Sigma to Cease Development of MFT Lenses

In a move that doesn't bode well for users of MFT-format cameras Sigma has announced it will cease developing lenses for that format due to decreased demand.  (The source for this is an interview with Sigma head Kazuto Yamaki in the French-language PhotoTrend and translated in pertinent part in 4/3 Rumors.)

Sigma currently markets 16mm, 30mm, and 56mm lenses in MFT format (multiply by 2 to get the equivalent focal lengths) that are reasonably priced and have gotten stellar reviews.  According to what I've read, Sigma has no plans to discontinue them, at least not at present, but it's undeniable that MFT's future is uncertain.  After the recent changes at Olympus the only brand that still stands firmly behind the format is Panasonic and that is unlikely to change in the near future due to the popularity of such cameras as the Lumix GH6.  Even Panasonic, however, is moving increasingly toward the full frame format and may eventually fully commit to it.

Right now I'm very happy with my Lumix G9 - the MFT format works extremely well for me and I honestly don't think it deserves the lack of popularity it now suffers - and have no plans to abandon it.  I don't know, though, if it would be wise to continue to purchase additional lenses and accessories for it when the format's future is so uncertain

Lensbaby Double Glass Optic

Lensbaby has released its newest optic for use with its Composer mount, the Double Glass II, a special effects piece that creates an area of distorted bokeh around a central point of focus.  In order to accomplish this and create an interesting variety of bokeh patterns the optic makes use of nine specialty drop-in magnetic aperture disks.  The patterns derived from these include a five-point star, a heart, and seven other designs specially created for Lensbaby.

In general, the effect obtained by using the Double Glass optic,  aperture disks aside, is very similar to that created by the MFT Sol 22 lens which I already own and use on my Panasonic Lumix G9.  As this would indicate, there is a redundancy in certain of Lensbaby's products.  Another example would be the Soft Focus II which produces a pleasing soft focus effect very similar to that created by the Velvet 56, another lens I own and use on my G9.  For that reason I doubt very much I'll purchase either the Double Glass optic of the Soft Focus II, most especially as special effects optics are not something I regularly use in my work.

Newest Luminar Neo Update Released

 

I received an email from Skylum yesterday announcing the release of its latest update to Luminar Neo, version 1.7.0, that along with various bug fixes contains two major new features:

• First, integration with Adobe Lightroom has been improved and it is now possible to use certain extensions - HDR Merge, Focus Stacking, and Upscale AI - directly from the Lightroom plugin.
• Secondly, it is now possible when scrolling down the list of Neo presets to view the effect of each present while hovering over it without the need to first click and apply it.

The Lightroom functionality is really of no interest to me as I moved on from Adobe years ago, but the improved preset view is definitely a great convenience when editing my photos.

I downloaded the update today with no problem.

Instagram to Once Again Prioritize Photos

Several months ago Instagram caused consternation among photographers when, in an attempt to play catch-up with Tik Tok, it announced with a great deal of fanfare that it was altering its algorithms to favor reels and videos over still photography.  After having received substantial backlash, not only from photographers themselves but general users as well, the Meta division is now apparently having a change of heart.

A recent report in Adweek, based on input from "four social strategist sources," holds that views of Reels on Instagram have fallen off sharply in the past few weeks.  Such an abrupt change in algorithms is, of course, of most concern to major brands who now have to make major adjustments to their social media budgets and creative efforts, but it also impacts individual video creators struggling for recognition who now must drastically alter their strategies to achieve this end.

In spite of all the hand wringing, the move by Instagram was not entirely unexpected.  Its head, Adam Mosseri, had already acknowledged on January 20th, according to a report on The Verge, that "I think we overfocused on video in 2022 and pushed ranking too far and basically showed too many videos and not enough photos."

While Instagram's turn from video back to still photography may pose a headache for the accounting and creative departments of large brands as well as for individual video creators, it is definitely good news for still photographers such as myself.  I had actually intended, now that I've published my most recent novel And What If, to belatedly join Instagram, Tik Tok, and Tumblr in order to promote both the book and my photography as well as my recent work with AI-generated imagery,  It now seems, at least as far as Instagram is concerned, that my timing is spot on.

US Copyright Office Backtracks on AI Imagery

 

In an article on PetaPixel it was reported today that the US Copyright Office has reversed its recent decision on granting copyright to AI-generated imagery.  Specifically, the Office said it had erred in granting copyright to images contained in a graphic novel, Zarya of the Dawn, by Kris Kashtanova as those images had been generated through the use of Midjourney and were therefore "not the product of human authorship."

