PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FROM THE TOP FLOOR

935 Spy Stuff

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 16:25:28 +0000

Chris dives into a legal battle as music photographer Alec Byrne sues Getty Images, explores a nifty DIY Game Boy Mini Camera, unravels how AI reconstructs 3D scenes from eye reflections, geeks out on physical camera simulations in Blender, marvels at a super-sensitive camera changing art conservation, ponders National Geographic’s layoffs, and discovers a trendy selfie technique, all in this jam packed episode.

Topics:

[NEWS] Getty Sued : Music photographer Alec Byrne is suing Getty Images for copyright infringement, alleging they sold his photos, including a 1974 ABBA shot, without his consent. This comes as Getty Images is also suing AI image generator Stable Diffusion for copyright infringement.
[COOL] Cool Project: Gameboy Mini Camera : The Game Boy Mini Camera is a fun DIY project. This compact device is a shrunken version of the original Game Boy Camera that uses the original ROM and an iPhone XR lens.
[NEWS] Blade Runner Enhance: Eye 3D : An AI-powered method developed by the University of Maryland that can reconstruct 3D scenes from the reflections in a person’s eye. This technology, using neural radiation fields, could change photography and raise intriguing questions about privacy.
[COOL] Nerd Level 10k: Blender Camera : Blender is an open-source 3D software that can do physical simulations, including light. A photographer has used it to create a virtual camera, simulating optics, lenses, and even film layers, resulting in stunning images. Awesome!
[SCIENCE] Science: FLIM Cam : Scientists at King’s College London have developed a super-sensitive camera using macroscopic fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) technology for art conservation. This camera accurately differentiates centuries-old varnish from paint and canvas, revolutionizing the precision and preservation in art restoration.
[NEWS] National Geographic Layoffs : National Geographic, renowned for its photojournalism and wildlife photography, has reportedly laid off its last staff writers and other employees, hinting at a potential decline. Despite these changes, the magazine insists it won’t impact their storytelling quality, marking a significant shift in the landscape of photojournalism.
[TRENDS] TFTTF Trend Watch: Screenshotting : TikTok influencer Liliana Madrigal has popularized a new selfie technique: screenshotting the image on the front-facing camera instead of taking a photo. This method, she claims, results in better lighting and overall quality, highlighting a shared frustration with the iPhone’s AI computational features. About 4 million people seem to concur.

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2025 Photo Tours with Chris Marquardt

ONLY 3 SPOTS
May 2025: Eastern European Electric Photo Road Trip, 10 days drive and explore with Chris (Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Transylvania)

German workshops:
» HS Mensch
» HS Licht
» HS Sehwerkstatt
» Großformat (analog)
» Analog Einstieg

» Discover the Top Floor - Photo Tours and Workshops with Chris Marquardt

934 Facial Fakes, Fiery Frames

Chris Marquardt — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 17:36:56 +0000

In this episode, Chris explores a unique twist on street photography, discusses the challenges of auto white balance in wildfire conditions. He also delves into the world of AI with Uncrop and a quick GAN. There’s news from Nikon, a treat for Lego and Ansel Adams fans, a look at the viral AI-“Camera” Paragraphica, and an exploration of storytelling through exposure.

Topics:

[COOL] Street Faces and AI : Street photography ethics has always been a hot potato but photographer Hubert Napierala might have found a good solution. He has used artificial intelligence (AI) to hide the identities of his street photography subjects. Napierala believes that if the face replacement does not impact the overall impact of the photo, it is acceptable. So, what’s your take on this? Chris is a bit conflicted. Share your thoughts at tfttf.com/hi
[COOL] Fires and Color : Last week, we witnessed an extraordinary event where wildfires in Canada produced a thick smoke that blanketed New York City and other places. As a photographer, we should always be curious about the accuracy of colors in photos during such phenomena though. Here’s a brilliant video showing the great idea to film the surroundings in their deep orange glory, while simultaneously filming a color card in the same frame. Genius!
[COOL] Clipdrop Uncrop : Stability AI, the company behind Stable Diffusion, an AI image generator, has released a new tool called Uncrop. If you’ve played with the latest Photoshop beta and its built-in image generator, this might look familiar to you. Uncrop allows users to adjust the aspect ratio of images by dragging the crop perimeter. Yep, you can just change a panorama to a portrait aspect ratio. Or you can make a tighter shot more wide-angle. This is powered by Stability AI’s text-to-image model, Uncrop uses AI to analyze source images and generate visually plausible representations to fill in the blanks. It can be used to improve photo composition or fit images into specific social media aspect ratios. Of course, the results may not always be accurate, especially with images that have extensive missing content. For this, uncrop gives you four different results to choose from. There’s a free version that will give you a taste and a paid version at $7 per month. And of course if you have the tech chops and the according hardware or online platform skills, you can do this uncrop thing at home too.
[COOL] The DragGAN Edit : Fixing closed eyes in a portrait or softening skin has been fairly simple. Now imagine your job is to edit a photo of a person to rotate their head towards the camera or to change someone’s frown into a smile. Researchers have come up with a new image manipulation system called DragGAN that employs generative AI to provide users with exact control over elements such as pose, shape, expression. Not quite a product yet, but it’s just a matter of time until you can attach drag handles to anything in a photo and change it without 10 years of photo editing training.
[NEWS] Nikon Z9 Camera Trap : Nikon has released an impressive firmware update, version 4.0, for the Z9 camera, introducing the noteworthy Auto Capture feature, essentially transforming the camera into a smart photo trap. This feature empowers the camera to automatically take photos when set criteria like movement, distance, or subject recognition are met. This innovation is especially beneficial for professional photographers needing to set up multiple cameras in inaccessible areas, eliminating the necessity for remote controls or network connections. Additionally, the firmware update enhances the Z9’s user interface and video capabilities, making it a must-check out for Nikon Z9 users.
[NEWS] Paragraphica “Camera” Gone Viral : A few weeks ago, a peculiar camera named Paragraphica, created by designer Bjørn Karmann, garnered global attention. Unlike traditional cameras, Paragraphica doesn’t use a lens; instead, it implements location data and stable diffusion to mirror the real world, albeit imperfectly. Built on a Raspberry Pi 4 with a 3D-printed design, the camera’s striking feature is a non-functional, mole-inspired red detail on its front. The technology behind it involves API calls and stable diffusion. Despite this not being a ground-breaking leap in terms of technology, it has managed to go viral, which prompts the question: if you’ve shared it, what drew you to do so? I invite you to share your thoughts at tfttf.com/hi
[THEMA] Exposure Story Telling : A recent article on fair.org, a progressive platform that examines bias and inaccuracies in media, argues that photo exposure — traditionally viewed as merely a corrective tool — can be strategically used for manipulation. Illustrating how some media outlets allegedly underexpose photos to purposefully create a sense of gloom, this article brings attention to the potential misuse of exposure as a tool to influence perceptions by altering visual narratives. It comments on the ethical implications of such strategies and demonstrates that adjusting the brightness of these underexposed images could portray a completely different, brighter and mor positive narrative. This topic prompts a deeper consideration of the power of exposure in photography as a tool for nuanced storytelling. Please share your insights at tfttf.com/hi
[COOL] Ansel Adams Lego Set : “The Landscape Photographer”? is a proposed LEGO set that pays homage to the legendary Ansel Adams, and it’s making waves on LEGO Ideas. This set, crafted by LEGO builder and photographer Nick Micheels, aka LobsterThermidor, encapsulates the spirit of landscape photography with a photographer perched on a vintage wooden panel station wagon, snapping away with a large-format 8×10 analog camera. If it gets 10,000 votes, the official LEGO team might just bring it to life. Ansel Adams is a name synonymous with black and white landscape photography, especially of the American West. This LEGO set not only embodies his work but also celebrates the art of landscape photography.

