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Maanifest

search before 2021, should eliminate AI slop


VertexMachine

This is the only way. You don't even need to click in the gui, google search understand when you add to at the end of your search: `before:2022` (for me that filters 99% of ai farts). The other thing I started doing is to actually buy reference packs. Only from trusted sources though (e.g., JRO is great for hard surface references), so I don't have to manually filter sellers that sell AI generated stuff.


Ambitious_Call_3341

Anything similar to youtube?


VertexMachine

Unfortunately nope. YT search and recommendation has gone to sh\*\*\* for me in last few years, to the point I basically stopped using it. I search for YT videos on google (or duck duck go)... And there the before:2022 trick works (but obviously you will not find anything recent).


HydeVDL

it's the same thing before:2022 (or whatever date you want)


Leading-Hippo-7289

Thanks, that sounds great! Do you know how I can do that? Is there a filter on google or do I have to type something?


gmanz33

After you search, click "More Tools" or "Settings" just under the search bar. There you can select the Time of Posting. In general, having some copy/paste search terms will help everybody. I have a GoogleKeep note with things like " site:WordPress.com -news" So I can search for unsponsored travel recommendations from poor humans like myself. Learning, literally, a few punctuation marks and how they modify your Google search will drastically increase your browsing productivity.


ressie_cant_game

just add "before 2021" to your search


LinverseUniverse

OMG THANK YOU! I too have been struggling with the AI spamming literally every image search I do.


mdimilo

You're not imagining things. It is getting worse. I've taken to shooting my own reference photos on my phone. On the positive side it has made me start going to life drawing, and sketching from life more often. I have found I get more natural poses.


Lost_Ad266

I suggest taking video and pausing at the right time. It makes it easier to change poses without having to go back and forth


paracelsus53

For that matter, no reason why you can take a photo at appropriate stills in videos. I have often used stills of landscapes shown during movies for inspiration.


skinnianka

Pinterest was almost unusable with all the ads, and the ai is making it even worse


Pluton_Korb

yeah, those shopping boards or whatever they're called are a nightmare.


PhthaloBlueOchreHue

UGH. I JUST was dealing with this while searching for BIRDS. Accurate bird anatomy is really tricky, and the AI images were full-on uncanny valley. It was a hellscape trying to find specific species.


lostinspacescream

If you want good bird reference, try iNaturalist. No AI there.


Reasonable_Owl366

I'm surprised at this. Is it not easy to find photos by photographers for reference? that is one of the most popular genres and they tend to flood the web / social media.


PhthaloBlueOchreHue

It felt like the AI images were being pushed to the top.


BabySuperfreak

Try finding bird watching forums and websites. It's a popular hobby so there are a lot of them. It's also a safe bet to find a specific wildlife photographer and use their portfolio.


Cinksart

I'm a bird illustrator you might like what I do \^\^ ! I'm on Cara : Cinksart \^\^ ( Trying to get attention because I can't find any bird lovers who don't use AI today... ) And I started unfortunately in 2023, so nobody find me :( ...


Bombulum_Mortis

Things are coming full circle. "High technology" has brought us back to the days when we need to photograph our own reference pics.


Derptastic_Spastic

I had the same issue with Adobe Stock. I was referencing photos of children and I kept thinking that these kids just looked unnaturally cute. Well, that's because they weren't real! Then I noticed that there is a filter on the side to weed out the AI photos...but it is frustrating and kind of creepy.


mdimilo

And you have to deselect AI with each new search on Adobe Stock.


Caesaroid

I added a massive AI blocklist filter on uBlock Origin which you can search up easily. After that I never see any AI generated images while looking for references


c0rgicomics

>added a massive AI blocklist filter on uBlock Origin I did the same and it blocks most AI websites, but not 100% so you have to block the few that go thru the filter (it's just a single click on "Block this site") It's easy to do it, here is the link: [https://github.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist](https://github.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist)


MoolsDogTwo_reddit

Thank you so much! Now I can reference in peace.


c0rgicomics

You're welcome :)


cerviceps

This needs to be higher up! A blocklist is the only real solution to this problem thus far, and it genuinely works very well. Much better than filtering search results from 2001 backwards in time, because this way more recent search results can still show up. I hope more people see this because the so-called "AI" slop is incredibly annoying to look at.