I must respectfully disagree with the Office's decision since in my own opinion, which is certainly not intended as a legal opinion, images generated with the assistance of AI are most definitely products of human authorship inasmuch as it is the human author's specific prompts that are responsible for the appearance and content of the images that are produced.  To deny the human's role in the process is to me somewhat akin to holding that a photographer should not be granted copyright to his images since they were actually taken by a camera.  In my view, AI image generators such as Midjourney are really no more than tools that an artist uses to give form to his vision just as the camera is a tool used by the photographer, through adjustments to its settings, to capture an image as he or she envisions it.  Obviously, neither the camera nor the AI image generator spews out images of its own volition without human input.

It will be interesting to see if the Office's decision is appealed and, if so, what the final outcome will be.  I think that at bottom the real problem is that all forms of technology are advancing so quickly in the 21st century that it is often difficult for laws and rulings to keep up with them.

Corel Announces Video Studio 2023

 

I received an email from Corel today announcing the release of Video Studio Ultimate 2023 with several new features.  These include:

• Title editing features and effects that will enable users to assign new title motion options to various stages of an animation as well as to make unique animated titles;
• Parallax Transitions that create a stunning 3D effect when moving from one scene to the next;
• Audio cues that allow users to set audio cue points on music clips manually or automatically;
• Increased format support.

Features unique to the app's Ultimate version include:

• Multi-Cam capture and screen recording;
• Color grading;
• Mask creator;
• Filters and overlays;
• Motion and speed effects.

According to the email, Corel is offering through March 26th a 35% discount on the price of the Ultimate upgrade, which brings the price down to $63.99.  It seems a good deal and I will most likely purchase it within the next day or two.

Free Ebook - And What If

I've just this week finished writing a new fully illustrated novel entitled And What If .  

The plot, which is quite imaginative if I do say so myself, concerns a young researcher who develops a device that, with the assistance of AI, enables him to successfully record and print out images directly from his dreams.  He's as mystified as everyone else when certain of those images, including that of a ravishingly beautiful young woman, begin to take on a life of their own.

I'm so excited about this book - I had such a great time writing it - that for the time being I'm offering a pdf version free of charge.  It really is an entertaining read, filled with adventure and romance, and I hope many of you, especially those who are as fascinated as I am by the amazing possibilities offered by artificial intelligence, will take the time to check it out even if only to view the many colorful images.

EDIT: The novel is now also available as a free ebook from Barnes & Noble in epub format.

On 1 Releases Photo RAW 2023.1

Earlier this week On 1 released an update to its flagship Photo RAW app.  The latest version, Photo RAW 2023.1, makes an already great photo processor / editor even better.  I already mentioned in an earlier post the new alternate sky swap method, but there are other innovations as well.

For one thing, the crop tool has been substantially overhauled.  In addition to the simple grid pattern overlay that's found in most photo editing apps, On 1 has added five new overlay patterns - Rule of Thirds, Diagonal, Triangles, Golden Ration, and Golden Spiral - that give users much greater flexibility when deciding how best to crop their images.

Another tool that's gotten a substantial upgrade is the healing brush.  In addition to its primary purpose, it's now possible to use the tool's brushstrokes to transform (i.e., scale and rotate), copy, and move objects within a given photo.

Perhaps not so exciting but still definitely useful are improvements to AI performance when using Resize and NoNoise that make these features considerably faster and an update to the User Interface that renders UI font sizes adjustable.

As a registered user of Photo RAW 2023 I've already received the update and have installed it without problem.  Since purchasing Photo RAW late last year I've been gradually moving more and more of my editing workload to it.  It's a very well thought out piece of software and amazingly easy to use.

DXO Announces PhotoLab 6.3

 

DXO  has  recently announced an upgrade to PhotoLab 6, my preferred RAW processor.  The thrust of the changes in new version 6.3 are aimed squarely at color control, an area in which in my opinion DXO has long held an edge over its competitors, most notably Adobe Lightroom.

First of all, according to the DXO website, users will now have available paper and ink simulations that will enable them to "soft proof" their photos to ensure that printed images conform as closely as possible to those seen on the monitor screen.  The feature includes a "preserve color details" slider that will protect color detail in highly saturated parts of the image when moving to a smaller color space.

