It is June 2023, my name is Chris and you're listening to episode 994 of Photography Tips from the Top Floor.
Music.
Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to Tips from the Top Floor episode 994. This is Chris
and you're listening to Tips from the Top Floor, the longest running photography podcast
on the planet. Today I have an exciting lineup. We're going to dive into the intriguing world
of street photography with a bit of a twist. It's probably not what you think. We'll also be talking,
about the challenges of shooting in smoky wildfire conditions. Hello New York.
And the role of auto white balance in all that. In the realm of AI we're going to discuss a couple
of interesting tools. One to uncrop an image and another one to edit. We've also
got some news from Nikon. Let's just say it's about a firmware update that's more
of a trap than a feature. I think I'm on the top of my game today. And for all you
LEGO and Ainsil Adams fans out there, we've got a little treat for you. We'll
We'll also be talking, talking, taking a closer look at a camera that has recently gone viral.
And lastly, we will be exploring exposure as an interesting and slightly concerning
vehicle for storytelling.
So buckle up, grab your cameras. Let's get started.
Oh, by the way, thanks Hendrik for choosing to support Tips from the Top Floor on Patreon.
You're awesome. Let's dive in. Oh yeah, before we dive in, there's this gentleman.
Your stupid banner ad for cookies won't go away and covers a third of the screen, idiot.
Wow! Well...
I mean, ok, tfttf.com is the place to leave your feedback and this listener has just done so and the sweet sound of constructive feedback.
I can tell you have a way with words, sir.
And while calling me an idiot might be a bit uncalled for, your point about the cookie banner is noted.
It. And unfortunately, this banner is a legal requirement here in Europe. But I,
admit the implementation on tfttf.com on the website for this podcast for like
especially for mobile devices could certainly be improved a bit. So thanks for your voicemail. I'll look into it and see what I can do. All right now
into the show. Let's kick it off with street photography. Here's an article
from Petapixel. Street photography ethics, that has always been a bit of a hot potato
for photographers. And here's a photographer, his name is Hubert Napierala. He might have
found a good solution because he's using AI to hide the identities of his street photography
subject. He played with Dali and there is a way to kind of select a face and then have
it create another face that fits right in there so he just had to swap the,
faces of his subjects and Napierala believes that like if that if the face replacement does not impact the overall photo it is acceptable and I looked at
these photos and yeah I can I can see that working but he was banned from Facebook street photography group for sharing his AI modified work.
Now, he says photographers should be free to collect information on the streets legally,
but should respect the wishes of individuals who do not want their pictures taken. He sees that,
face replacement as an acceptable compromise for street photographers.
And.
Again, I looked at the photos. I think they work. At least most of them. Sometimes the expression
is important, sometimes it's not. It's the situation. But I would be interested in your
take on this. Because I'm also a bit conflicted. Part of my uncertainty may be due to the fact
that this won't necessarily be of much assistance here in Europe. Because taking a photo of someone
without their explicit permission is generally prohibited, even if their face is obscured.
Even though the idea of using AI to blur faces is intriguing, it may not be particularly
beneficial, at least in certain regions. And now consider Google's latest demonstration.
They've shown a system that identifies individuals without a visible face by using other features
and context and so on, which is very scary, which raises questions about privacy and.
That suggests that the practice of obscuring faces may soon lose its effectiveness.
So again, what's your perspective on this? tfttf.com slash.
Hi. Fires in color. Yeah. Last week, we've all seen these, these extraordinary pictures coming
from New York with all the wildfires in Canada, like produced a thick smoke blanket,
blanketing numerous cities in the northeast and the Midwest of the United States. And of course.
Especially New York, New York City, those photos were everywhere, even over here in Europe,
this is newsworthy. And the skyline did look kind of otherworldly with a very deep orange hue.
And then the air quality of course was also very poor. Now as a photographer I'm,
always a bit curious about the accuracy of colors in photos during such
phenomena because I know what cameras do, I know how cameras work, there are
multiple different algorithms for auto white balance.
And I've seen cameras in the past go horribly wrong with colors because they assumed something was due to a tint in light and not a tint in an object.
