The Future of Photography

For the last decade, smart phones have constantly improved their cameras in terms of megapixels and features, but it seems to get harder and harder to wow us with new photo-related features. At their developer conference, Apple introduced a deeper photographic feature set with a strong emphasis on machine learning. They are also working hard to catch up on some of Google's features. Chris and Ade talk about upcoming organization, grouping and sharing features in iOS 12, about a new depth-related API for developers that will enable swapping out backgrounds in photos.

We’ve seen Magic Lantern hack a bunch of Canon cameras to up-spec them. That’s great stuff and very powerful. But what if your camera manufacturer handed you the keys to their castle and invited you to muck about a bit? Ricoh/Pentax have just done exactly that, publishing an API for their DSLRs so you can write your own apps to control the cameras. Article on the Pentax SDK / Ricoh API Developer Connection. What would YOU make?

How a tuning fork enabled an entire new industry. Over the history of photography, the location of the camera has usually been close the ground plane. Getting the camera up into the air historically required hot air balloons, airplanes, helicopters or pigeons. The invention of MEMS gyroscopes, combined with advances in battery technology ushered in a revolution that spread from smartphones to drones to camera gimbals, all available to us in small and relatively affordable packages called consumer drones. Podcast recommendation: Photography Tips from the Top Floor ep 824: Drones / Aerial videos by Chris: Baum / Schlossgespenster 2018

Do you use LUTS? They are becoming all the rage and gaining far more technical support in photo editing where they used to be more just for video. So Ade has been trying a new tool called Image 2 LUT that can help you capture and refine looks from images that inspire you and can speed up workflow. What is a LUT? / LUTS in Affinity Photo. / Get some LUTs here. / A.I. update. Skylum buys Photolemur and invests in AI.

1) EarthNow (among others backed by Airbus, Softbank and Bill Gates) are planning to bring us (or rather big businesses and governments) real-time video of the earth from above. Is this beneficial or are we talking about Enemy Of The State territory? We discuss the benefits and the dangers. 2) Flickr was acquired by Smugmug. After Yahoo (and with it Flickr) were bought by Verizon last year, photographers were getting worried about the focus of their platform. We think this current development is a good move.

Have you ever tried to find stock photography that really works? It's hard. A lot of stock images are so cheesy that this Hollywood movie made spoof images for promotion. How could it be made easier? Step in Pond5. Imagine you see a perfect shot for your commercial photo shoot or film but you know the subject is licensed - maybe the Empire State Building or something. Just take a photo with your phone, send it to Pond5 and they will send you back a whole list of of licensed images or video to use. Here is how it works. And a bit more on how it works. Oh, and it actually works!

Out of sync sensory inputs can cause sickness. Car sickness and sea sickness for example. It happens when our vestibular system doesn't agree with our other senses. VR and AR will have the same issue, but for an additional reason: the vergence (angle) and accommodation (focus) of our eyes don't agree in those environments. Wired wrote about this.

What if Instagram and Twitter paid you for your photos? Never happen? Well check out Steepshot and Zappl Credit to Lightstalking.com for the article that prompted this show.

Projection mapping is nothing new, but today's computers enable amazingly creative ways to project images onto anything from irregular screens to buildings to moving faces. Videos: Music video: Pomplamoose (Happy), Getting started in projection mapping (tutorial), VPT (projection mapping software), building mapping primer, augmented reality sandbox, projection mapping on a moving face, Omote, Box (advanced illusion) (behind the scenes).

NAB is a trades union for American broadcasters - which is a bit dull. But every year they have a big ol' party in Vegas and they all bring their new toys. This year's NABshow has just finished and some of the filmmaker's and video broadcaster's toys could have far reaching consequences for photographers. New BMPCC at just $1295 Apple ProRes Raw analysis from Noam Kroll Record what you like with the Atomos Ninja V Tiny camera shooting 4K raw from Indiecam Padcaster live broadcast kit More NAB2018 exhibitors