DXO has also introduced a "wide color gamut space" it claims is superior to both sRGB and Adobe RGB in preserving color fidelity.  Interestingly, the new color space will support JPG and TIFF as well as RAW during the editing process.

Finally, when using the crop tool photographers will now have the option to access the maximum image recorded by the sensor.

The upgrade is free for current PhotoLab 6 users such as myself.

Open AI Addresses ChatGPT Cheating Problem

Following its recent release by Open AI ChatGPT, the conversational mode information provider, has created a online sensation that has had few parallels and serves to demonstrate the widespread interest and fear generated by recent advances in AI.

One of the greatest fears, announced early on is that the new app will enable cheaters, such as students who will come to depend on it to write their papers for them.  According to an article in Japan Today, Open AI is moving to address these fears through the release of an AI Text Classifier that will hopefully identify those writings generated by AI rather than by humans.  It says a great deal about human nature that such a device should be considered necessary, but it is also indicative of how readily the capabilities of AI are embraced by the general public who apparently have no qualms surrendering their own creative initiative to a machine based intelligence.

On 1 Announces Alternate Sky Swap Method

On 1 has announced that it will soon be releasing an update to Photo RAW 2023, its flagship RAW processing / photo editing tool that was only released in October.  (That was quick!)  In a recent email it was revealed that the update will include an alternate method of sky swapping.  The article accompanying the email stressed that the original method (Method A) will work fine in most situations and should still be used as the default method.  The alternate method (Method B) is really only for rare tricky situations, such as that shown in the video, where Method A fails to deliver a satisfactory result.

To be honest, I've always found that the sky swap feature included in Luminar Neo does an excellent job and have accordingly always turned to that app when wanting to change the sky in my photos.  Still, it's always great to have options.

A Look Ahead, A Look Back

Perhaps it would have been more appropriate to have posted this on New Year's Day, but better late than never in addressing the future direction of this blog as well as a quick look back to see where it has been since I resurrected it in March of last year.  (Prior to that, up to its discontinuance in 2019, the blog had been devoted to reporting on cultural events in New York City.)

It seems now I was more prophetic than I could have imagined when I subtitled the blog "The Emergence of AI."  At the time I had not yet heard of AI imaging apps such as DALL-E 2 and Stable Diffusion and was thinking primarily of the implementation of AI features into existing photo editing apps that I felt had been pervasive enough to justify the title "Digital Photography 2.0." 

Once I did learn of the existence of said AI imaging apps I became far more interested in the possibilities they offered than in any advances in digital photography.  In fact, I came to see AI imaging as a form of digital photography in which the camera itself was no longer necessary and which was limited only by the extent of an individual creator's imagination.

Ever since the 1960's I have been fascinated by the Aldous Huxley quote (from which the music group The Doors took their name): "There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception."  It really seems AI imaging is fulfilling the promise of that quote by swinging the doors wide open.  Accordingly, I intend going forward to devote as much of this blog's reporting to AI imaging and related matters as to digital photography.

The above AI image was generated by Stable Diffusion in response to a one-word prompt - "Neuromancer" after the visionary classic novel by William Gibson.

Problem with Clever Photographer Landscape Overlays Bundle

As I reported in a recent post, I experienced an annoying problem with a Landscape Overlay Bundle I had purchased from Clever Photographer and had attempted to install in On 1 Photo RAW 2023.  Very briefly, when I had attempted to import several of the overlay categories into the On 1 app through Manage Extras in the File menu the app had abruptly shut down without importing any files.  After a certain amount of back and forth with On 1's tech support people who really went far out of their way to be helpful I learned the problem was that certain overlays had been saved by Clever Photographer in CMYK color mode rather than RGB and it was this that was causing the shut down.

I subsequently contacted Clever Photographer and received soon after a reply from the company's Customer Service Manager addressing my problem.  The email stated that no one had previously reported such a problem (perhaps because the most recent version of Photo RAW was only released a few months ago) and kindly offered to convert the problem files to RGB for me.  By then I had already done the necessary conversions myself in Photoshop but was nevertheless grateful for the offer.

In general, I found the two Clever Photographer bundles I've purchased to date (the other was the Luminar Neo Power Bundle) to be good values for the price and have been heartened sufficiently by the Customer Service Manager's response that I will continue to do business with the company in the future.