I remember many years ago someone sent us in a picture of like a little figurine they took a picture of on a green blanket and the camera completely made this green blanket gray.
I've come 100% color corrected for the green blanket and then the figurine was bright red or magenta. So.
Yeah It's a problem. So when I saw these deep orange hues in the photos in new york city,
Um, I was a bit skeptical, but then I stumbled upon a brilliant video. There's a link in the show notes
presumably by a fellow photographer who had the ingenious idea to film the surroundings in their deep orange glory while simultaneously filming a color
card in the same frame and this my friends is how you capture accurate color by using a color card or at least a gray card in in such a way it does not
only validate the surreal colors but it also adds like an extra layer of authenticity because it lets you check and so I've totally loved this approach,
it's a wonderful example of how we can adapt and innovate our techniques and,
get some a bit more truth in photography so yeah the orange was was mostly true
Oh, look, very, very...
Very scary and link is in the show notes. All right stability AI the the company behind stable diffusion,
And their AI image generator. They have released a new tool on,
Their clip drop dot CEO platform, which is a paid service with some free usage,
And that tool is called on crop Now if you've played with the latest Photoshop beta and it's built in like image generator this.
Might look familiar to you but uncrop makes this very simple for the rest of
us like it allows you to to adjust the aspect ratio of an image like you just
drag the the crop perimeter or if you take that base image and it's all in a
web browser you take that base image and make it smaller and place in the middle,
you increase the focal length and and it invents the rest of the photo and it
invents it in. If you don't go extreme and overdo it, it looks good.
You can just change the panorama to a portrait picture if that's what you need. You can make a tighter shot, more wide-angle. This
again is powered by Stabilities AI, like the text-to-image model, and gives
you... it's not perfect on the first shot usually, so it gives you like a four,
representations and you choose the one that you like best or you run this again. Again there's,
a bit of free usage there. It can be used to improve your composition or fit images into a,
specific social media aspect ratio and of course...
Yeah of course again this is a paid service. There's a free I think lower resolution one.
You might be in a queue and wait for a while for your pictures to be handled.
The paid version is like $7 a month and they come with a bunch of more tools.
Again, very simplified. If you have the tech chops and the according hardware or like using
an online platform, if you have those skills and means you can do this whole uncrop thing at home
on your own computer with many more parameters. But if you just want to give it a shot,
link is in the show notes. AI. Let's continue with AI because this is another one that has,
gone through, came across my different timelines a few weeks ago. And that is draggan.
Dragan. So it's Dragan. It's a generative adversarial network and it It addresses a thing... I'm not sure if it's already available as a tool, but it's...
Undoubtedly going to find its way into photo editing tools like okay so here's the situation
fixing fixing closed eyes in a portrait or like softening the skin or stuff like that that's been
fairly simple using existing photo editing tools but now imagine your job is to like.
Edit a photo of a person to like you they're looking to the side and you want them to look
straight at the camera or change someone's frown into a smile that's the stuff that
is a bit harder. Now, researchers have come up with this new image manipulation thing called
DRAGGAN that employs generative AI. And it's a generative adversarial network, which they tend
to be much faster than the now more, well, they're called diffusion-based ones. Stable diffusion is
one, DALI is another one of those that take their time, have a lot of, like need a lot of horsepower
to run. And the GANs are typically much faster, a bit older, but they've built this drag GAN
which will give you exact control over elements in a photo such as pose or shapes or expressions
and the placement of objects seems to be a very straightforward process.
Graphical user interface in the video demos and the like like like you add a handle to something
and then you drag one of the examples is a lion and they pull the lion's head to look at the
camera or another one is a is a garment that is too short and they just drag it down and make it
longer i mean this yeah this is wild in the video demos demos it looks really wild and
And it's remarkably fast.
It seems to allow these changes to take place virtually in real time.
So it's not like the stability, stable diffusion, dolly, mid-journey ones where you have to press a button
and wait and wait and wait till it's done. It seems instant.
And I mean, compared to tools like, I don't know, Photoshop's warp tool,
Dragon is significantly more advanced and I'd say it essentially recreates elements within the frame.
