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Adobe’s #ProjectAboutFace can detect when portraits are altered and undo the edits

08 Nov

Adobe has collaborated with researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, to develop a new tool to detect when photos have been digitally altered using Photoshop’s Face-Aware Liquify tool and adjust them back to the original image.

The prototype tool, codenamed ‘Project About Face,’ will pore over an image pixel-by-pixel and create a heat map showing where it believes the image is most likely altered. From there, the edits can effectively be undone to show what the original image looked like.

According to Adobe, the tool is nearly twice as accurate as humans at detecting when a photograph has been altered. In its testing, Project About Face was able to detect altered images with 99-percent accuracy compared to the 53-percent accuracy of the human test group.

Since this only works with images edited inside Photoshop with its Face-Aware Liquify tool, the practical application isn’t widespread, but it’s a neat teaser nonetheless for future fake-detection methods.

Project About Face is just one of the many ‘Sneaks’ Adobe teased this year at Adobe MAX. Like many of the Sneaks, it’s unlikely we’ll see this tool available anytime soon, but it goes to show the growing possibilities of Adobe’s Sensei AI.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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National Geographic details how it searches for altered photographs

06 Jul

The cover photo for National Geographic’s February 1982 issue featured a camel train in front of the Pyramids at Giza. Soon after publishing the issue, National Geographic was called out for having manipulated the image, altering it to place the pyramids closer together so that the horizontal photo would be better suited for the magazine’s vertical cover. Since then, National Geographic has been vigilant in monitoring for photo alterations, the process of which it described in a recent issue.

Speaking about manipulated photos, National Geographic Editor in Chief Susan Goldberg said, ‘At National Geographic it’s never OK to alter a photo. We’ve made it part of our mission to ensure our photos are real.’

As part of that mission, the publication requires its photographers to submit raw files with their images; this goes for members who submit photos to Nat Geo’s ‘Your Shot’, as well. In the absence of these raw files, Goldberg says the company asks the photographer ‘detailed questions about the photo.’ As well, the company’s director of photography Sarah Leen explains, ‘We ask ourselves, Is this photo a good representation of what the photographer saw?’

Ultimately, though, what is acceptable to one person or organization may not be acceptable to another, something Goldberg highlighted with an example. One of the publication’s photographers recently had a photo rejected by a contest panel of judges who deemed the image overprocessed. National Geographic didn’t share that view, however, and published the photo itself.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Nikon apologizes for awarding prize to digitally altered photo

03 Feb

Last week, Nikon Singapore chose an image submitted by photographer Chay Yu Wei as the winner of a ‘casual photo contest.’ Critics quickly pointed out that the airplane featured in the image had been digitally inserted, given away by the highly visible white square around the plane’s silhouette. Nikon and Yu Wei have both issued apologies over the submission, with Nikon saying it will bolster its image reviewing process ‘to avoid similar situations in the future.’

Nikon, which has since deleted the original Facebook post awarding the photograph, posted a status update on Saturday that reads:

We have heard your comments and feedback on this, and you are right – we should not compromise standards even for a casual photo contest. We have dialogued internally, with the community and with our loyal fans, and Yu Wei has also posted his own views on this issue. We have made an honest mistake and the rousing response from the community today is a reminder to us that the true spirit of photography is very much alive. Moving forward, we will tighten our image review process to avoid similar situations in the future. Thank you once again for all your responses today – for your humour and most of all, your candour and honesty. We hope not to disappoint you in the future and to continue to have your support.

Most sincerely, your Nikon team

Yu Wei posted his own lengthy apology on his Instagram account, saying in part:

Like one user commented, I was on a photo walk in Chinatown and I chanced upon that set of ladders. I snapped a picture of it, and subsequently felt that a plane at that spot would make for an interesting point of view. Hence, I inserted the plane with PicsArt and uploaded it to Instagram. That’s how I use Instagram, sometime it’s to showcase the work I’m proud of, sometimes just to have fun. This case, that small plane was just for fun and it was not meant to bluff anyone. I would have done it with photoshop if I really meant to lie about it, but no, it was a playful edit using the PicsArt app and uploaded to Instagram. When my friends commented with some questions, I also answered it jokingly, saying it’s the last flight of the day and saying it was my lucky day that I did not wait too long. At that time, of course everyone who read it took it as a joke, before this issue arrived and it is taken seriously.

