930 The Sky Mystery

It’s been too long! In today’s episode Chris brings you a fresh mixture of photo topics that go deep into the changes that we photographers face, as well as a discussion on what determines the value of a photograph. Turns out there are a lot of answers.

Topics:

  • [WORKSHOPS] Eastern European Electric Photo Road Trip : Yes, it’s ⚡️ electric! And it’s filling upl Join us now, over half of the spots are already taken. We’ll set off from the vibrant city of Berlin in Germany and embark on an epic 10-day adventure through some great historic destinations in Eastern Europe. From the charming streets of Prague, to the elegant architecture of Vienna, the rich history of Budapest, and the captivating landscapes and history of Transylvania, a trip to remember. Pack your bags, get ready for a unique 10-day experience filled with great memories where you capture the beauty and rich history and culture of Eastern Europe through your lens.
  • [AI] ChatGPT Plus is here : Let’s discuss how AI writing assistants such as ChatGPT are highly relevant for photographers. They can be used by professional photographers to handle mundane tasks like client communications, writing emails, contracts, model releases, shot lists, and scheduling. The AI can assist in creating social media posts and promotional materials, as well as generating quick responses to common client questions, freeing up the photographer’s time to focus on creative tasks. While AI can be a useful assistant for mundane tasks, it will not replace the photographer’s role in capturing and creating the final product though. At least not for now.
  • [PHOTO, SPACE] Juno Camera Glitch : In photography/space news: During a recent flyby of Jupiter on January 22, much of the photography taken by JunoCam, the visible-light color camera on board NASA’s Juno spacecraft, was unusable due to an anomalous temperature rise after power-up. However, the camera returned to normal operation after the issue resolved itself and the remaining 44 images were usable. The Juno team is evaluating the data to determine the cause of the problem before Juno’s next close flyby on March 1st.
  • [OTHER] Darktable needs help : Darktable is an open-source raw developer and asset manager that offers similar functionality to Lightroom and runs on multiple platforms. The software is community-supported and requires checking and packaging for different platforms with each update. The macOS version has been maintained by one person for ten years, and they will soon quit, putting the future of the macOS version in jeopardy. This is a bit of a call to action for those of you with macOS SW DEV experience who might want to contribute to a community project.
  • [PHOTO] The Value of a Photo : What happens when an AI-generated picture wins a photo contest? It made me go down a rabbit hole on what makes a photo valuable. Some argue that a photograph’s value is in the difficulty and timing required to capture a moment, while others believe that value is subjective and depends on the relationship between the viewer and the photo’s content. In a commercial context, a photograph’s value can be based on historical significance, rarity, customer relevance, and added value for clients. Meanwhile, personal relevance, such as memories and emotions, will give a photo intangible value. The physical photo itself is virtually irrelevant compared to the content it captures. The debate raises questions about the relationship between speed, equipment, and value, and how commissioned work can flip the sense of value upside down for clients. Also, let’s look at the difference in value between inkjet and giclée prints.
  • [PHOTO, ANALOG] Same Sky : Here’s a fun mystery for your weekend: Vox made a video about a photography mystery involving postcards and some detective work. A man who collects postcards notices that many of them have the exact same sky, even though the photos are from different locations. Vox begins researching the postcards and speaks with a postcard historian to uncover the mystery.

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929 No Drama in Photo Land

Today we’ll touch on the Adobe content analytics issue, a bit of Flickr pro drama, big movies shot on film and a really interesting firmware from Canon.

Topics:

  • [WORKSHOPS] Almost Full: Eastern European Photo Roadtrip : The September Eastern European tour is filling up. The Sep 2-11 leg has one spot left, the Sep 14-23 leg has two spots left.

    On these tours we’ll touch Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Transylvania with lots of Eastern European culture and history and great photography over the course of 10 days. Don’t delay, let me know if you have questions.

  • [PHOTO, NEWS] Adobe Denies AI Training With Your Pics : Recently, there was a suspicion that Adobe uses data from its customer’s cloud pictures to train its AI models. In TFTTF 927, I talked about that. Petapixel reached out to Adobe for clarification. Adobe responded that they had that policy in place for a decade and that they do not use any data stored on customers’ Creative Cloud accounts to train their experimental Generative AI features.
  • [PHOTO, NEWS] Flickr Pro Ads or Not? : Photographer and long-time Flickr user, Thomas Hawk, posted on Twitter about his disappointment over the introduction of ads on Flickr Pro accounts, despite their policy stating ads should never appear on Pro member’s accounts. Alastair Jolly of SmugMug responded quickly by saying that the ads were the result of a bug while introducing new features. Drama averted!