And the linked article from The Verge provides several demos of the technology in use.
If it comes out in the tools and you're usual suspects, then that's a breakthrough.
That's a real breakthrough that will make advanced illustration work and editing accessible
to a lot of people. A lot of people. And of course that will raise the question again
of can we trust photos? Well, anyway, that's certainly one to keep an eye on.
All right, here's something that caught my eye.
And it's about Nikon. They've gone and done something quite interesting.
They have released a firmware update, version 4.0, for their Z9 camera.
Now, I don't usually spend a lot of time here on firmware updates,
but this one I thought it was worth a mention.
Because what's so special? Well, it is the new auto-capture feature.
Which is pretty much turning your camera into a smart photo trap.
You know those wildlife cameras?
You strap to a tree and then it triggers as soon as it detects motion?
Well for this feature you can set criteria.
And that could be movement, that could be a distance or even I think subject recognition
to a certain extent. And then when those conditions are met, um, your camera goes click.
So it's a bit like having like an extra pair of hands that never get tired.
And um, question of course is who needs this?
Because who wants to strap, who wants to create a really expensive wildlife camera and leave
it out in the forest strapped to a tree? I wouldn't do this to a, to a Z9.
But uh, the answer is of course like there's, there's professional photographers who need to set up.
Their gear in places where they can't stick around for long, could be behind a goal in
a soccer game or attached to the hoop of a basketball game. And in the past, photographers
had to set up their cameras and then remote control and hope that they get everything
right. And in that case, hey, only in focus pictures if your condition is the focus, for
example. So yeah, no need for remote control cables or network connections and there will be other uses for that.
Anyway, the firmware update gives the Z9 an improved user interface as well and better
video capabilities. So if you're a Nikon user with that camera, that might be worth a look.
All right, here's a weird one. I think a weird one.
A few weeks back, something quite unique caught the attention of the world of the photography
world and it flooded my timelines and my inbox with people pointing me towards it going you
have to look at this, this is amazing.
And it was that, I'm pretty sure you have seen this if you read like photography blogs
and things, it was a camera named Paragraphica and it had this weird red protrusion on the
front look like weird organic red thing in the front and this camera is the brainchild of the
of a danish danish designer bjorn karman and what makes this camera stand out is that it
doesn't have a lens it doesn't really take a picture it makes one um and then for that it
uses location data like the gps data and some apis in the background i think it goes on to google
image search and that kind of stuff. And then it uses stable diffusion to create images that.
In the best case echo the real environment that you're in. But they don't replicate it, they.
Make a picture based on I think time of day, weather information, these kind of things go
in there as well. And again, it's an art project, it's not an actual camera, you will never be able
able to buy this, the camera, in air quotes, camera is built on like a raspberry pie.
And it has a 3d printed case and the red element on the front is completely non-functional it's
just a design element which is inspired by the the feelers of a mole of a specific mole,
so technologically speaking that thing the engine of that camera is is powered by api
calls and stable diffusion. So it's AI plus a bit of programming. And Carmen, the creator,
he has clarified again, this is an art project, it's a design project, it's not an attempt to,
revolutionize photography or to manufacture a product. But his website, you can play with this
on his website in a virtual version. I haven't really managed to get a result out of there
because the back end seems to be, at least when I tried it, seemed to be fairly bogged down because
yeah this thing went viral and this is my actual main point of this segment because what intrigued
me was the viral nature of this project. It doesn't really introduce any groundbreaking technology.
For today's standards so the question is if you came across this and you felt compelled to share
it. Could you let me know why that impulse was there? Why you had that trigger that went,
I need to tell other people about it? I'm genuinely curious. I'm seriously curious.
I discussed this with other people and we haven't really gotten to a full conclusion here. So,
let me know tfttf.com slash hi and share your thoughts with me.
All right this next one I found this next one really interesting on a meta level because when we talk about
things like photo manipulation there's this general tendency to think about,
like photoshop and airbrushing and adding or removing elements in a photo easy to do these days.