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933 Hawk Birdhouse and the Mickey Mouse Camera

Chris Marquardt — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 06:00:58 +0000

Presenting jam-packed newsreel, a new book, French influencer law, semantic segmentation in real-time, dpreview’s archive, a new film by Fuji, the Mickey-Mouse-Leica and DALL-E coming to a browser near you.

Special guest Allan Attridge of Two Hosers fame (he now also builds furniture on YouTube) and Chris talk about life, creating youtube videos and growing as a photographer.

Topics:

[PHOTO, COOL, NEWS] The Film Photography Handbook 3rd Edition : +++ BREAKING +++ The Film Photography Handbook, fresh out in its 3rd updated edition by Chris Marquardt and Monika Andrae offers a comprehensive resource on film photography for both experienced and new photographers, covering various cameras, formats, exposure settings, film processing, digitization, and fostering creativity. Updates include instant photography, Polaroid, Instax formats, camera backs, color film development, digitizing film using a camera and crowdfunding for film photography projects. Pick it up at the link above, get 40% off using code FILM40
[NEWS] France suggest influencer law : The French government proposes penalizing influencers who don’t disclose Photoshop or filter usage in their posts, aiming to increase social media transparency and protect users from manipulated images’ negative effects. The penalties include up to 6 months in jail and fines up to 300,000 EUR.
[NEWS] SAM by Meta : Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, has introduced an open-source AI model called SAM that can isolate objects in images and videos with a single click, offering real-time semantic segmentation and potential applications in photo editing, VR, and social media.
[NEWS] DPReview [Update] : It seems that the public outcry over the shutdown of Digital Photography Review (dpreview) has been (at least somewhat) heard by some inside Amazon. At least they released an update that includes promising a few more articles beyond the officially announced April 10 date and the announcement of an archival effort, which had so far been taken up by archive.org
[NEWS] New Fujifilm Film : Fujifilm plans to launch a new 400 Color Negative Film, possibly replacing the Superia X-TRA 400, with release details and pricing yet to be announced. The film can already be found on various websites, including B&H or Moment, and rumor has it that a roll will be around $10
[COOL] Mickey-Mouse-Kamera : If you hear the term “Mickey Mouse Camera”, would Leica be the first to come to mind? They released a limited Mickey Mouse-designed Q2 camera edition for Walt Disney’s 100th anniversary, limited to 500 units at a recommended price of $6000
[NEWS] Edge integrates DALL-E : Microsoft Edge becomes the first browser to integrate OpenAI’s DALL-E AI image generator, allowing users to create images directly from the browser’s sidebar. Any plans to incorporate that in your photography/project workflow? Let me know at tfttf.com/hi

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932 You’ve Been Tricked!

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 21:49:20 +0000

Yes, they have been tricking you. Millions of albums sold that were produced with cheap plastic gear. Inconceivable! Also on today’s show: a few words on dpreview’s demise (and resurrection), some thoughts (and a request for feedback) on guilt, fear and frustrations in photography. Plus thoughts on CJ Chilvers’ latest post about the gear race in music. It’s delightful and fits right in with what I’ve been saying pretty much forever.

Topics:

[NEWS] dpreview is shutting down : So, Amazon pulls the plug and shuts down dpreview on April 10th. But fear not, Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake already have a new home with Petapixel. Also the Internet Archive is working on backing up dpreview – so not all is lost. Dpreview has been a decades-long companion for us nerds. And while I rarely go there these days, I’m glad it won’t be completely gone. Whew, that was scary there for a second.
[PHOTO] : I have an episode in the works about Guilt, Fear and Frustration in photography. It’s not done yet, I’m still working on it, but I’d like to run a few of the key points by you and maybe get some inputs, some feedback. which you can leave at tfttf.com/hi
[PHOTO] They Tricked Us : Oh NOOOO, they tricked us into buying music that was produced with sub-par gear. I’m blatantly stealing CJ Chilvers’ post here. Long-time listeners might remember him from this very show. His post is about music, but it translates so well into photography. Worth a listen here and a read on his site. It’s the locksmith’s paradox all over again.

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931 The Moon Cheat

Chris Marquardt — Sat, 18 Mar 2023 20:54:32 +0000

A special episode with a special guest. Don Komarechka is back on the show. He and Chris discuss HP and their DRM, Samsung and their moon cheat and a German lawsuit involving a photo wallpaper. It’s also the week of the GPT-4 release and the two prove that they are geeks beyond photography.

Topics:

[OTHER] HP OfficeJets Angered Users : HP just ratcheted up their DRM with new printer firmware for some OfficeJets. Some of them now require the presence of an HP chip in ink cartridges to print at all.
[SOCIETY] The Photo Wallpaper Case : A bizarre copyright case in Germany: a photographer licenses a photo to a photo wallpaper maker, a holiday home host advertises their property with a photo that includes the wallpaper in the background. The photographer sues her for copyright infringement and wins. (Article in German)
[AI, PHOTO] Moon Mode Magic : Tests seem to confirm that even artificially blurry fake moons shot taken with with their Galaxy S23 Ultra will still turn out as crisp and detailed moon photos under the right conditions, suggesting that there might some AI cheatery at play. Does Samsung just swap in pre-made moon photos?
[AI, PHOTO] : GPT4 is here and it’s scary good. In a demo, OpenAI showed that it can program (someone used it to make pong and breakout, each within 60 seconds), a demo showed image processing, based on a notebook scribble it created a web page with html, css, js and in many disciplines it outperforms other LLMs in benchmarks. What’s especially interesting is it’s soon-to-be-released image recognition abilities which will likely allow us to add automatic captions and descriptions to each and every photo, massively improving accessibility. Chris an Don discuss other potential uses of the new tech.

