Focusing will soon be a thing of the past!
For a photographer, whether amateur or professional, the Lytro technology means that the headaches of focusing a shot go away. Richard Koci Hernandez, a photojournalist, said that when he tried out a prototype earlier this year, he immediately recognized the potential impact.
“You just concentrate on the image and composition, but there’s no need to worry about focus anymore,” Mr. Hernandez said. “That’s something you do later.”
According to an article published today in the NY Times, “A Start-Up’s Camera Lets You Take Shots First and Focus Later,”, the technology now exists to pinpoint the focus of an image after the shot was taken. As the article points out, this opens up a whole new world with regard to image manipulation.
I don’t know how long it will now be before the technology can be transferred to video frames, which will now be imported into your favorite image manipulation software and reworked and re-focused depending upon the needs of the client.
This makes the back end editing process, retouching and manipulating process even more important. The process of pinpointing focus involves both software and hardware at this point in time. And it is only going to be available later this year in a point and shoot camera model with image quality that rivals other point and shoot cameras.
The question is: How will this technology evolve into major camera systems in the next 5 years? Will Photoshop leapfrog the camera technology and figure out how to make soft pictures sharp or pinpoint focus? Is this even possible? Stay tuned.
I agree with Martin Parr
I’ve looked through a lot of student work in the last 4 weeks and there are certainly genres in photography that students and photographers out in the world are more comfortable with. However, the first person to shoot in a certain style was taking risks! Just read the first reviews of “The Amercians.” The work was blasted for bad technique and for being overly critical of Americans.
Parr breaks down photography into categories of work that most photographers are producing then states that people get upset in reviews when he says:
When I am looking through student folios I often say these things (that the work falls into certain categories) and usually people look at me as if to say, “how dare you question what I am shooting.”
Yep. It happens to me almost every time I enter the classroom. And I did the same thing when I was 19. I shot stuff that looked like Aaron Siskind retreads and Ellen Brooks looked at me and said, “This was done 30 years ago. Why are you shooting this?” And I thought, “How dare you question what I am shooting.” So I feel like I am in some weird film loop. And if I have to look at any more “New Topographics” style work or any more “Paint-Splatters-on-Walls” images, I think I will scream.
Russell Hart gone from American Photo after 25 years
After 25 years at the magazine, Executive Editor at American Photo, Russell Hart has been let go. With no press release of announcement, except that Scott Alexander, formerly of Playboy, will take over the Editor in Chief position formerly held by Sarah Kinbar (Hart was never given the title of Editor in Chief, even though Kinbar left the magazine in June of 2010.)
I had the pleasure of working with Russell when I was a freelance writer and consultant to the magazine and I just wanted to say, “Thanks for the great work Russell!” 25 years is a long time and I hope the future holds amazing things for you!
