Sam Tato, a self-described 3D Generalist, says that computer graphics (CG) and computer-generated imagery (CGI) have reached the point that it has made practical beverage photography a thing of the past -- and he says he can prove it.
This photo isn't actually a photo. From the furniture to the beautiful light falling on the countertops and wood floors, what you're looking at is a CGI rendering that has replaced 75% of the 'photos' in the IKEA catalogs the college kids, divorced men and NYC residents in your life have lying around.
Texture layers are photos that are normally blended with other images as part of a composite rather than being used on their own. They can be color, monochrome, detailed, or blurred. The idea is simply to add an extra level of interest to a picture. In this guide, we will look at various ways of collecting and using texture layers for your photography projects.
Glass Imaging uses artificial intelligence to "extract the full image quality potential from hardware on current and future smartphone cameras by reversing lens aberrations and sensor imperfections."
In mathematics, a "fractal" is a never-ending pattern that remains similar across different scales, even infinitely. As seen with many computer-generated fractals, they can perpetually loop without any cuts or transitions. It's a mesmerizing effect.
The camera is a reasonably recent image-creation tool; compared to millennia of paintings, drawings, carvings, and illustrations, we have only a few hundred years of photographs and photographic development. What photography offers compared to those ancient arts is (relative) immediacy and accuracy.
Photography once changed fashion but now fashion is changing photography, threatening to make it obsolete.
In an artful blending of science and photography, Zac Henderson’s abstract photo series Dark Matter III features mixed textures, vibrant colors, and intriguing angles.
Photographer Karl Taylor and artist Ethan Davis both created the same still-life scene of an Apple Watch. Taylor used traditional photography techniques while Davis created one using only computer graphics. Which is which?
Spirit photography was an important development within bereavement rituals of the early 1860s.
Wedding photographer Taylor Jackson, who says he shoots 60 to 70 weddings every year, has shared his extensive knowledge and behind-the-scenes footage in an incredibly detailed tutorial that covers all aspects of the trade.
To many photographers, getting your work printed in a magazine is the holy grail, especially if you manage to make the front cover. Sure, posting on Instagram or Facebook is great but actually seeing your work in print... to me, there is no better feeling.
Shutterstock is set to acquire 3D-render stock agency TurboSquid for $75 million dollars, investing in a future where photos aren't necessarily captured with a camera. TurboSquid's value appears to have soared amid the COVID-19 outbreak, as traditional photography was hampered by stay-at-home orders.
Every Sunday, we bring together a collection of easy reading articles from analytical to how-to to photo-features in no particular order that did not make our regular daily coverage. Enjoy!
IKEA's transition from photography to all-CGI advertising is almost complete. After moving most of their catalog "photography" over to CGI many years ago, IKEA Japan's latest ad campaign takes this approach to the next level by using a CGI model. Specifically, the campaign features CGI Instagram 'Influencer' Imma.
Retired professional photographer Bob Rosinsky was editing one of his fine art film scans recently when he accidentally picked the Brush Tool instead of the Healing Tool in Photoshop. Just like that, a small gray smudge was created, and a strange photo project was born.
Earlier today, Epic Games released a "first look" at the Unreal Engine 5 video game engine, and the results are mind-blowing. Using a gameplay demo running on a Playstation 5, they showcase an environment that is so close to photorealistic that it's often hard to tell the difference.
After completing my degree in still photography at RIT, I grew up in NYC working in the motion world as a production assistant. My plan was to eventually direct TV spots, but I wanted to garner a solid background in the art of lighting from the still world first.
Street photography is hard to do well. Really hard. Even if you are great, most of your shots will not be.
This incredibly creative ad from Gatorade uses a "liquid printer" and precision-timed strobe photography to create a stop-motion athlete from drops of water. What’s more, it was created entirely in-camera, according to the company.
These days, more and more of what you think are real photos are actually CGI renderings. But have you seen "CGI renderings" that are actually real photos?
Most of the photos in IKEA's catalog are CGI these days, and more and more video games are adding serious photo modes. As the virtual and photographic worlds converge, we'll be seeing more and more demos of photorealistic CGI that may trick our eyes. Here's one example.
Apple has been awarded a US patent for a system that could disable iPhone cameras with infrared signals, allowing photography to be remotely banned in locations such as concerts and sensitive sites.
My name is Chris McCann, and I'm a photographer based in San Francisco. In this post, I'm sharing a list of photography videos I've found that have been helpful to me.
France's Ministry of Culture and Communication has published a new report on the state of the photography industry in the country. The study contains numbers that offer an idea of how professional photography has changed over recent years.