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930 The Sky Mystery

Chris Marquardt — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 13:24:32 +0000

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

Chris Marquardt — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 18:48:49 +0000

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:
@chrismarquardt@chaos.social
@chrismarquardt@pixelfed.social
[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

Chris Marquardt — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 14:35:32 +0000

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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927 Resolution: 14k

Chris Marquardt — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 16:30:36 +0000

Today we’ll look at social media, massive full-resolution space imagery, weird lenses and the cautionary tale of big corporations vacuuming up massive amounts of imagery and what we can do about that (or if we even should). Also Steve has a fun film question: how to distinguish exposed (but not developed) film?

Topics:

[OTHER] Reminder: Find me on Mastodon : FYI: Just in case you’re looking for me on social media other than Twitter, you also find me on Mastodon. I’ve been active there since the 2018 exodus, which not many people remember. My official handle on Mastodon is chrismarquardt@chaos.social – hit me up, I enjoy the level of discussion and engagement on Mastodon a lot more than on Twitter anyway.
[COOL] SPACE: JWST In Full Resolution : Download James Webb images in full resolution. They are in the public domain and you can use them any way you like.
[THEMA] Adobe und das Machine Learning : Adobe and others need data. Lots of data. Machine learning scales really well with more data and more computer. Is it true that Adobe uses all your photography in their creative cloud to train their AI? Is there anything you can do about that? Should you even?
[COOL] The Weird Lens Museum : What a nice find. Mathieu Stern collects interesting and, yes, weird lenses and puts them to the test on his YouTube channel. Check out some of the really odd ones, like the home-made one or the eyeball.

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926 Digitizing 88-Year-Old Photos, AI Protests, Relaunches

Chris Marquardt — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 13:34:06 +0000

On this episode: JUST RELEASED: the third edition of The Film Photography Handbook. JUST RELAUNCHED: chrismarquardt.com (now offers information about my services in training, consulting, production, and photography as well as some references to past work). COMING UP: The 10-day Eastern Europe photo road trip in Sep 2023 for amateur and professional photographers to visit iconic landmarks and hidden gems in Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and Transylvania. OLD PHOTOS: A personal project to digitize and restore a collection of 88-year-old photos of my family on glass plate negatives and celluloid film. DRAMA: The debate over the use of AI in art is ongoing, with some people excited about its potential and others concerned about negative effects on artists and the industry.

Topics:

[PHOTO, ANALOG] New Release: The Film Phtography Handbook 3rd Edition
[OTHER] Relaunch: chrismarquardt.com : My new website answers the three important questions: A) What has Chris done? B) What can Chris offer (hint: a lot) and C) What is Chris up to right now? Check it out to learn about my services (training, consulting, production, photography) and to answer the general question: “what is it you’re doing anyway?”
[TRAVEL, PHOTO] Travel and Learn: Eastern Europe Photo Road Trip : Join me in September 2023 on this 10-day photo tour through Eastern Europe, visiting Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and Transylvania. Discover iconic landmarks and hidden gems as you capture stunning images of the region. Perfect for both amateur and professional photographers.
[PHOTO, PROJECT] Glass Negatives from 1933: The Between-The-Years Project : Over the holidays, I took on a personal project to digitize and restore a collection of up to 88-year-old old photos of a part of my family. These pictures are on glass plate negatives and celluloid film, kept in a wooden box, showing family and others from the towns of Rottweil and Horb am Neckar in Germany.
I spent a lot of time working on this project, carefully digitizing and restoring the negatives as needed. It was a labor of love, as these photographs are part of my family history and I’m excited to share them.

Overall, it was a rewarding and meaningful project for me to take on over the holidays. I am proud to have preserved and shared these glimpses into my family’s past.
[PHOTO, CREATIVITY, AI] What’s Up With the AI Discussion? : Artists on platforms such as artstation.com are protesting the use of AI in art, claiming that it is theft. While some people are excited about the potential of AI in art, others are worried about the potential negative effects on artists and the art industry. The use of AI in art is here to stay, but there is a question of where to draw the line in terms of what is considered art and what is not. This debate is not limited to art, as similar debates have arisen in other fields such as music, film, and photography. The potential for AI to increase productivity and efficiency is undeniable, but it is important to also consider the ethical implications of its use.
[NEWS] Drama in AI Land : An anti-AI group of artists has been rallying support against the use of AI in art, leading to the cancellation of the Unstable Diffusion project on Kickstarter and the suspension of the Unstable Diffusion account on Patreon. The group has raised over $150,000 in a GoFundMe campaign to lobby governments to make AI art illegal. The backlash has had a chilling effect on the entire AI art community, with some creators considering stopping their work or removing their association with it due to the potential career and personal implications. Unstable Diffusion has updated their website and moved to a direct payment system in response.
Kickstarter suspends Unstable Diffusion / Unstable Diffusion answers / Patreon suspends Unstable Diffusion / Pro-AI videos:
YT-Video The Most Common Arguments For & AI / YT-Video Stop the Lies!
[AI, PHOTO] Opting Out: Have I Been Trained? : Some (many?) AI art models have been trained using the LAION dataset of 5.8 billion images. If you want your art to be excluded in the future, here’s a site to register an account and opt-out your images from being included in the Stable Diffusion V3 model.

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925 Where Pilsener Is From

Chris Marquardt — Sun, 11 Dec 2022 19:28:57 +0000

Oh look, it’s a new episode! Reframing shots in 3D, a relaunched website, listener feedback, a look at NeRFs (no, not the toy guns) and the importance of the real world experience.

