test it, question it, and sometimes even push it a bit further than expected — simply because we can.

I genuinely believe that AI is not a threat to the wedding industry. What we do is too human to be replaced — the connection, the intuition, the way we see and feel moments. AI doesn’t take that away; it only gives us more ways to express it.

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And ultimately,

We respect this industry too much not to experiment, evolve, and keep it creatively alive

For us, AI is not a shortcut. It’s sometimes an experiment, sometimes one of the tools to achieve the perfection we pursue so purposefully, and sometimes it’s just another way of creating hype. We love staying original.

But it’s also the tool that allows creativity to exist beyond limitations.
Because in the end, what makes an image valuable is not whether it is perfectly real — but whether it honestly represents the vision behind it.
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This Isn’t Real — And That’s the Point!
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Diana Vartanova
Photographer, Creative Director and Ambassador of Imagen AI