    On the note of social media, you can find Chris on Mastodon:
    @[email protected]
    @[email protected]

  • [PHOTO] Film Is Magic. Hollywood Agrees : Film photographer Isabelle Baldwin posted a Twitter thread about Oscar-nominated movies shot on Kodak film, highlighting the advantages of shooting on film over digital, including the unique look and feel it gives to the final product. And Chris agrees. Shooting on film changes the approach to photography, some of it is because you make decisions on film stock and sensitivity at the beginning of the workflow, freeing up the photographer’s focus on the creative aspects of taking the picture. Also the limited number of shots per roll of film increases the perceived value of each shot.

    Nice little side effect of Hollywood shooting on Kodak Film: It’ll help them keep making film for photographers.

  • [PHOTO] R6 II Stop Motion Animation Firmware : This one slipped under Chris’ radar: Canon makes a special firmware for stop motion animation that is specifically supported by Dragonframe with the Canon EOS R/RP/R6 Mark II. The firmware increases live view resolution to full HD, adds focus peaking, has aperture lock and focus programming. Plus a couple of side effects.

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928 One Minute Six Hundred Pics

TFOP 245 discusses a new camera purchase and a conversation about historical photos and gold-plating photography on glass || Neurapix is a German startup that has developed AI-based software that can learn from previously edited images and apply the same edits to new photos at a fast rate || Two lawsuits against AI || xkcd has a comic about the simple answers to questions about new technology || RAILs (Responsible AI Licenses) is a new category of open-source licenses that are specifically designed for AI and machine learning projects || DGSpitzer is a digital artist based in New York who has trained an AI model with his own digital paintings & game concept art. He’s giving away this model || A Blog post on AI-generated portraits used in self portrait photography.

Topics:

  • [PHOTO] The Future of Photography : The Future of Photography episode 245 is out: We discuss Adrian’s first camera purchase of the year. What is it? Why? How is it? Also, a wide ranging conversation about historical photos and Jeremiah’s gold-plating photography on glass.
  • [AI, PHOTO, TOOL] Lightroom AI Edits : Neurapix is a German startup that has developed AI-based software that can learn from previously edited images and apply the same edits to new photos at a fast rate, using a Lightroom plug-in. The company’s pricing is more competitive than ImagenAI’s, which charges more per photo.
  • [KI] Two Lawsuits against AI
  • [OTHER] xkcd simple answers to new tech : There’s ALWAYS an xkcd. This time about the simple answers to to the questions that get asked about every new technology.
  • [AI, OTHER] : RAILs (Responsible AI Licenses) is a new category of open-source licenses that are specifically designed for AI and machine learning projects. They include clauses that address ethical concerns around the use of AI, such as ensuring that the AI is not used for harmful purposes or in ways that discriminate against certain groups of people, require developers to provide detailed documentation about the AI system, and allows third-party organizations to audit the AI system to ensure that it is being used responsibly.
  • [KI] DGSpizer : DGSpitzer is a game developer, music composer and digital artist based in New York who has been working on AI-related projects, specifically colorizing old black & white footage, and has trained an AI model with his own digital paintings & game concept art as the dataset. The model, called DGSpitzer-Art-Diffusion, supports multiple keywords as different styles and is available for free use and fine-tuning, under an Open RAIL-M license.
  • [OTHER] Rate the show : I have a favor to task of you: TFTTF has just been moved to a new podcast backend on Apple’s servers, which resulted in losing all reviews. At least that’s what I assume happened. If you use Apple Podcasts, leave a review for the show, give it a rating, give it a review… that’ll help bring it up in the search results, especially nowadays as the podcast landscape has changed quite a bit. That would be awesome, thank you!
  • [PHOTO, AI] The Other Chris’ Blog Post About AI : (The other) Chris used a combination of AI-generated portraits and real photography to come up with a unique self portrait. Read his blog post about it and check out his pictures.

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