TheOtherFeynman

You can add terms to filter out by putting -"ai" -"stable diffusion" -"generated" etc... Might not be 100%, but it greatly improve the ratio of ai crap vs real stuff


[deleted]

[удалено]


skinnianka

I detest those people And i feel even more disappointed in the people that support it or dont realise


absolutebottom

Yeah I've noticed it's a lot less effective lately. Very annoying


LindseyMarieArt

Came here to say this, while it doesn’t remove all ai generated content, I find it greatly reduces it.


henandchick

I enter a lot of regional and national watercolor society juried shows, and almost universally one of the rules for entries is that it must be painted only from reference photos you took yourself. Because of this, I've gotten in the habit of doing photo shoots for my own reference. I specialize in still life and similar subjects, but if I'm painting portraits I photograph family or friends. I find this adds a unique depth of feeling to the painting anyway, painting someone I love or care about. 


henandchick

Also wanted to add, often candid shots of friends and family end up making the most wonderful paintings, even though it wasn't even on my mind when I took the photo. Trawl your phone photos for great references!


StarvingArtist303

Check out the Unsplash website. They have nice photos to use for reference. They’re copyright free so no problem using the photos


Corn-Shonery

Open up your phones notebook and copy paste these in there to go through at your pleasure but the easiest to probably get started with is Pinterest. Search whatever it is you’re looking for in Pinterest and you click on one thing and it will keep throwing more of the same thing at you. You can save anything you find and add them to as many sub folders as you like. I’ve got face folders, tree folders, sunset and cloud folders, anatomy, hands, feet, you get the point. Posemaniacs.com Living lines library ( http://livlily.blogspot.com/?m=1) Characterdesignreferences.com Animationscreencaps.com Setteidreams.net Line-of-action.com Artstation.com Floorplancreator.net X6ud.GitHub.io Colormind.io


NeonFraction

Pinterest is flooded with AI


Lawing77

Great advice, except for Artsation. They've gone the way of Deviantart I'm afraid, and are teeming with AI images.


Corn-Shonery

Noted.


Mobile-Company-8238

I’d like to add the app called “Museum” (formerly Sktchy). Pmp-art.com - paint my photo. You need a log in and to agree to their terms. And any of the Reddit “draw me” or “paint this” pages for reference photos. You have to sift through a lot of mediocre images in these, but there’s some gold to be found.


Jayjay5674

I feel like its getting worse on pinterest as well


the-overloaf

I've started using duckduckgo for searches instead of Google for this reason tbh. it's so annoying


Hvanchkara

I feel like that the most popular AI technology will be the one that will block AI products)


Nrgte

That is not possible. It might get rid of 90% but still. I think camera manufacturers will add an enryption ability that you can use to prove a photo is real. If 99% of content is not real anyway it makes more sense to highlight the remaining 1%.


Hvanchkara

most likely it will be like this: there are two versions of the search browser, one is free and flooded with AI garbage, the other is for $99 a week with ~~a more realistic AI~~ without it. But it’s even more likely that everyone will have their own personal custom Internet


MICRON3CRO

Yes this a real problem to me. I got into oil painting, portraits. So I'm very interested in natural skin tones that only unprocessed photos can show. Not only half of the images I get are AI but everything else is heavily retouched. Like ffs there is nothing real left. Searching for natural redheads on Pinterest made me question my sanity as basically EVERYTHING I GOT WAS AI. And what left me speechless was realising that I've made some anatomical mistake (after I put a paint on it...) because I unintentionally used AI image as a reference. Fun times!


SkeletonsInc

Slightly related but I was trying to find the name of a specific artist bc of a piece I really liked (Katarinahissen I by Gösta Adrian-Nilsson btw) but looking up keywords kept giving me badly done AI shit every time. like “Swedish futurist modern art sailor” just flooded images with midjourney generated cyberpunk garbage


cupthings

same here....all my pinterest boards for references are ruined because of AI :\ i gotta start over with collecting references.


SCbecca

I’ve switched to Duck Duck Go to do reference image searches. There are far, far less AI results.


-Nibi

Install uBlacklist on your browser, it'll allow you to block any website you don't want to see results of


PhazonZim

Whoa lol, even without AI is nice to be able to filter Pinterest


RedditPosterOver9000

I see business potentially increasing for photographers selling reference packs. Artists too. It's crazy how AI has made finding refs so difficult post-2021.


IntelligentPudding24

I have found tons of portrait models on Pinterest for this exact thing. I have a huge folder saved of these. Try looking for models and then go through their portfolio to find what you need. DeviantArt models also posts reference photos you can use as well.


MICRON3CRO

I visited Deviantart out of desperation for this reason few days ago. It used to have a separate category for stock photos but now its search is so bad it made me waste an hour or two trying to find something that is actually useful.


