Let's get you all up-to-speed on our casting results. On the last episode you have already heard Jeremiah, one new voice that we added to the show. But there will be another new voice soon: Eimar. So we are expanding this to four (!) voices in total. And we're very excited about it.
Just when you thought the world was relatively predictable (not), a new voice joins the podcast. Also, a product launch caught our eye. Dotphoton is a genuinely lossless raw file compression technology. You can compress your media files by up to 80% (apparently) with no loss of fidelity. So, what does this mean for the future of photography?...
Chris just got the new Oculus Quest, a standalone VR headset that lets you experience virtual worlds without a cable tethering you to the PC. How will this headset influence the future of virtual content in relation to photography? Chris and Ade discuss the National Geographic Explorer VR experience that has a photography component built in.
Law and law enforcement evolve over time. In the UK, a new policing policy asks victims of crime to share their digital information - including all private photos. This is a deep and complex subject and we have tried to explore it in a sensitive and thought provoking way.
On this episode we present five ways of using cameras: To save money (by using $10 cameras instead of $10,000 lidar), as an invisible camera (by hiding cameras behind smartphone screens), not using cameras at all (by creating entire people out of thin air), to fight the Notre Dame fire (by flying thermal cameras with off-the-shelf drones) and to take pictures from 45km/28mi away (by using cutting photo technology and computation to make the impossible possible)....
We hear a lot about "colour science" nowadays, often in an attempt to differentiate between products. But what does it actually mean? Perhaps more importantly, what difference does it make to us as image makers? How can we punch through the marketing noise and use it to our benefit? Chris and Ade indulge in some myth-busting this week building on recent published articles and videos . Also, we are still searching for a new TFOP team member. If you are interested, get in touch !...
From the predominantly computer rendered still images of the IKEA Catalog to moving images like the 2010 animated short " The Third and the Seventh " artificial imagery is getting more and more photorealistic. On the right hardware, the latest Unreal Engine now can do those photorealistic renderings in real-time on demand. Videos: Quixel demo . Characters demo ....
What to do when the world suddenly springs on you a vertical TV and doubles the price of your favourite tools? (Although that might be "just a test".) The best response is a rant. And then maybe move on to other things like new tools and, even better, focus on the art people can create . Also, we are still searching for a new TFOP team member. If you are interested, get in touch !...
You've definitely seen the black hole photo by now but did you know they had to use a camera the size of the planet to get it? Here's some more information . The techniques used remind us of what smart phones are working on incorporating. Including AI-based image completion, similar to what we think the Huawei P30 Pro does. Want to become a host on The Future of Photography? We're looking for a new voice!...
What's in Ade's pockets? A full environmental portrait kit, that's what - and not because he has a coat with enormous pockets. Even better than that, he bought a new camera and a new light ! Would you like to join the TFOP team as third host? Check out our web page that explains how you could be the new voice of TFOP !...
Making cameras lighter is a function of several things, including new and lighter materials for what makes them heavy. Lenses are high on this list and this week Chris and Adrian take a look at Aluminium Oxynitride, also known as ALON™ or transparent aluminium. With its higher refractive index and its mechanical strength, is it on the way to replace traditional glass with a thinner and lighter scratch-proof alternative? According to a rumor from 2018, at least Zeiss might be looking into it ....
Chris and Ade explore the the ways new technology can help you make fantastic photos.
Let's revisit GANs on this episode, extending on TFOP ep. 63 . Nvidia is at it again with GauGAN (named after French painter Paul Gaugin). This time they present a network that can generate landscapes based on a segmentation map that you draw. Here's a video , a blog post and the paper . Nvidia is planning to release code here ....
How do you turn 360 spherical images into a 3D navigable model? Matterport know how. They have produced hardware and software for some years that can do this from 3D capture and now have launched a version of their service that works with both the Ricoh Theta V and the Insta360 ONE X . So now we can all do 3D modelling! Technology is democratised again!! So what will you use it for? Share your efforts on Twitter and Instagram using #TFOPnow....
One of the latest gadgets that claim to make you a better photographer is called Arsenal. It received over $2.5 million on Kickstarter and as of this episode, it has not even been released yet. The amount of pre-funding clearly indicates how desperate a lot of people are to find the AI-powered silver bullet that will make them better photographers. Ade and Chris take a closer look at the promises.
Name a classic aspect ratio. Did you pick 6x4? 8x10? The Academy Ratio ? Univisium ? Univisium is actually Ade’s favourite. But have you shot 9:16? It’s a new video format that editing houses and digital agencies are starting to take very seriously.