Ah, April 1st: the dreaded day on which you can't trust anything you see online, lest it be a prank that makes you feel gullible. As has been our tradition in the past few years, we're rounding up all the interesting April Fools' Day pranks from the world of photography so that you can enjoy an overview, all in one place.
Photography jobs may soon be more threatened by breakthroughs in computer generated imagery (CGI) technology. Newly developed light ray simulation algorithms are opening the door to digital images that are so realistic that they are easily mistaken for actual photos.
From images of graphene flowers and foam to a portrait of a self-taught engineer fixing one of his elephant pumps that is providing clean water for a village in Malawi, the winning images and other impressive entrants in the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering's photography competition beautifully illustrate how art, science, and humanity mesh.
The basic rules of composition apply to almost every visual art there is, be it photography, painting or graphic design. Whether it’s the rule of thirds or the rule of triangles, the principles overlap, leaving the educational resources for each respective art form useful across the board, not tied down to one specific field.
It seems every news and blog site that I visit these days in inundating me with stunning photos. Sometimes the photos are labeled “Jaw-Dropping” or “Amazing” or “Incredible,” and to be honest, the pictures are usually great. But just as often they are just above-average pictures with exaggerated headlines.
What’s going on here? When did every picture become stunning? And if every picture is stunning, is any picture stunning really? I mean how stunned can I get?
Showing just how productive and intuitive collaboration can be, Montreal-based photographer Eric Paré and Michigan-based digital artist Mike Campau got together to create some incredible work that takes advantage of their individual skill sets.
Pony Lott and Brett Seamans are a fashion and editorial photography duo currently stationed in New York City. Their edgy style captures the imagination with a vulgar elegance and hard sexual attitude. Often inspired by historical figures, classic art, and vintage cinema, they play on classical forms while adding their own lavish vision.
One half of the face above is a photograph, and the other half is a highly detailed computer generated rendering created using a program called KeyShot by Luxion. Can you tell which is which? If you can't tell, why should we? (Okay, to be honest, we're not sure either).
Joseph Flaherty over at Wired writes that KeyShot and other programs that can generate photorealistic renders are being widely used for product photos these days, and are quickly killing off jobs that were once held by photographers.
Here's a short but fascinating glimpse into the world of CGI, and how photography was used to help digitally build New York from the ground up for The Avengers movie. As it turns out, creating a digital world into which you can insert these actors takes, not only an insane amount of CGI and attention to detail, but a whole lot of photos to lay the groundwork.
Want to buy all the camera equipment you need to start a photography business for just $15.35? All you'll need is... a time machine! Reddit user sneeden found this Sears Roebuck and Co. consumer guide for the fall of 1900. Two of the pages inside the catalog are for view camera kits that can help anyone "start in a pleasant and good paying business."
Of the two images above, one of them is a computer render and one of them is an actual photograph. Can you tell which is which? If you can't, why should IKEA?
The Wall Street Journal reports that IKEA is slowly moving away from using photography in its catalogs in favor of CGI for its online and print publications.
It might sound strange to use the verb "Love" in the title of a rant. But here goes.
I love photography.
Why am I telling you this? Isn't it self-obvious? Don't we all love photography? The answer is no. There is a percentage of photographers who hate photography. They do not appreciate photography. They do not consume photography. They don't look at photo books or photo magazines. They hate the guy with the iPhone taking Instagram shots.
Ryan McGinnis is a photographer and storm chaser. You can visit his website here.
PetaPixel: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?
Ryan McGinnis: I am a storm chaser and photographer who lives in Nebraska; I have no formal training in photography outside of all the books I've read and the thousands of rolls of film I've blown through (and terabytes of drives I've filled up) over the years. I've had a life-long love affair with the weather; from as young as I can remember, I've been fascinated with storms and for most of my childhood I dreamed of one day chasing tornadoes. Living in this part of the country makes storm chasing less of a chore than if I had to drive here from, say, Virginia, but storm chasing here still requires lots of driving -- on average around 600 miles per chase. These days I tend to storm chase around 15,000 miles a year, mostly in May and June. In 2008 and 2009 I was fortunate enough to get to tag along with and photographically document Project Vortex 2, a $12M science mission to learn how tornadoes tick, which was probably one of the best freelance investments of time and money I've ever made.
When I'm not shooting storms, my favorite subjects are candids and urban panoramas.
AI is all the buzz and it seems to be attaching itself to everything, everywhere, all at once. The canary in the AI coal mine? Images and writing.
There are times as a photographer when you can feel like you’re running out of ideas. You’ve tried a variety of things but now you’re experiencing some kind of creative block and you feel frustrated.