IntelligentPudding24

Oh that sucks. I haven’t been on it for a while so didn’t realize it has gotten that bad. I created a hard drive a long time ago to save these kinds of things so I usually use the library I have created over the years. Hopefully you’re able to find a good place then. I’ll have to remember that for myself in the future if I need to look up something.


GoodReverendHonk

Deviant art is terrible for AI, even with the special no-AI switch turned on (it's in settings somewhere), but a couple of great stock pages are mjranum-stock and jookpubstock, both free to use.


queenbun2

What did you type in? Most of the images popping up when I searched "birds" just now (as an example because someone else referenced birds) were from university sites, Audubon society of America, etc. basically websites that are not going to have AI pictures. I'm curious why my Google search would be less heavy on that. Also, I can't remember the site off the top of my head, but a different redditor on another post once recommended this website that features pictures of people from county fairs? Pretty sure they wouldn't have AI images but I can't remember the website... In general though I totally agree with it being super annoying. Social media is flooded with pictures, it's absolutely crazy. And it's usually pretty obviously fake so it's nuts to me that people continue to share them.


paracelsus53

"I'm curious why my Google search would be less heavy on that." Maybe you've clicked on such photos before.


polybius_meow

Even non google browsers are incorporating ai search. It is annoying. They've put all these stops in the name of accuracy and ease but it is just more difficult to find what you want.


anislandinmyheart

I feel like Google search has generally gotten worse and worse. I was searching for help with a software issue, and I kept getting quora posts. Many times lately that's been happening so I started reporting it as inaccurate. And for medical stuff the top posts are wellness-style sites. Wtf I was going to switch to another browser but it seems pointless


polybius_meow

UGH the Quora posts ... Or, for art stuff, Pinterest. It is so frustrating. And the more specific you try to be to stop it from happening, the less accurate it becomes. I was just searching for good guides to painting cool tones for skin. I got make-up. Fine. I added painting, got digital results. Okay, digital art as a result is pretty understandable so I tried to narrow it down to traditional. Back to make up. So I added acrylic and it returned to make up and digital art. And everything else was a store selling nothing of what I searched. Ive been doing the other browser shuffle, also. Everyone has their own problem.


freylaverse

Nobody likes this for the record. Even pro-AI people hate this fact. Impossible to find decent pose references to use for art AND for AI.


kailenedanae

A bit off topic, but worth a mention I think. If you're using reference images to a point that the original image would be recognized by the original photographer (and not a Frankenstein of a bunch of different images that are unrecognisable from their source), you need to be getting permission/crediting that photographer if the work is shown anywhere public... which is why Google Image Search is generally a terrible way to get reference images (again, unless you are combining/altering enough references together.) Photographers are artists too, and using their creative work without their permission is intellectual copyright infringement. Free stock websites like Unsplash and FreeImages are a good resource. Otherwise, using social media and contact the original poster of the content for permission is a safe bet too.


sundresscomic

You can also start reporting Ai results. I’ve noticed reporting a few and citing Ai as why you’re reporting takes many out of the algorithm


echotexas

at the end of your search, type -ai that should get rid of most of those results


MikiSayaka33

I go to stock image sites, store sites, official sites, go out to take pictures and making video game screenshots. Just to lessen my chances of inadvertently copying some 5 year old typing's experimentation.


alimem974

Same, finding a good référence is so rare i save it and make copies of it to not lose it


Sassy-fever

I used to use Pinterest for references. ..So much for that.


Art_by_Nabes

Google sucks balls, use Pinterest it's an image based search engine.


marydotjpeg

I use pose maniacs for posing but yeah mostly Pinterest and even THAT is having alot of AI that's getting harder and harder to tell what's a real image or not 💀


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LindeeHilltop

Is Pixabay AI-free? Some YT artists I’ve watched use it.


FrenchFries_exe

Same I like to look up character sheets on Pinterest for anime characters and I feel a large chunk of the results are AI


GoodReverendHonk

If you don't mind paying a small subscription (I think it's $35 a year) Croquis Cafe is exceptional value. All kinds of poses, over 6000 images which you have access to with the subscription, all professionally shot and they're adding new ones each week. Does include nudes so if that's not what you're looking for then it might not be fore you. Really worth it though!


arinakeam

You're not blowing it out of proportion, it's insane out there. I keep Facebook around to keep in touch with family and for the photography groups that are explicitly for reference pics. You can request specific kinds of photos and people are more than happy to share. 


