In The Days Before Midjourney

A friend calls me in a panic; the designer his boss, [Client], hired to do a presentation for a pitch isn’t giving the boss exactly what he wants. After a few vague instructions, I give [Client] different options. I realize that [Client] doesn’t understand that Photoshop can’t create photorealistic imagery with the exact composition and details he wants — well, at least, not within a few hours.

[Client] agrees to a collage of existing photos but then continues to ask why each photo doesn’t match his specific requests.

Me: “To achieve what you’re looking for, you need to stage the entire thing in real life and photograph it.”

Client: “Cool, so the machine can do that, yeah? Can you get this to me in an hour?”

I told my friend the bad news. [Client] refused to pay for the five hours of work I did giving him different options.