Topics:

[NEWS] Relaunched chrismarquardt.com : Chris has been working on a new website design to better showcase his various skills, experiences and showcase his art and projects. The website is organized into clear categories, making it easy to see the full range of what Chris does. The design focuses on simplicity and minimalism, with a clean and straightforward layout. If you have a moment, check it out at chrismarquardt.com and let Chris know what you think!
[COOL] : Stable Diffusion is now available offline, on your device. This new development allows for offline image generation on iPhones without the need for the cloud. It includes a range of features and customizable parameters, as well as the option to download specialized models. Although these models are large, they enable offline generation.
[PHOTO] Corridor Nerf : Chris has been exploring the potential uses of NeRFs in photography. NeRFs are a machine learning-based method for rendering photorealistic images, allowing for the complex interactions of light and materials to be replicated. One possible application is the reframing of photos in 3D, allowing for new perspectives to be created. While the technology is not yet production-ready, there is a clear path for its future development.
[PHOTO, AI] Drone nerf : Great example of using a NeRF in photography: Someone has been using old drone footage to generate a NeRF and modify the flight path, effectively 3D editing the video. This allows for variable focal length, the addition of a dolly zoom, and modification of the drone’s position in space.
[PHOTO] Oliver’s Romaina Photos : Oliver sent in some great feedback about his own Romania travels. Here are his travel blogs (in German) and photos.
[PHOTO, NEWS, CREATIVITY] The importance of the real experience : The trend towards virtual experiences is hard to miss. That’s why Chris is offering a real-world photo road trip to eastern Europe in response. The trip will allow participants to experience the sounds, sights, and culture of the regions, as well as spend time together honing their photography skills. Chris is currently forming two teams of three participants each and will be hosting a video chat to get to know each other before the trip. More information is available on the website.

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924 You’re Hoarding It Wrong

Chris Marquardt — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 17:10:15 +0000

Topics:

[COOL] Register Now: Eastern European Photo Road Trip : The 10-day Eastern European Photo Road Trip from Berlin via Dresden/Prague/Vienna/Budapest to Transylvania is now officially open for registration! The dates are: Tour 1 (Berlin to Transylvania) Sep 2-11 2023 and Tour 2 (Transylvania to Berlin) Sep 14-23 2023. If you’re interested, send Chris a mail at chris@chrismarquardt.com or get on the list. The (still slightly work-in-progress) new workshop site is at workshops.discoverthetopfloor.com. Questions? Drop Chris a line or a voice mail at tfttf.com/hi
[NEWS] Fujifilm Class Action : Class action lawsuit against Fujifilm regarding the X-Pro3. Hadn’t even heard about the issue, apparently some ribbon cable in the camera wasn’t reliable and caused issues on some (how many?) cameras.
[NEWS] Panasonic: Photo to Video – and Small TVs? : Panasonic’s CEO Akira Toyoshima says that they’ll focus more on video and less on still cameras. Which likely is about their compacts and probably means end of the LX line of cameras, LX10, LX100. But that’s not really surprising, given that everyone in the industry is feeling massive pressure on their compacts mainly from smartphones. Surprising that they also want to focus on portable TVs of all things. I have a perfectly portable TV in my pocket every day. It’s called a phone.
[PHOTO] How Much Unused Tech Do We Own? : The US population is hoarding $650 billion worth of technological devices they do not use. That’ll bring the average US adult to almost $2500 worth of unused tech. If you break out the 18 to 34 age bracket, that takes it to $3,691. On the other hand, the average annual consumer spend on technology is around $500. So if you have a habit of hoarding unused tech, you could easily finance your spending, especially as half of US adults report that they have never traded in a used tech item to get a new one. Might be worth it.

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923 THE TIME IS NOW

Chris Marquardt — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 18:45:48 +0000

(Photo by Jon Tyson)

This is an important episode. Probably more important than other episodes. And more urgent too. Why? You need to prepare yourself for a dramatically and very quickly changing creative landscape. And Chris is here to help you with the first steps.

Topics:

[NEWS] Affinity 2 Is Here : Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher 2 are here. All three products are available on all platforms (Mac, Windows, iPad).
And yey, still no subscription. You can get an early-bird on their new universal license (for all products on all platforms) for $119, the full price later will be $199.

No DAM, e.g. no Lightroom “killer” yet though. Something many had hoped for.

Some of the new features are nice. New layer panel: great. Designer 2: vector warp and shape builder are real fun to play with. Photo 2: finally non-destructive RAW development (first step to the DAM?), live and compound masks and live mesh warp are really useful. Publisher 2 now lets you combine multiple docs into books, supports footnotes and autoflow.

I like what they did. I also hope they’ll keep being great competition for Adobe. In a competitive landscape we all win.
[OTHER] : Switching over from 2 systems to one has been a bit of a game changer. Chris discusses the pros, cons and risks and how to mitigate them.
[PHOTO, SPACE] Largest Digital Camera : Usually we try to make cameras smaller. And lighter. And more portable. Well, scientists are now building the world’s largest digital camera and it’s part of a project called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, the LSST. It will help astronomers study billions of galaxies over the next 10 years. It’s 1.65 meters tall, has 189 sensors, has 3.2 gigapixels and its larges lens has a diameter of 1.57 meters.
[AI, PHOTO] AI-Generated Photos of Chris : A gallery of AI-generated pictures of Chris. All it took was upload 30 selfies to a website, click a button to train a neural network on those pictures and then type in prompts to generate new imagery. Gamechanger? You bet.
[PHOTO, AI] THE TIME IS NOW : Okay, this is important. And urgent. If you’re in the field of making art of any kind, be it photography, graphic design, painting, digital art, gaming assets, stock photography, product photography, you name it, if you’re in any of these fields, then NOW is the time to at least get your feet wet and familiarize yourself with the concepts and with the possibilities and with the limitations. Everyone needs to get at least an idea of a) what’s possible, b) how it works and you need to start thinking of how this could influence your line of work, how this could be a threat or a tool for you and how you might benefit from knowing a bit more about AI-generated art. The developments that this field is seeing right now are going really fast. So the time is NOW, not next year, not whenever.
And I’m especially talking about one new development and that is the ability to train your own network on pictures of your own person / item / thing. And that neural network will then be able to reproduce that person / item / thing in as many contexts and situations and light settings as you like. Have another look at the gallery that I shared earlier. All of these pictures are based on training a network with 30 selfies of myself. The training was fully automated, it took 45 minutes, it cost me 10 bucks and now generating a set of new selfies based on any text prompt describing what I want to generate, takes a couple of minutes and costs me a couple of cents.

Is it all perfect? No. Is it improving? Yes, and fast. The last 90 days of Stable Diffusion being in the open source have been one of the biggest game changers and liberators of creativity that I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

And I’ve seen many examples of democratizing the arts. And I’m happy to say that I’ve been part of several of these.

Let me give you a few examples.