There are several ways to do slow motion. One is to shoot at a very high frame rate. The other is to fake it and interpolate additional frames based on a slower frame rate. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts have come up with an algorithm to stretch video time almost indefinitely and create a Super SloMo .
Are you locked into an everlasting quest for high quality photo kit that fits in your pocket? Ade is. He recently bought the Fuji 27mm pancake lens which has added a new use-case to his APS-C camera - it now fits in a coat pocket. Get in touch with us on twitter @TFOPnow to show us your pocketable camera kits.
Lightroom adds Enhance Details , but is it any good? // Nokia 9 PureView comes with 5 Cameras (see also TFOP 039: Lens Multiplication ) // Nvidia StyleGAN Proof of Concept: This Person Does Not Exist ( Article ), Nvidia StyleGAN on github (see also TFOP 063 Porsche-ness: The Future of Stock Photography )...
How do you get your passport photos done? Ade just had to renew his and found that the UK Government now has a great service for uploading digital photos and streamlining passport renewal. Check out the guidelines here . It's a bit different in Germany though for Chris . And in agreessive pricing news, Canon has set a new low benchmark for pricing full-frame mirrorless cameras at $1299. What does this mean for the future of camera pricing in general?...
Materials research is trying to make lenses flatter and they are making great progress by employing the same type of antenna technology that makes terrestrial radio work. Just on a much much smaller nano scale to make it work for light. Arseniy Kuznetsov is one of the scientists working with new materials to create the future of lenses, projectors and holographic displays. Watch the video here ....
Who will make your next camera? Despite new launches from both Canon and Nikon recently, Fuji are winning lots of internet reviewer awards for best camera of 2018. So where do we need to look now for the next big thing? DJI Osmo Pocket ? Insta360 ? Yongnuo? Notice all these are Chinese companies innovating photography through applying new technology. DJI even own Hasselblad now. If Chinese manufacturers who already build many phone cameras now start to make waves in the traditional camera market...
It's the age of artificial photography. Be it car ads or the latest IKEA catalog . What's been difficult is coming up with artificial people. Until now. Nvidia just presented their latest research in GANs to create any artificial photo of a person that you like. It remains to be seen what that means for the future of photography....
Over the holidays Ade rented a type of LED light he had not used before - a Westcott Icelight 2 from hireacamera.com . “It made me think about the way I shoot with light in a different way. It didn’t give me absolute control over light - it’s not powerful enough. But it did give me plenty to light a subject above the ambient light - indoors anyway - and made me think more about what filmmakers call “practicals”. It’s a blending of light rather than blasting.” So, will the future of photographic ...
Synthetic reality is becoming a part of our daily lives, with deepfakes replacing faces and Adobe's VoCo being able to synthesize anything in anybody's voice. How does this change in reality influence our skills and our beliefs? Our discussion on this episode was triggered by this article by Rob Horning ....
Remember "Think Different"? Ade is trying his best to do that by becoming iOS native. Native meaning designing workflows, choosing tools and having fun (that's the important bit) with photography all based around "not a real computer". It's a bit of a challenge in places and Chris provides the interrogation to figure out just how real all this is. And check out RAW Power (no affiliation) for properly powerful editing.
Smartphones have already taken over when it comes to portability and it helps that you always have one in your pocket. They do automatic HDR, they have optical image stabilization, they can simulate shallow depth of field and they are masters when it comes to convenient editing and sharing. Now another bastion of the bigger cameras is about to fall: low light photography. Google's Night Sight
Use #TFOPnow on twitter or instagram. Post your images made with futuristic camera and software tools... We think it’s about time we put our creative brains to work using all the tools we talk about every week on the show. And we want you to do that too! The show this week is a call to action - we want to see your creative images taking advantage of new tools and techniques. It could be an in-camera computational tool or a faourite app in post to make the image zing. When you’re done post on twi...
Chris was at the Rochester Institute of Technology to see where education in the photographic sciences will take us in the future. Videos from the visit: Scrabble Drop , Drip Drip , Balloon Pop , Streak Photography , Electron Microscopy , Full Series . An article about Harold Edgerton . Also: Did you know, we use the future of audio processing (a system called Auphonic) to make these episodes sound as sweet as possible? But Auphonic processing time costs actual money. To help us keep sounding as...
Made up story: Once upon a time a man called Steve invented a new camera . It was quite small and he only had room for one lens. He chose one a little bit wide but not properly wide. For the next 10 years, most new cameras had basically the same lens. Do YOU like 28mme? Is it the new “normal”? What should be considered normal now? Aspect ratios have changed. Video is more popular. If cameras of the future shipped with a kit prime rather than a zoom, what should it be? What impact will 28mme have...
