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Posts Tagged ‘develop’

MIT and UMass researchers develop world’s first flat ultra-wide-angle fisheye lens

21 Sep

Researchers with the University of Massachusetts at Lowell and MIT have developed a new type of fisheye lens that is flat and crafted from a single piece of glass. The lens is round, according to the researchers, and it is capable of capturing sharp 180-degree panoramas. This is the first flat fisheye lens made from a single piece of glass, which measures 1mm thick.

Ordinary spherical fisheye lenses are made from multiple pieces of glass designed to bend the light in such a way that it produces circular wide-angle images. The newly developed flat lens instead captures wide-angle panoramas by utilizing ‘tiny structures’ that scatter light in place of the curved glass elements in more costly spherical fisheye lenses.

The version of the lense introduced by the researchers is made for infrared photography, but the team says that it could be modified for use as a regular visible spectrum lens, as well. The flat design is ultimately more compact and less expensive to produce than spherical multi-element lenses.

The researchers envision a variety of uses for their lens design beyond interchangeable lenses. The thin, flat nature of the design would make it possible to implement the fisheye into smartphones, for example, eliminating the need to use a third-party lens add-on. Similar implementation could be used with laptops, VR headsets and even devices like medical imaging equipment.

MIT associate professor Juejun Hu, one of the researchers on the project, explained:

This design comes as somewhat of a surprise, because some have thought it would be impossible to make a metalens with an ultra-wide-field view. The fact that this can actually realize fisheye images is completely outside expectation. This isn’t just light-bending — it’s mind-bending.

Metalens refers to a flat lens that has tiny structures for focusing light. While wide-angle metalenses aren’t new, the researchers note that a single piece of glass without any extra optics have been limited to 60-degrees. The newly published study details how the team got around these restrictions to develop an ultra-wide-angle lens capable of capturing 180-degree panoramas without extra components.

This 180-degree fisheye metalens features a single piece of transparent glass made from calcium fluoride with a lead telluride film on one side. A pattern of ‘optical structures’ called meta-atoms was carved into the film using lithographic techniques, the result of which were many ‘nanoscale geometries’ used to bend the light in specific, precise ways.

The carved structures can introduce phase delays into the scattering of the light — depending on their shape — to imitate the natural phase delays produced by the curved glass elements in spherical fisheye lenses. The light passes from the carved structures on the back of the lens through an optical aperture on the front of the lens.

Study co-author Mikhail Shalaginov said:

When light comes in through this aperture, it will refract at the first surface of the glass, and then will get angularly dispersed. The light will then hit different parts of the backside, from different and yet continuous angles. As long as you design the back side properly, you can be sure to achieve high-quality imaging across the entire panoramic view.

The study was partially funded by DARPA through its EXTREME program, which tasks experts with developing optical tools ‘to enable new functionality and/or vastly improve size, weight, and power characteristics of traditional optical systems.’ The agency goes on to explain that EXTREME will ‘explore this optical design space and aims to understand the trade-offs, and harness the possibilities, afforded’ by Engineered Optical Materials (EnMats).

Via: MIT

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Samsung is aiming to develop 600MP image sensors

21 Apr

In the last couple of years or so we have seen the size of image sensors in high-end smartphones increase quite dramatically. At the same time pixel counts have skyrocketed, driven, at least in part, by the use of pixel-binning technology to capture images with lower noise levels and a wider dynamic range than would be possible with conventional sensor technology.

The sensor in the main camera of Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S20 Ultra, is a prime example for both these trends. At 1/1.33″ it’s one of the currently largest (only the 1/1.28″ chip in the Huawei P40 Pro is bigger) and a whopping 108MP resolution allows for pixel binning and all sorts of computational imaging wizardry to produce 12MP high-quality default output.

In terms of pixel binning this latest Samsung sensor taken thins even one step further than previous generations. Instead of four it combines 9 pixels into one for an effective pixel size of 2.4µm.

Now we’ve learned that the South Korean company has no intentions to stop there. In a blog post on the company website, Samsung’s Head of Sensor Business Team Yongin Park explains that it is the company’s goal to design and produce image sensors that go beyond the resolution of the human eye which is said to be around 500MP.