There used to be a time when all music you heard on the radio was created in a professional studio. You needed specially treated rooms, you needed expensive microphones, you needed expensive effects gear and dynamic processors and 24-track tape machines. Then the mid 90s came along and things turned digital and you could record those 24 tracks on a PC, and you could run effects plugins that mimicked their expensive hardware brethren to a t. And many professional recording studios went under. I came from what back then was called the “home recording scene” and I ended up recording, mixing, mastering and producing music without owning an expensive studio, and that music was on par with many studio productions. And the gatekeepers had to reorient. They had to learn and evolve or stay by the wayside. I was part of that wave and I embraced it.

Then in the early 2000s photography went digital. And again, the gatekeepers were those with the expensive photo studios, the expensive medium format cameras, the expensive lighting rigs. And they looked down on the digital cameras and laughed at them. Those cameras weren’t up to par with their resolution and their color fidelity. Then the DSLRs dropped in price and the masses got access to new technology. And suddenly creativity was the limit, not access to expensive technology. The dark room went digital too and it was replaced by Photoshop and Lightroom. The analog workflow became digital. And I was part of that wave and I embraced it.

Then around 2005 radio went digital and turned into the podcast. That time the gatekeepers were the radio stations with their expensive studios and their big AM and FM transmitters and their radio licenses. And all of a sudden there were thousands and thousands of people like me who had something to talk about. And we had the internet to distribute what we talked about. And we found audiences. We found YOU. You’re listening to it right now. All of a sudden, every niche topic could find an audience. And I was was part of that wave and I embraced it.

And yes, right now we’re looking at the next big wave and it’s called AI-generated art. And AI-generated writing. And AI-generated music. Will it replace us? No, it won’t. Some of us for sure. But turns out it works best when working hand in hand with people like you and me. People who learn how to guide it, how to use it as a tool to supercharge their productivity.

So that’s why I suggest you give it a go. Get your feet wet. See what it’s about, learn the new tools, play, explore, see what’s possible, see where the limitations are, be informed and stay on top of the developments.

And I’d love to be one of your guides on this journey. Let’s learn together. Let’s explore together.

As a first simple step, go check out one of the many places where you can train your own model online for a few bucks. I suggest astria.ai ($10) or aipaintr.com ($2) – just to get your feet wet. Just to test the water. Both sites are relatively easy to use. You won’t need to be a coder or have any special skills, so that’s a simple enough testing ground. Astria.ai is the easier of the two, while aipaintr is a bit more involved, but both work really well.

Let’s explore this together. You’ll thank me later.

And by the way, if you want personal hand-holding, I’m also for hire. You can always book me over on sensei.photo for a private lesson to help you get up-to-speed. Just hit me up at sensei.photo.

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922 Free Camera Choice

Chris Marquardt — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 19:44:38 +0000

Convenience always wins. That’s why the iPhone camera app is by far the most used one. Not because it’s the best but because it’s the quickest to reach from the iOS lock screen. Not any longer. Chris presents a method to launch ANY camera app to the lock screen with a single tap. Glorious!

Also: a new tool that adds English subtitles to any video on Twitter, new AI tools in Lightroom and not even two months after its open source release, StableDiffusion has just announced their next steps: video, audio and 3D. Mind-blowingly quick developments.

Topics:

[COOL] Game Changer: Start Any Camera From Your Lock Screen : This is not click bait. You can now launch any camera app you like straight from the iPhone’s lock screen. No weird hacks.
[AI] Vidtranslator : Did you find a video on Twitter that is not in English? AI to the rescue. Reply with `@vidtranslator translate` to any tweet that has a video and it’ll add English captions.
[AI, PHOTO] AI-Masks in Lightroom
[AI, PHOTO] SD announcements : The StableDiffusion art generator has been released into the wild two months ago, followed by a huge wave of new tools and creative uses of the technology. They just had an announcement of their next steps. Video. 3D and Audio. Can’t wait to see where this is going.

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921 Video Editing Game Changer

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 13:23:50 +0000

Chris’ main workstation is still out, but a replacement is getting closer, in form of a fan-less compact laptop that will outperform the previous iMac Pro by a decent margin. This is mainly possible thanks to your support!

Topics:

[PHOTO] Flat Lenses Are Here : Flat lenses are finally becoming a reality. Just not in your camera. Metalenz received a big funding round and is already selling millions of cameras that have flat lenses. Chance are you will soon be using them without knowing about it.
[SPACE, PHOTO] Tree Rings In Space : JWST has made another spectacular finding. One that initially looks like something’s wrong with the telescope. Turns out it’s real and moving into space at the speed of 6 million miles per hour.
[AI, PHOTO] AI-Powered Homework, Good or Evil? : Students are using AI to write their papers. Of course they do. And teachers are getting worried that that will deprive them of the benefits of putting effort into homework. Are we facing a similar challenge in photography?
[PHOTO, AI] Video Editing Game Changer : If you edit video, you’ll know how difficult it can be to remove a background object in a clip. Or to clean up audio. Or to put someone in front of a new backdrop. Runway ML is about to change that. With an AI-powered video editor that runs in your browser and that some call a game changer.

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920 Death of a Workhorse

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 22:06:12 +0000

Chris brings you a bit of a different episode today because his main production machine has just died. Want to support? Go to tfttf.com/support

Topics:

[OTHER] Pellworm : We spent a week on Pellworm, a 37 square kilometer island located in the Wadden Sea. We’ve taken pictures too.
[COOL] Lost Places – Horror-Hospital … AI : Here’s one for spooky October. Someone has generated scenes from an urban exploration that never happened, in an old derelict hospital. Very eerie.
[FOLLOW-UP] : Cameras age, be it mechanical or the electronics. This is especially visible in the aging of the sensor of a digital camera. But there’s a reason you don’t really get to see it.

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919 And I Froze

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 13:52:43 +0000

Chris invites you into the world of building new neural pathways by talking about one of the biggest learning experiences he had in a long time. Also: how about using video tools to inspire some new photo editing tools?

Topics:

[AI, PHOTO] Greg Rutkowski : Fantasy artist Greg Rutkowski is not happy. His name shows up in a substantial number of AI art generation prompts to make the results more like his art style. While that made him much more known, it also means that it’s now fairly simple to create art that is inspired by his style.
[PHOTO, CREATIVITY] Coming from Video : Video production and editing has a few tools to offer that we could use in photography. A few have made their way into still photography already, such as LUTs for color grading and some cameras even offer zebra stripes to make manual exposure easier. But there are more that we haven’t really seen in still photography yet. One being video waveforms for judging exposure and node-based editors for more control over editing.
[PHOTO, CREATIVITY, AI] And I Froze… : Sitting in front of an empty text box can be a very daunting task. Chris talks about how his experience building the first prompts was very similar to that of AI god Andrei Karpathy and how he tries to cover both his caution regarding AI-induced societal changes and his excitement of building new brain pathways.

