Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
If you are a retoucher and have not already upgraded to Photoshop 2019, just don’t! at least until the following bug is fixed.
It seems like the latest Photoshop update to Photoshop CC 2019 broke some layer blending modes or at least the Color blending mode.
They sure don’t waste any time over at Magic Lantern HQ. A1ex at ML sent over a couple of firmware files over to Andrew Reid at EOS HD to test out on his new Canon EOS R camera. While neither file currently adds any functionality to the EOS R, one of them does prove that Magic Lantern commands will be at least possible on Canon’s new mirrorless.
Object recognition and AI has come such a long way in such a short amount of time that effects that used to take hours can now be automated in just a few seconds. Adobe MAX 2018 is going on right now and they’re showing off one example of this in their Sneak Peeks. It’s called Moving Stills, and it’s insane how well it works for a concept demo.
Basically, you feed in a still photograph, click a button and it will automatically figure out the depth of objects in the scene. Then it will animate a virtual camera through the scene to simulate a real camera movement. And it can do it with no intervention. But you can also override things if you wish.
Insta360 has now released a new 180° 3D VR workflow for the Insta360 Pro and Insta360 Pro 2 cameras. Insta360 says that these are the first-ever pro-level VR cameras to offer support for both 180° and 360° footage.
The upgrade will come as a free software update for both the Insta360 Stitcher software as well as Insta360’s integrated editing extension for Adobe Premiere Pro CC.
A lot of folks expected more from Sony during Photokina 2018’s announcements. The “baby A9” rumoured to come in the form of the A7000 was nowhere to be mentioned. Instead, we’ll just get better cat photos thanks to Sony’s new Animal Eye AF.
But Kenji Tanaka, global head of Sony’s interchangeable lens camera business, has confirmed in an interview with Pronews.jp that they will once again start focusing on higher-end APS-C cameras.
One of the things that many people seem to have noticed about the new Nikon Z6/7 and Canon EOS R full frame mirrorless cameras is that the lens mount is huge. They look at their Sony with its relatively small E-Mount and wonder what the big deal is? Is it all just marketing hype from Nikon and Canon to sell super fast aperture lenses?
Maybe not. Leica manager Stephan Schulz backs up the idea that Sony’s E Mount wasn’t designed for full frame cameras in a recent interview with Reddotforum. He also explains why the L mount was developed to address the needs of full frame mirrorless cameras and lenses with autofocus.
After announcing 3D photos and VR memories back in May, Facebook is now rolling out the feature that can turn your 2D photos into 3D. The new feature will work both in the News Feed and VR. The technology captures the distance between the subject and the background, so it brings scenes of 2D photos to life with 3D depth and movement.
While artists use drones to capture epic photos and videos, there are people who, sadly, misuse these gadgets for criminal actions. But it was drone footage that recently put two drug dealers behind the bars. They accidentally filmed themselves while packing drugs. When they tried to smuggle them over the prison wall, the drone crashed and the footage of the dealers ended up in the police’s hands.
It’s all getting a bit ridiculous now. When Lenovo teased quad cameras, I had to laugh a bit. It all just seemed a bit excessive. Even three cameras in a phone felt like a bit much. Two’s cool, sure, it offers some neat computational photography options that a single camera does not. But beyond that, is it really worth it?
Samsung thinks so, as they’ve just beaten Lenovo to the punch with the new Samsung Galaxy A9 which has, yes, you guessed it, four cameras. It’s the “world’s first” quad camera smartphone with a 2x optical zoom, a 120° ultrawide, a regular camera and a depth camera.
While many Canon shooters process their images on the desktop with something like Lightroom or Capture One, Canon’s Digital Photo Pro software doesn’t suck. A lot of Canon photographers still use it and recommend it to newer photographers who want to shoot raw without getting locked into a subscription or buying expensive software.
But as more photographers start to include tablets into their workflow, software needs to adapt. While Canon may sometimes take time to adapt, they’ve now released DPP Express; A version of Digital Photo Pro for the iPad and iPad Pro.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
Find my work on My website or follow me on Facebook or My page