However, I made a mistake by not keeping it to Instagram as a casual social media platform. I crossed the line by submitting the photo for a competition. I meant it as a joke and I’m really sorry to Nikon for disrespecting the competition. It is a mistake and I shouldn’t have done that. I also shouldn’t have jokingly answered Nikon that I caught the plane in mid-air and should have just clarified that the plane was edited in using PicsArt. This is my fault and I sincerely apologise to Nikon, to all Nikon Photographers, and to the photography community as general.

While Nikon’s apology seems genuine, we can’t help wondering how such an obviously altered image slipped through. We’re also not quite convinced by Wei’s apology, and DigitalRev points out that the concept for the image may not even be his either. What’s your take on the controversy? Let us know in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Eerily Altered Faces & Spaces: 14 Projection-Mapping Projects

07 Sep

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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The lines between three-dimensional objects and digital creations blur as projections alter architecture, sound stages and even human figures in real time. These projection mapping projects create an interplay between real and virtual space, often combining cutting-edge technology with dance and performance art

Hakanai: Dancer in a Projected Geometric Space

A solo dancer performs within a surreal cube with projection-mapped walls for ‘Hakanai,’ a performance at BAM’s Fishman Theater. CGI and sensors create a dynamic environment based on the dancer’s movement and location within the cube. Says creator Claire Bardainne of the show, “At the beginning it’s a word. Hakanai. It’s a Japanese old word, which denotes ephemeral, transitory, fragile, and everything you cannot catch. It’s the union of a human being and her dreams. It’s a show made of haikus that try to explain that word.”

Pixel: Surreal Reactive Environments

Pixel is a dance show with eleven dancers interacting in a virtual and ‘living visual’ environment aiming to combine “energy and poetry, fiction and technical achievement, hip hop and circus.” Created by the same people responsible for ‘Hakanai,’ it also invokes a bizarrely responsive environment with surfaces that undulate beneath the dancers’ bodies.

320° Licht: Light in a Reclaimed Gas Tank

Using the cathedral-like space within the disused Gasometer Oberhausen to its fullest advantage, this interactive installation creates new worlds within the 20,000 square meters available. “This experience is based on the vastness of the Gasometer. We tried to work with that expression to make the space bigger and smaller, to deform it and to change its surface over and over while not exaggerating and overwriting the original effect of the room.”

OMOTE: Real Time Face Hacking

A designer, a makeup artist and a digital image engineer came together to create ‘OMOTE,’ an eerie project projecting hundreds of different images onto the faces of live actors in real-time, continuously re-writing their appearances.

Projection-Mapped Music Video for ‘Save Me’ by Irma

Seven digital projectors change the environment around singer Irma on a single soundstage in the video for her song ‘Save Me.’ The process required Irma and her 20 young dancers to perform choreography perfectly in sync with the videotaping content.

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Eerily Altered Faces Spaces 14 Projection Mapping Projects

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Twisting History: 40+ Surreal Altered Vintage Photographs

20 Aug

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Many of us have picked up old black and white photographs and wondered what their backstories are, but these artists take history into their own hands, altering the images to produce new narratives. In the following 40+ revised photographic histories, new elements are combined with the mysterious original images, giving them a sense of surreality that could then serve as the basis of an entire book if the creative chain were to continue.

Black-and-White to Colorfully Surreal by Jane Long

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A figure in a found black-and-white photograph catches artist Jane Long’s eye and she begins to envision them in a new setting, giving them a story, making them somehow less anonymous. She digitally restores and colorizes each image and combines them with other photographs to create entirely new, surreal compositions. “I wanted people to see these figures as real people, more than just an old photograph. Adding color completely changes our perception of images.”

Library of Congress Images Get Horror Makeover by Jim Kazanjian

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Historical photographs archived by the Library of Congress are a lot more interesting in the hands of digital artist Jim Kazanjian, who combines them in unexpected ways to create terrifying architectural creations straight out of a horror movie. “I’ve chosen photography as a medium because of the cultural misunderstanding that it has a sort of built-in objectivity. This allows me to set up a visual tension within the work, to make it resonate and lure the viewer further inside. My current series is inspired by the classic horror literature of H.P. Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood and similar authors.”