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918 Getty Bans AI

Chris Marquardt — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 12:41:02 +0000

Chris is catching up on the latest developments in the world of camera makers (Nikon goes 3D printing?!), new papers (awesome noise reduction), a train set with 10 miles of tracks (and photography thereof) and of one big question to Getty: is it really just about copyright questions? Really?

Topics:

[PHOTO, NEWS] Nikon vor 620 Millionen Euro Übernahme : Nikon is planning take over SLM technologies, a German company that specializes on 3D printing. The 620 EUR acquisition seems to be going forward. Nikon going into modern manufacturing seems like an interesting move.
[AI, PHOTO] RawNeRF : Denoising technology has been developed to near perfection over the last 20+ years. From simple pixel averaging to more recent AI-based detail restoration techniques. Now a paper about RawNeRF (NeRF standing for Neural Radiance Fields) outlines a new technique that uses multiple photos to achieve some pretty stunning results.
[PHOTO] Miniatur Wunderland, Laowa und Cybertruck : Miniatur Wunderland is located in Hamburg, Germany. Not only is it a huge train set with over 10 miles of tracks, they also have moving cars, planes, landscapes and it’s become quite a visitor attraction. They are also the perfect use case for both versions of the Laowa probe lens.
[PHOTO, AI, NEWS] Getty bans AI art : This one is not really surprising. Getty Images being one of the biggest commercial photo agencies has now banned AI-generated art from their library. This includes StableDiffusion, DALL-E and of course Midjourney. They claim it’s because of unclear copyright, but Chris suspects something different to be real reason behind the decision.

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917 Are Starlink the Good Ones?

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 20:09:51 +0000

A look at exponential growth (it’s the smartphones), an update about the state of satellite streak mitigation to keep the astro photographers happy, two history lessons (hello Lytro, hello Magnum) and a ground-breaking photo of a planet.

Topics:

[PHOTO] Have the Smartphones Won? : Here’s an interesting animation that shows various cameras since the 1950s and how many were sold. We start with sub-million numbers and take it from there. Have the Smartphones won? Oh well…
[SPACE, PHOTO, NEWS] Starlink and Astro Photography – an Update : Chris talks to astronomer Meredith Rawls about low-earth-orbit satellite light pollution in astronomy and astro photography. Meredith is involved in the CPS, the Center for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky From Satellite Constellation Interference and has a lot of really interesting insights. Including new information about how Starlink plans to mitigate satellite streaks coming from their constellation.
[PHOTO] Video Tip: The History of Lytro : Remember Lytro? Here’s a great video taking a good look at the history of a really interesting technology and how it ended up with Google.
[SPACE, PHOTO] JWST Images the First Exoplanet : Back in ep 912 Chris talked about how JWST finds exoplanets. One of those methods is direct imaging (e.g. taking a photo of it) – JWST hast done just that for the first time.
[PHOTO, NEWS] Happy Birthday Magnum! : It’s Magnum’s 75th anniversary and Chris takes a minute to talk about some of the key moments in their long life.

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916 12K to the Moon

Chris Marquardt — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 13:00:40 +0000

Image style transfer, 12k motion picture scan, a different kind of photo bomb, the moon photo conspiracy and of course the new iPhone 14 with its new 48MP camera.

Topics:

[AI, PHOTO] Stable Diffusion: image2image : Stable Diffusion has just added Image 2 Image functionality to their web interface. So you can drop in a crayon drawing and make it into a stunning photograph, just by giving SD a text prompt.
[PHOTO, ANALOG] 12k motion picture scan : A cutting-edge stroll down memory lane where we combine motion picture film (which is still used by many of the greats in Hollywood) with state-of-the-art 12k motion picture scanning in the lab. A great look behind the scenes.
[PHOTO, AI] : The iPhone 14 has been announced the other day, of course with updates to the cameras. The pro version will come with physically even bigger cameras, a larger 48MP sensor (all usable in ProRAW, otherwise pixel-binned to 12MP), a new 2x zoom mode that’s not digital zoom, but cropped from the sensor, better low-light performance, 24 fps for cinematic video, better anti shake, a new selfie-camera with autofocus and of course it’s filled with a ton of AI and neural processing.
[OTHER, NEWS] Photo Bomb : Don’t say the B word at an airport. Or, apparently, don’t bring a complicated-looking camera on an airplane. Here’s a weird story of a woman being convinced that a guy with a camera was in fact a terrorist, making the pilots do an emergency landing and leading to the photographer being detained for hours. He’s now suing.
[OTHER] S21 moon debunk : Remember the stories about the Galaxy S21’s 100x zoom that could take sharp images of the moon where other phones just produced a washed-out blog? Pretty soon the story emerged that Samsung used AI to detect the moon and replace it with better imagery. Well, someone went down the rabbit hole to figure out if that rumor was true.

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915 A Cambrian Explosion

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 19:50:48 +0000

We’re at the verge of a truly fundamental shift in creativity. AI is seeping into a lot of visual fields, including visual medicine. Also Sigma’s good old Foveon sensor is seeing some new life and we’ll have a look back at the birth of a truly remarkable instant camera, the Polaroid SX-70.

Topics:

[NEWS, PHOTO] Foveon Alive and Kicking : Sigma has made some great advances on its new Foveon sensor. Sigma CEO Kazuto Yamaki recently said that they are almost done with the prototype of a new version.
[NEWS, AI] Autonomous X-Ray-Analyzing Ai Cleared in the Eu : A fully autonomous system is now allowed to evaluate X-rays for unhealthy changes. Doctors will see only those that the system deems questionable. All others will never be seen by a human.
[PHOTO] Eames Polaroid Ad : Chris is a great fan of the engineering, design and aesthetics of the Polaroid SX-70. The revolutionary device defined instant photography for entire generations. Charles and Ray Eames produced this wonderful film introducing the camera, its uses and its technology.
[AI, PHOTO] SD Is Bringing a Creative Cambrian Explosion : Within the first week of the release of the open source image generator StableDiffusion, the community has begun creating a cambrian explosion of new creative tools.

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914 The Willingness to Lie

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 12:25:35 +0000

Chris is back from the Eastern Europe Photo Road Trip Scouting Tour (EEPRTST ) and if you haven’t watched his vlog about the tour, what are you waiting for?

Today’s episode includes the re-issue of 1 Hour 1000 Pics – Supercharge your Lightroom Workflow, some deep philosophical (and very meta) questions about deep fakes, a disruptor in the field of AI and a general look at what is now possible in computer vision.

