Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
Ever wonder why your photos aren’t getting enough likes on Instagram? Well, visit BBC Tomorrow’s World‘s Facebook page for a little experiment.
As soon as the page loads, a chatbox would appear. Now, click the Get Started button and you’ll receive this message:
Instagram has been testing lots of new features lately. Still, what most of us would like to see is chronological feed, as it used to be. In a recent blog post, Instagram has announced that this feature will be back, at least in a way. They’re bringing some changes to let you see the feed in chronological order again.
Although artificial intelligence can be impressive, sometimes we get to witness that it’s not always the case. You may remember that time when the Google Photos app tagged a couple of African Americans as “gorillas.” After an apology and a promise it would fix it, Google indeed “fixed it.” It simply removed the label “gorilla” from its lexicon, along with some other words.
Instagram has become one of the major platforms for photographers to share their work. So naturally, you want to build your audience there and get many people to see your work. If you don’t want to buy fake followers from a vending machine, photographer Chris Hau shares some tips for building your audience and growing your business organically.
We’ve seen several uses of AI aimed at improving photos. Whether it’s improving their resolution, or turning selfies into decent portraits, they usually work on a single, existing photo. But a method from NVIDIA generates the photos of people that don’t actually exist. And it’s interesting and kinda creepy at the same time.
The scientists of Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany have developed a new algorithm. It enhances low-res images so that they miraculously become hi-res and sharp. It only needs a single low-resolution input, and it will increase its resolution while retaining the realistic textures and details.
Creating a 3D model of someone’s face usually requires multiple shots taken from different angles. But researchers from the University of Nottingham and Kingston University have created an AI tool that makes it from a single portrait photo.
The scientists describe the 3D face reconstruction as a “problem of extraordinary difficulty.” However, they’ve managed to use neural networks to turn any 2D portrait into a 3D model. There’s also a free online demo for you to try it yourself.
Google’s recent research has shown that an algorithm can easily remove watermarks automatically, making the images vulnerable to unauthorized use. In their latest paper, they present the solution that should help photographers and stock photo websites increase the watermark protection.
Photo enhancing apps have come a long way over the past few years. However, researchers from MIT have worked with Google and have gone a step further: they are introducing an app able to retouch your photos before you even take them.
They use deep learning to create the software. When you turn the app on, it enhances your images in real time, and you can see the expected outcome on the display before you snap a photo. It’s able to retouch the images in different styles, and it should be small enough not to be laggy on a mobile device.
I remember how excited I was when I first started posting on instagram. I finally had a platform to get my work seen, tell my stories, share my life and get inspired by those of others. It was all about creativity and art and The Work, it was fair and ethical and just awesome!
Things have changed a lot since, and now I often find myself feeling sick to my stomach when I have to post a new picture!
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
