Clever Photographer

Responding to an ad on Facebook, I purchased on Christmas Eve Clever Photographer's Luminar Neo Power Bundle for a sale price of only $39 ($10 less than currently shown on CP's website).

The bundle contains literally hundreds of presets, skies, textures, overlays, LUT's, backgrounds and sky objects as well as two "working layers" and a master course that purports to explain every slider contained in the Neo app.

After paying with PayPal, I downloaded the bundle without problem and am now in the process of installing its contents into Neo, so far without issue.  (There are helpful installation tutorials on CP's website.)

I'm very happy with my purchase considering how much material I received for the price.  It's turned out to be a great Christmas present to myself.

Happy Holidays!

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful holiday!

Microsoft Designer

I had placed myself on the waiting list for Microsoft Designer a while back and last week received an email from MS granting me access to the app.  As my work does not ordinarily include design creation I have not yet begun using the app, though it certainly seems a useful enough too if I should ever need to create a logo or something of that nature, especially since it appears to contain at least rudimentary AI imaging capabilities.

B&H Depth of Field Conference 2023

I received an email earlier this week from B&H inviting me, as a "valued customer," to the 2023 edition of the Depth of Field photo conference to be held February 7th and 8th at Manhattan's New Yorker Hotel.  

According to the email, the conference's theme will be "Light the Path" and will feature Emma Summerton, the official 2023 Pirelli Calendar photographer, as keynote speaker.  The email goes on to say that the conference will "showcase thoughtfully curated sets that are outfitted with pro lighting, grip gear and professional models."

The Main Stage and Exposure Stage presentations will be streamed live for anyone unable to attend.

B&H Sale on Used DSLR Cameras and Lenses

I received an email from B&H today announcing a sale on used DSLR cameras and used DSLR lenses.  I get sale announcements nearly every day during the holiday season, but they're not often on used equipment.  I've gotten some very good deals purchasing used equipment but one always need to check the condition carefully as there are, for all practical purposes, no warranties on anything used.

 

Panasonic Releases Redesigned 12 - 35mm MFT Zoom

Just in time for the holidays Panasonic has announced the release of a new 12-35mm (equivalent to 24-70) Leica DG Vario-Elmarit f2.8 ASPH Power OIS lens for its MFT cameras that is actually a redesign of its old GX Lumix that offered the same focal length.

The specs on the new lens are excellent and include a Nano Crystal Coating to reduce lens flare and ghosting and a POWER Optical Image Stabilizer as well as a constant f2.8 aperture that enables better shooting in low light.

Considering what it has to offer - not least of which is Leica lens quality - the optic is reasonably priced at $900 and is currently available for preorder at B&H.  It's not an item that I desperately need, but it would certainly be a big improvement to the Panasonic lenses I am currently using on my Lumix G9 to the extent I will almost definitely purchase one sometime in the near future.

Open AI Announces ChatGPT

Though not strictly speaking directly related to photography or even to AI imaging, Open AI's newest release ChatGPT nevertheless has great relevance to the subject matter of this blog inasmuch as it calls attention to the extent to which AI is revolutionizing 21st century technology.  Already there are those who are predicting that the app will replace Google Chrome in the very near future.

Essentially, ChatGPT is a natural language processing (NLP) model, which is really just another way of saying that it is an AI app that works in conversational mode.  One can thus ask it questions in everyday language and get answers that are for the most part correct, though subject to a number of limitations that are listed in the link above.  It is this ability to interact with AI through ordinary conversation that makes the app so attractive that it has already acquired more than one million users.

All that is required to begin using ChatGPT is an Open AI account, for which many including myself have already signed up in order to have access to DALL-E 2.  I will begin experimenting with the new app in coming days and am excited to learn what it has to offer and what new possibilities it will make available.

Adobe Stock to Accept AI Generated Images

I received an email today from Adobe Stock announcing that it will now accept AI generated images from users' accounts.  The email stipulated that all submissions must adhere to the generative AI content guidelines and must clearly be labeled "Generative AI" in the image title.  

The same email referenced an Adobe Blog Post entitled "Bringing the next wave of Artificial Intelligence to Creative Cloud" which announced that Adobe intends to "develop an approach that centers on the needs of creatives by integrating Generative AI in Adobe creative tools."  As an example the post asked readers to "imagine, for instance, AI within Photoshop that generates rich, editable PSDs."  Nor is Photoshop the only Adobe app to be mentioned in the post.  It goes on to say that "Generative AI incorporated into Adobe Express will help less experienced creators achieve their unique goals."

The same blog post also referenced the Content Authenticity Initiative that aims to establish "an open industry standard for content authenticity and provenance" by providing off-the-shelf open-source tools to integrate content credentials into your site, app, or service."  This last, of course, is of utmost importance for any creators wishing to retain credit for their AI creations.