Crazy Hyper-Colored Collages by Eugenia Loli

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These smash-ups of vividly colored vintage photographs juxtapose entirely unexpected elements, like gigantic children riding tortoises through a city park or a war plane dropping candy instead of bombs. “I start by finding a ‘base’ image, and then I sort of build around it. Sometimes I have a concrete idea of what I want to do, and sometimes I leave the images to fit together by themselves,” says artist Eugenia Loli. “Sometimes, after a lot of juxtaposing, the ‘base’ image might not even be a part of the final collage. Most of the time I try to ‘say’ something important via my art, but other times it’s just about doodling.”

Bizarre Details Painted Onto Photos by Colin Batty

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Can you imagine what the original subjects of these photos would think if they saw artist Colin Batty’s alterations? They might be a tad disturbed to see their own heads on fire or replaced by gigantic eyeballs. The artist paints with acrylics directly onto cabinet cards from the early 1900s.

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Twisting History 40 Surreal Altered Vintage Photographs

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Altered Architecture: 12 More Abandoned Buildings as Art

30 Jan

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Abandoned places are brightened up, made even creepier and more atmospheric, or otherwise transformed into massive works of art with installations that use entire buildings as creative tools. Whether calling attention to blight in urban areas or making use of a structure before it’s demolished, these 12 (more!) abandoned building art projects make already-fascinating spaces even more of a visual delight.

Melting Facade

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A curving brick facade gives an abandoned eyesore of a building a bit of a backwards facelift. With the new addition by artist Alex Chinneck, the abandoned building almost fits in with its neighbors – but not quite. As it slides down toward the street, it reveals the mess that remains on the top floor. The temporary installation turned an ugly building into a tourist attraction, calling attention to the need for restoration.

Deep North: Abandoned Cottage Frozen

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A sad little shotgun cottage, filled with the former owner’s personal possessions, was left to rot, gaping holes in the walls letting in the elements. Artist Chris Larson spent a winter in sub zero temperatures pouring thousands of gallons of water onto the home to let the ice build up, and then created sculptures that are casts of actual shotgun blasts to honor the ‘shotgun house’ design of the cottage, in which all doorways and hallways are in one straight line.

Spider Web in Abandoned Stock Exchange Building

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A spider worthy of J.R.R. Tolkein’s imagination seems to have taken up residence in an abandoned stock exchange building. This stunning project by Viennese/Croatian design collective For Use/Numen is made of nearly 100 pounds of packing tape and includes a tunnel that’s strong enough for people to crawl through.

Perspective Illusions by Georges Rousse

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Master of perspective Georges Rousse creates incredible illusions in abandoned places that seem to cut out a geometric shape of the building and utterly transform it. Painted across various surfaces and angles, they look like random markings from most viewpoints, but stand in just the right spot and it all comes together.

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Altered Architecture 12 More Abandoned Buildings As Art

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Suburban Intervention: Homes Altered, Then Set Ablaze

19 Jul

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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For the last two years, artist Ian Strange has traveled the East Coast of the United States, painting suburban homes in shocking shades of red and black, and in some cases, burning them down. The project is called SUBURBAN, and it takes a look at the suburban house as a cultural icon, and its significance as an integral part of the American Dream. “The idea of this project is to start to reduce the suburban home and the family home in the suburbs,” says Strange.

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Strange brought film crews and volunteers to Ohio, Detroit, Alabama, New Jersey, New York and New Hampshire to alter, photograph and film eight suburban interventions. One home bears a stark red X; another is painted solid black but for a circle in the middle. Another bears a massive mural of a human skull.

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The video gives us eerie glimpses of these homes during the process of their destruction. Other symbols of comfortable, deceptively satisfying suburban life, like a swing blowing gently in the wind, make for a stunning contrast against the altered homes.

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“You take such potent imagery as the home, and suburbia, and something that is so familiar, and subvert it and twist it so slightly… you begin to articulate that sense of isolation,” says Strange.

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

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360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘Altered’

Adobe’s #ProjectAboutFace can detect when portraits are altered and undo the edits

National Geographic details how it searches for altered photographs

Nikon apologizes for awarding prize to digitally altered photo