But then exposure on the other hand is usually seen as a tool for for correction rather than
manipulation right you want a photo to be well exposed or to represent a time of day
And again, it's typically used to lighten or darken an image, you'll create a balanced photo and so on.
However, I recently stumbled upon an intriguing article on fair.org, which is a progressive platform looking at bias and inaccuracies in the news media.
And they suggest that exposure can also be a tool for manipulation.
Now before you jump to any conclusions let me just assure you this my main focus here is entirely on
photography and storytelling. It's not on the political side. Now the article delves,
into how certain media outlets are.
Allegedly, purportedly manipulating images to portray a specific image of various countries.
And that might be countries that we might not be friends with.
And the way those media do this is as simple as underexposing photos.
Photos, which does have the, which you can cast a feeling of gloom and despair over.
Over pictures that are, that are actually not like that. They're actually bathed in
sunshine and feature lush green landscapes and, and having been to countries, to poor
countries, to countries that, yeah, where, where, where that is the case, people might
be poor and so on. But the pictures, the happy faces of people are usually very real and
give you that feeling of, wow, this is a very nice place. So the article suggests that that
isn't just a one-off occurrence, that media use underexposure to change the feeling. And
by the way, if that's the image at the top of an article, that can inform your entire
perception of that article. It's like music in movies that creates the mood
and this underexposing a picture can do this. Now of course the ethical
implications of this are certainly questionable and to drive their point home the authors of the article adjusted the brightness of these underexposed
photos which if you see those side-by-side that reveals like a much more cheerful atmosphere that could potentially alter the entire approach to the according
articles.
Now, I find this really interesting from a storytelling point of view, again, because
exposure in the past has not necessarily been a storytelling element, but the power of exposure
in photography and how it can be used to, or rather misused to change perceptions, that
certainly a fascinating topic to keep in mind when looking at articles and I'd be interested
in your thoughts on this. Have you ever come across something like that where you actually
noticed it? Let me know. tfttf.com slash hi.
All right, last but not least, LEGO. LEGO! There's a LEGO kit out. Well, it's not a real LEGO kit.
There's the...
What's the website? I'll link to it in the show notes. There's a website where you can hand in ideas
about LEGO kits, and those LEGO kits then get.
Put to a vote, and that vote will, in the end, won't decide if Lego actually manufactures that kit but it at least brings it to their
attention. So I think that they say if it has 10,000 votes then it will be for them
to vote on it internally. Anyway, if you're a Lego fan and if you are a fan of Ainsil
Adams there is a suggestion for a Lego kit featuring Ainsil Adams. The set is called
The Landscape Photographer, it has a lot of votes, I haven't checked in a while.
Let me do this live here on the show. The Landscape Photographer is at 8245 supporters and 721 days left.
So yeah, it has a good chance of becoming, well, at least of getting attention.
And it features a patch of landscape and a tree and Ansel Adams iconic station wagon,
the one with the wood plating on the side and the platform on top, because that was
one of the places that Ansel Adams liked to shoot from.
So if you're a LEGO fan, if you're an Ace of Diamonds fan, and if you want that LEGO set,
By all means, go on over, follow the link and cast your vote to make your favourite LEGO set a reality.
And that was it for today, thanks for tuning in, thanks for joining me, and thanks to all.
Music.
The patrons who support the show.
You can do so as well at tfttf.com slash Patreon. Thank you all so much.
You can find the show notes at tftgf.com and of course inside your podcast player.
Check out the latest episodes of the future of photography podcast where we looked into,
Apple's latest tech from WWDC including the reality pro of course where we explored things
from mind reading cameras to Adobe's innovations and even discussed the impact of landmark,
copyright cases on creative endeavors. That's all at thefutureofphotography.com,
and of course inside your podcast player.
Also quick reminder the Eastern European photo road trip in... wait... the Eastern European,
electric photo road trip in September from Berlin to Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest,
all the way to Transylvania is almost sold out. There's only one single spot left. Check it out
at discoverthetopfloor.com.
And now go out and take amazing photos.
Be nice to each other. Remember photography is not just about the gear.
It's about the story you tell. Use all the means that you have at your disposal to tell these stories.
Music.