The Future of Photography

We catch up on some recent development on things we have mentioned in previous episodes: Skydio R1 autonomous drone in-depth test (originally mentioned on TFOP 019) || Lytro is no more, Google buying Lytro?, Google's Light Field Experiments (TFOP 015) || NVIDIA's FastPotoStyle algorithm (scientific paper), Visual Poetry (TFOP 011) || Behind The Scenes of Apple's HomePod ad, showing how little CGI was used.

People have been talking for years about extracting photos from video. Most people don't see it as currently viable because photo and video require very different camera settings and video footage is far less detailed than stills photos - until recently. Mythbuster Ade coined the term Videotography and got to work. Photos extracted from Ade's New York video, Chris' adventures on a ship in the arctic, Tips from the Top Floor 739: The Bumblebee Principle

In this episode we discuss image stabilization from mechanical to digital to optical, we touch on Steadycam, gyro-based stabilizers and dive into how Hyperlapse seems to manage to do all that with a simple smart phone camera. Comparison of image stabilizers, The Technology Behind Hyperlapse EPISODE SPONSOR: Jimdo.com - to get 20% off JimdoPro and JimdoBusiness for your first year, use code FUTURE.

This week Ade has been looking into very small things - in fact singles. How do you photograph a single atom? How do you capture a single photon? Is there anything that small worth photographing? EPISODE SPONSOR: Jimdo.com - to get 20% off JimdoPro and JimdoBusiness for your first year, use code FUTURE.

The Skydio R1 seems to be the first fully autonomous selfie drone that actually delivers on their promise. Tested.com did a review in a forest. On the topic of printing: 3D printing pens, 3D avatars, vertical wall printing, hand jet, braille embosser, Barilla pasta printer, Heston Blumenthal, cake printers, 3D chocolate printing, toast printer #1, toast printer concept, nail printer. EPISODE SPONSOR: Jimdo.com - to get 20% off JimdoPro and JimdoBusiness for your first year, use code FUTURE.

Ade does a science show - but this is head-science. How does wearing a body camera impact the behaviour of police officers and the citizens they engage with? How does the press treat formal studies? Could the technology be misused? And how might video footage be misinterpreted due to the perspective of the shot? Take the NY Times test on this last question and see how you fare. And if you want to buy a body camera. Don't forget to let us know if you're interested in our 2018 TFOP meetup and just a reminder: you can make a difference and support us with a small contribution. Both links are in the shownotes. EPISODE SPONSOR: Jimdo.com - to get 20% off JimdoPro and JimdoBusiness for your first year, use code FUTURE.

Increasing resolution of existing photos has traditionally been done by a combination of extrapolation of the existing images, followed by some form of more-or-less smart sharpening. The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Tübingen, Germany, has developed a new machine-learning based system named Enhancenet-PAT, which shows much greater success in increasing photo resolution using automated texture synthesis. Here's a talk (14-minute video) that explains this in more depth.

What if I want to climb a mountain to take photos or videos? What if I am a keen cyclist? What if I am a scuba diver?Traditionally I needed bespoke kit but now technology is helping us out. Do I still need an enormous DSLR or can I do something else? This week Ade and Chris talk about mobility with photo kit and how you can achieve it. What's out there today that's tiny and cool? Where does it go next? What (if anything) does this mean for the future of photography? Some fun 360 degree toys... Nicolas Cage Can Now Be Put Into Any Movie in History Don't forget to let us know if you're interested in our 2018 TFOP meetup and just a reminder: you can make a difference and support us with a small contribution.

Lightfield photography (aka plenoptic photography) enables photographers to computationally re-focus their images and create different perspectives. We explore the history and future of Lytro and what this technology means for photographers and videographers alike. Lytro Cinema and Immerge 2.0. Adobe's Lightfield experiments. Lightfields explained in videos: Talk by Paul Debevec (start here), Talk by Mark Bolas

I want... all my images on all my devices, all edits sync'd, cloud backup, publishing, automatic keywording and a yacht. OK, maybe the yacht is out of scope but the rest is largely available in various forms and Ade has been checking out Google, Adobe and iCloud services to see what works and what really doesn't. Conclusions? This integration or workflow element of our photography is important but which services do Ade and Chris trust with their images and their money? How about a TFOP meetup in the UK in 2018? Potential for knowledge sharing, playing with other people's toys, recording a live show... If that sounds like fun to you, please let us know by registering your interest. Support the show: we have set up a donation box where you can contribute to our ongoing research and production effort. We're grateful for your support.