However, Yong is aware that numerous challenges have to be overcome to achieve this goal.

‘In order to fit millions of pixels in today’s smartphones that feature other cutting-edge specs like high screen-to-body ratios and slim designs, pixels inevitably have to shrink so that sensors can be as compact as possible.

On the flip side, smaller pixels can result in fuzzy or dull pictures, due to the smaller area that each pixel receives light information from. The impasse between the number of pixels a sensor has and pixels’ sizes has become a balancing act that requires solid technological prowess,’ he writes.

Launched in 2013, Samsung’s ISOCELL technology has been paramount in allowing for more and more pixels to be implemented on smartphone image sensors, by isolating pixels from each other and thus reducing light spill and reflections between them. first this was done using metal ‘barriers’. Later generations used an unspecified ‘innovative material’.

Tetracell technology came along in 2017 and used 2×2 pixel binning to increase the effective pixel size. It was superseded by the company’s Nonacell tech and its 3×3 pixel arrays earlier this year. At the same time Samsung engineers were also able to reduce pixel size to a minuscule 0.7?m. According to Park this was previously believed to be impossible.

So, what can we expect from Samsung’s sensor division in the medium and long term? Park says that the company is ‘aiming for 600MP for all’ but doesn’t provide much detail on how this could be achieved. These sensors would not necessarily be exclusive to use in smartphones, however, and could be implemented for a wide range of applications.

‘To date, the major applications for image sensors have been in the smartphones field, but this is expected to expand soon into other rapidly-emerging fields such as autonomous vehicles, IoT and drones,’ he explains.

In addition the company is looking at applications for its sensors that go beyond photography and videography. According to Park, sensors that are capable of detecting wavelengths outside of the range of human eyes are still rare, but could benefit in areas such as cancer diagnosis in medicine or quality control in agriculture.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Researchers develop lithium-sulphur battery that can power a phone for five days

17 Jan
Image courtesy of Monash University

Researchers led by Monash University in Australia have developed what they say is the ‘most efficient’ version of a lithium-sulfur battery; one capable of powering a smartphone for five full days of continuous use. The team has filed a patent for the manufacturing process they developed and they report interest from ‘some of the world’s largest manufacturers.’

Prototype lithium-sulfur power cells were manufactured in Germany, according to an announcement from the university published last week. The technology holds promise for revolutionizing everything from consumer gadgets like cameras and phones to larger systems involving vehicles and solar power. The newly developed lithium-sulfur battery offers more than four times the performance of the market’s current most efficient batteries.

With this level of battery performance, photographers and filmmakers could spend weeks in remote locations with only power banks as their power source, eliminating the need to tote around and use solar chargers, which are dependent on direct sunlight and often take several hours or more to recharge a battery.

In addition to improved performance, the Li-S battery technology is also said to have less of an environmental impact than the lithium-ion battery products currently in use. The new battery prototype utilizes the same materials used to manufacture ordinary lithium-ion batteries; as well, the process is said to have lower manufacturing costs.

According to the university, additional testing of the technology with solar grids and cars will take place in Australia early this year. Major lithium battery manufacturers in Europe and China are interested in upscaling the production of these lithium-sulphur batteries.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sony forms new AI organization to develop new tech for cameras and more

27 Nov

Sony has announced it’s consolidating its artificial intelligence work under a new organization called Sony AI. Sony AI will focus on the ‘fundamental research and development’ of artificial intelligence; it will have offices located in Japan, the US, and Europe.

According to Sony, its new Sony AI organization will initiate ‘multiple world-class flagship projects,’ among other things. The division will launch with projects involving Sony’s Imaging & Sensing Solutions division, as well as its Gaming division and the field of gastronomy. Sony already uses AI in a variety of products, including to power its Eye AF feature.