Topics:

[PHOTO] 1 Hour 1000 Pics (free download) : Just a quick heads-up: Chris’ ebook 1 Hour 1000 Pics – Supercharge your Lightroom Workflow (free download) is still around and can still help you organize a lot of photos quickly. Even in times of AI.
[NEWS] Mojo Lens – AR Right in Your Eye : An AR contact lens with a display, gyroscope and battery, all right in your eye. A few months ago, this looked like vaporware to me. Now Tested.com had their hands on an actual prototype.
[PHOTO] About the Willingness to Lie : Hat off to Randall Munroe, maker of the xkcd comics. In #2650 he not only touches on a deeply philosophical point regarding visual fakes, he also adds in several meta layers and a ton of nerd humor, right down to the Cottingley DeepFakes.
[AI] : Just a couple of weeks ago everyone was talking about DALL-E, but now Stable Diffusion has taken its place. Stability.ai have open-sourced their models, which are as good if not better than what DALL-E can produce. And yes, you can run all that on your own GPU at home now.
[OTHER, AI] Autonomous Drone Racing Using Cameras Only : The drone in this video repeats a parkour several times at break-neck (or break-propeller) speed. It doesn’t do that on a pre-programmed path though, it does this by using computer vision.

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913 Epic Episcope

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 12:30:37 +0000

As Chris is on his way to Transylvania (you can follow him on his vlog), he talks about face fixers, an amazing photo and headline combo, re-dubbing movies and if your job as a photographer is safe from our new A.I. overlords.

(Episode artwork: DALL-E 2)

Topics:

[NEWS] Scouting Eastern Europe : As you hear this episode, Chris is on his way to Transylvania, crossing Eastern European borders and exploring Prague, Budapest and places in Central Romania for the upcoming 2023 Eastern Europe Photo Road Trip. Follow along on the Scouting Tour Vlog.
[PHOTO, AI] Face Fixers : Generating photorealistic faces in DALL-E can be hit or miss. They generally look really good, but sometimes the eyes are a bit mismatched or misshapen. Face Fixers to the rescue.
[PHOTO] Autofokus : What a wonderful example of storytelling using photography. And meta levels involving the headline too. This photo shows a German politician who just had a bit of a scandal regarding his mingling with parts of the German auto industry, specifically the CEO of Porsche. So the German paper ZEIT ran a story about this scandal. So what did the photographer do? Focused on a car behind the politician, with really shallow depth of field. And then they titled the article “Auto-Fokus” – Simply brilliant!
[PHOTO, AI] The Champion re-dub : In some countries, movies in a non-native language are subtitled. In some they dub movies to the local language. Germany is one of those and while the majority of Germans seem to be just fine with it, some people (including Chris) find it quite jarring because either lip-sync isn’t perfect, the voice doesn’t fit the actor or the voice performance doesn’t feel right. Here’s a new (and a bit mind-blowing) AI-based method that solves at least the lip-sync issue.
[AI] Tipping Points – Ash Jafari : Since DALL-E can now be used commercially, and as it’s improving, you will see more and more businesses wonder if they want to a) pay a graphic designer or photographer for 3 hours of work or b) write a prompt, iterate a couple of times and end up with a good enough result for their purposes. Within minutes and for just a few dollars. Ash Jafari makes the convincing point that we will see those tipping points sooner rather than later.
[COOL] Episcope Lens : Back in the 90s, the small-sensor DV cameras had the issue that all small-sensor cameras have: too much depth of field. There were several adapters on the market that allowed 35mm lenses to be used on DV cameras by means of projection. Here’s a DIY project that does the same but on a totally new level.

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912 The Locksmith’s Paradox

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 12:22:08 +0000

What do locksmiths have to do with photography? How about expoplanets? Find out on today’s episode.

(Episode artwork: DALL-E 2)

Topics:

[TOOL] SD Recovery : An amazing look at the technology that is used in data recovery to read a broken SD card.
[SPACE, PHOTO] Finding Exo Planets : Finding exoplanets has everything to do with the tech that we have in our cameras. The methods used to find if a star millions or billions of light years away has a habitable planet orbiting around it, use camera sensors to measure differences in brightness, motion and to measure changes in the spectrum of light coming from that star. And it’s fascinating.
[PHOTO] The Locksmith’s Paradox : There’s this paradox in which your work gets valued less the more experience you have. You can see that in photography every day.
[PHOTO, AI] The Stock Problem : An article headline at a big publication is hardly ever chosen by the person who wrote the article, but by someone (or by an A.I.) who specializes on maximizing clicks. We see the same issue with stock photos that are served in social media posts.

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911 All Things Interesting In Photography

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 12:17:37 +0000

The James Web Telescope is arguably the best camera.. not on the planet though. Chris looks at zoomable content, at being there and how that’s different from the limited senses that we can capture with our photography. Also: another quick look at DALL-E and what it has to do with pizza.

Topics:

[PHOTO, SPACE] IR: Areas of star formation : The James Webb Telescope sees more. This infrared image of spiral galaxy NGC 7496 shows the areas that were previously obscured by gas and dust to be star cradles.
[OTHER] Best camera : Ha! xkcd is perfectly right.. the best camera isn’t always the one you have on you. It might be the camera at L2.
[SPACE] Zoomable Image: Stephan’s Quintet : An impressive zoomable view of a JWST image of Stephan’s Quintet. Resolution 153 mega pixels.
[PHOTO] Being there : I had this txt discussion with my friend Jon Miller. It started with the new Insta360 One X2, meandered over to me planning to vlog the scouting tour next month with the iPhone only and ended up on a deeply philosophical level.
[PHOTO, AI] Vox: how dalle2 works and what it means : A great video by VOX talking about how image generators like DALL-E work. For a bonus treat, watch the bonus video mentioned in the video’s description.
[PHOTO, AI] PizzaDalle : A Twitter account showcasing DALL-E by generating pizza-related pictures. I like.

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910 Welcome to Dongle Town

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 15:00:24 +0000

Let’s talk about photo road trips, dongles, an exercise in spotting humanity, smartphones closing in on us, astrophotography and big satellite constellations. Plus: Where is TFTTF really located on the spectrum of photography podcasts?