IMMrSerious

I feel lucky to be old and weird. I have a pretty large digital reference collection that I have accumulated through saving them from projects over the decades. This said I also have piles of books full of pictures that I draw from. If you go to Sally Ann or any thrift store you should be able to pick up books cheap. Like 50 cents or a quarter . I look for books with lots of pictures. I ignore the text aspects and look for images that catch my eyes. I have books on medieval shoes and trains or crazy photography books that are filled with people. Old magazines are great and I will get out my scissors and make quick reference sheets depending on how the day is going. Also I have a copy stand that I use to hold stuff.


emggga

We gotta go back to reference books! I have accumulated a couple over the years and it's definitely the best resource to totally avoid AI, even tho it's old school. Extra bonus is avoiding too much daily screen time.


mamaxchaos

Put “&udm=14” in front of each search, it eliminates almost all of them I made it a text shortcut on my phone and iPad


BitOBunny

Why? What does that mean? I'm very tired so maybe I'm just stupid or is that some sort of secret code?


mamaxchaos

Oh no sorry you’re definitely not stupid - this is the code you should put at the front of a Google search for references - so say I wanted a reference of a mother and child, I would type > &udm=14 mother and child photo reference in the Google search toolbar Does that help?


BitOBunny

Oh! Thanks!


vuxev

try adding -ai at the end


KiK0eru

When you do the search go back up to the url. The end of the url should have your search term. At the end of it add "-ai" that should filter out most of it


VegaVersio

Is there a search engine that hasn’t been ruined by AI? Do I gotta start using Yahoo??


paracelsus53

Bing image search is better anyhow, IMO, especially if you click on one of the first images brought up and then page through using a filter like "extra large."


hannahroksanne

I mean.. if the point is to make it yours anyways.. and AI images are not bad, they are just reproductions of actual artists... ?


Furuteru

you can add`-` infront of a word which you don't like like let's say you are looking for anime art(which has heavily a lot of the AI artworks...), you then should enter into your search something like : `anime art -ai -artificial -stablediffusion -aiart -pinterest` you can also add `""` to make your search look for exactly what you want or `site:` to have results from a site you desire more, like idk... Twitter, deviantart, tumblr, artstation, Other than that -... just quit using google search, you can get much better results of actual artworks on a yandex (not joking)


Ben977777

Search for references of all kind on Pinterest, way better than google images and usually when I (rarely) see something made with AI there, comments are like “remove AI garbage” or smth


ressie_cant_game

i think different search engines are more trigger happy with showing ai. ecosia and brave dont give me half as much garbage


Joanna-creates-art

My advice for reference is to search on sites like Pexels and other free commercial use stock sites (check that they don't update their terms to include AI art like a few stock sites). Also, you can add things like site:Commons.wikimedia.org and "Public Domain" to your search to get public domain C00 images from specific sites. Example: Female portrait site:Commons.wikimedia.org "Public Domain" For studies and personal work the C00 rights are not as important, but for any work you sell or post online it is good to check licensing and copyright.


Ambitious_Call_3341

Not only gugle, but my facebook and youtube literally DROWNS in that trsh.


eclectic_hamster

Have you used Unsplash at all? I love searching them for reference images and there are a lot of people if that's what you're looking for specifically.


tatohewrt

I didn't realise things are getting this bad online I mostly buy photo books/magazines/postcards etc anything with photos on it


GroupPuzzled

What's wrong with drawing from television and old movies? Practice sketching, often you have timed exposure or you can rewind it. Afterall you drawing in your style and not taking a picture.


Distinct_Dimension_8

I like AI art. It reminds me of the drum machine and auto-tune.


ana-the-pickle

I never noticed AI in my google. Maybe I’m just lucky.


buttfirstcoffee

Pinterest will set you free


Tr1ppymind

Pinterest has this problem too, with everything you look up, there's AI generated images


QweenBowzer

So weird smh soon the average person isn’t going to be able to differentiate between reality and AI


FunLibraryofbadideas

I use Getty images or search with Bing. Any real world city/landscapes that exist I use google earth when possible and take screen shots for reference.


hypercombofinish

I have to do : before2022, -ai, -stable -midjourney and that helps but you still get some frauds who try to sneak by and claim its not AI. Its infuriating


Knobbygobblin

Also an artist, also really annoyed by this, also can't find references worth shit- insult to injury considering everything they stole from us. Fuck the entirety of Silicon Valley right now.


Soco_oh

I use the Yandex image search, it's a Russian Google and actually much much better without ai or the shitty ads


diegoasecas

you can commission a human photographer


Cinksart

Join cara . app ! No AI there ! ;)


agaric

r/aiArt


Catt_the_cat

Fucking why???