Topics:

[OTHER] Welcome to Dongle Town : Chris has figured out an interesting way to vlog from his car with a multi-camera view and excellent sound. All while spending zero money and using exactly one device: his iPhone (plus a cheap lav mic)
[HOUSEKEEPING] It’s the Periphery
[PHOTO, AI] Exercise: This Image Does Not Exist : Can you tell if an image was generated by a human or a machine? The average score is 18.
[PHOTO] Foreground blur in portrait photos : Small but interesting change for the iPhone cameras when iOS 16 is out. Bokeh in front of the subject will now be rendered. One step further into the realm of the bigger sensors.
[SPACE] LEO constellations and astro photography : Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) is some 300 to 600 km above the Earth. With thousands of satellites, LEO is also one of the busiest areas outside of our planet. And Astronomers aren’t always happy about it. Chris talks with Meredith Rawls from the Vera C. Rubin observatory about what the new satellite constellations mean for space observation.

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909 Generator Chris

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 11:00:23 +0000

Chris has now received the magical tool to generate photography out of thin air. But OpenAi’s DALL-E 2 is turning out to be quite a learning curve that is very different from actual photography.

Topics:

[PHOTO, AI] I’m a Generator : I finally got access to DALL-E 2, OpenAi’s image generator. And boy is it fun. I’m slowly building new neural pathways trying to come up with good prompts. Making progress. Weird is cool. Regular is hard. Faces are difficult. And sometimes they come out weird. I’ll talk about face fixers another time.
[AI, PHOTO] Re-Learning Skills : The way my art brain works makes it surprisingly difficult to come up with prompts that create something good. Seems a new tool isn’t the be-all end-all. Who would’ve though after several decades of photography… oh well. It’s a mix of learning a new tool and changing my brain structure to think differently about photography.
[AI] Semantic Segmentation : Scientists are working on algorithms to assign a label to every pixel in the world, without human supervision. How does that affect photography? Guess what. Your smartphone does exactly that.
[PHOTO, AI] Cosmopolitan cover : Image Generators are going mainstream. This issue of Cosmopolitan has a DALL-E-2-generated cover.
[PHOTO, AI] Behind the Cosmopolitan Cover : Here’s the story of how the Cosmopolitan cover came to be. Turns out tools like DALL-E 2 do require quite some babysitting to produce the desired results.
[WORKSHOPS] Road Trip : Chris is thinking about a 10-day Eastern-Europe Photo Road Trip. Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Transylvania. Small groups (3 max) in a zippy EV. Any takers? Share your feedback!

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908 AI in Photography

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 12:23:56 +0000

AI is going to enrich our lives and at the same time it’ll pull the rug out from under some people’s legs. Let’s explore things.

Feedback? Reach Chris at voice@tfttf.com, or follow @tfttfphoto on Twitter for show announcements.

Topics:

[PHOTO, AI] AI in Photography : What will the AI revolution do to your photography? Will it enrich your way to work or will it put you out of work?
[TOOL] Photopea : A surprisingly well-features browser-based photo editor.
[SPACE] Kineto Tracking Mount : Find out how SpaceX and others track their rockets in flight with 10,000 mm lenses.

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907 Peek-A-Boo

Chris Marquardt — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 12:59:18 +0000

Hi, it’s Chris. Remember me? Photography Tips from the Top Floor is back and better than ever. I’ll still talk photography, but the show will also branch out into other topics here and there, where I discuss things from my other podcasts The Future of Photography and Happy Shooting as well as my German production CM MAGAZIN. Of course this goes both ways.

As always, I’d love to hear your feedback. You can reach me at voice@tfttf.com (send voice recordings!), or follow @tfttfphoto on Twitter for show announcements. Thanks for listening, and I’m glad to be back!

Topics:

[OTHER] CM MAGAZIN : Chris started his (German) CM MAGAZIN in January 2020. Going forward, it will be one of the sources for some of the more nerdy TFTTF topics.
[PHOTO] Lensrentals AMA : A fun AMA (ask me anything) by Lensrentals on Reddit. Watch out for the bear attack. Note: TFTTF is not affiliated with Lensrentals.
[NEWS] Leica & Panasonic: L squared : Leica and Panasonic have announced their new brand, “L² Technology.” Unfortunately, there isn’t much information in the press release. This isn’t really a new collaboration though, as together with Sigmar the two companies founded the “L Mount Alliance” in 2018.
[PHOTO] iOS 16 Photo Stuff : iOS 16 will make even more use of the phone’s cameras, including features like insect recognition and automatic subject cutout.

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906 Virtual Production

Chris Marquardt — Mon, 03 May 2021 17:53:03 +0000

Chris takes worldwide pinhole day as an excuse to talk a bit about the oldest photography technique. The discussion with director, writer and photographer Jeremiah Chechik takes the two into the depths of the latest tech in Hollywood: virtual production.

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FROM THE TOP FLOOR

935 Spy Stuff

934 Facial Fakes, Fiery Frames

933 Hawk Birdhouse and the Mickey Mouse Camera

932 You’ve Been Tricked!

931 The Moon Cheat

930 The Sky Mystery

929 No Drama in Photo Land

928 One Minute Six Hundred Pics

927 Resolution: 14k

926 Digitizing 88-Year-Old Photos, AI Protests, Relaunches

925 Where Pilsener Is From

924 You’re Hoarding It Wrong

923 THE TIME IS NOW

922 Free Camera Choice

921 Video Editing Game Changer

920 Death of a Workhorse

919 And I Froze

918 Getty Bans AI

917 Are Starlink the Good Ones?

916 12K to the Moon

915 A Cambrian Explosion

914 The Willingness to Lie

913 Epic Episcope

912 The Locksmith’s Paradox

911 All Things Interesting In Photography

910 Welcome to Dongle Town

909 Generator Chris

908 AI in Photography

907 Peek-A-Boo

906 Virtual Production

905 Starlink

904 Evacuated (Are we obsolete?)

903 Ten Years Invisible

902 Wild Service Tree

901 360 Degrees of Freedom

900 UFOs Are Key

Join me at Out of Chicago IN-DEPTH and GET $50 OFF

899 The Future of Photography Education

898b A Few Words, 05-JUN-2020

898 Pick One Photo

897 Stuck at Home

896 Travel & Corona

895 Voices (Slice)

894 On the Lake (Slice)

893 Moscow Extension (Slice)

892 To New Heights

891 Snips from the Top Floor? (Slice)

890 New Format (Slice)

889 It Only Takes 5 Minutes

888 Bye bye … ’til 2020

887 Heartwarming

886 The Joy of Photography

885a Protecting My Listeners and Surviving at the Same Time

885 The Biggest Misconception in Photography

884 Let Me Talk You Out of the Mavic Mini

883 The Man Machine Connection

882 Photo Editing in VR

881 Falling in Love

880 Perspectives and Frameworks

879 The Picture Is Not Enough