Sony says the new organization will ultimately create new AI technologies that will be ‘critical’ for its sensor business. The organization will work closely with other Sony business units on its projects, but the company hasn’t provided details about specific R&D initiatives at this time.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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London researchers develop plant-powered camera system for conservation efforts

19 Oct

ZSL London Zoo has detailed the results of a new scientific trial that successfully powered a tiny camera using plants. At the core of the system are microbial fuel cells designed to harness the energy produced by bacteria in the soil, which works to breakdown biomatter produced by plants. The end result, according to ZSL, may one day be plant-powered cameras that can be used as part of conservation efforts.

The microbial fuel cells were installed in the London Zoo’s Rainforest Life exhibit for use with a maidenhair fern named Pete. Unlike batteries, which need to be regularly recharged using sunlight or an external power source, plant-based fuel cells can be used to power many low-energy sensors, cameras, and other devices in a variety of environments.

‘We’ve quite literally plugged into nature to help protect the world’s wildlife: Pete has surpassed our expectations and is currently taking a photo every 20 seconds,’ said ZSL Conservation Technology Specialist Al Davies. ‘He’s been working so well we’ve even accidentally photobombed him a few times!’ Below are a few photos captured with the system:

By utilizing this technology, conservationists may be able to monitor plant growth, temperature, and other data using remote hardware without relying on solar panels and batteries. Following additional refinement, the team plans to test the technology in the wild.

Image credits: Photos shared with kind permission from ZSL London Zoo.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Researchers develop new anti-face-distortion method for wide-angle lenses

16 Jun

Ultra-wide-angle lenses are becoming increasingly popular on smartphones in both rear and front cameras. Especially the latter are frequently used for portraiture in the shape of selfie images of both single subjects and groups.

Unfortunately when capturing people pictures with a wide-angle lens a problem becomes apparent: faces that are located close to the edges of the frame are distorted, showing signs of unnatural stretching, squishing, and/or skewing, an effect that is also known as anamorphosis.

A group of researchers at Google and MIT led by YiChang Shih has now found an efficient way of dealing with the issue. In their paper titled “Distortion-Free Wide-Angle Portraits on Camera Phones,” they describe an algorithm that is capable of correcting the effect, making for more natural selfies and wide-angle portraits.

Previous solutions were capable of correcting distortion on faces but in turn introduced other artifacts to the background and other elements of the image. The new method works around this by creating a content-aware warping mesh and applying corrections only to the part of the frame where faces are detected and maintaining smooth transitions between faces and the rest of the image.

The researchers say good results were achieved on photos with a wide field-of-view ranging from 70° to 120° and the algorithm is fast enough to work “at an interactive rate”. More information is available on the project website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How to Develop a Photography Workflow that Preserves Your Images

28 Apr

The post How to Develop a Photography Workflow that Preserves Your Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Karthika Gupta.

“I love spending time in front of a computer working on my images – sorting them, cataloging them and editing them,” said no photographer ever!

Well, maybe a few of us like to be sitting in front of our desk pouring over image after image, shoot after shoot. But let’s face it, as photographers, we would much rather get out there and photograph in the field than be chained to our desk and computers indoors.

How to setup a workflow to protect your images Karthika Gupta

This is where having a good solid workflow that can help you ease the post-shoot process is very important. Workflows are not just for the editing portion of your life as a photographer. In fact, a workflow is something that can help you before, during and even after your photo shoot.

Whether you are a busy professional photographer or an active hobbyist, having a good solid workflow and method of organizing images is crucial.

Having a workflow is even beneficial if you just photograph on your smartphone.

We have all been in situations where your phone runs out of space because you have images from three years ago that you have done nothing with. Sorting through three years worth of data to find images to delete under pressure of missing a key moment is no joke!

I wear many different photography hats as a wedding, lifestyle and travel photographer. So my workflow is slightly different based on the type of session I am photographing. But for the most part, I follow the same series of steps.

Here is my process. Hopefully, you may be able to replicate some or all of these steps to create a process that works for you in your photography.

1. Choice of Gear

Camera

My camera of choice is a Canon 5D MKIII. At this point, I only have one digital camera. I used to have a Canon 5D MKII as my backup, but ever since I starting working with a second shooter for my weddings, I didn’t find the need for my Canon 5D MK II. So I sold it.

For commercial shoots or bigger gigs that require multiple cameras and lenses, I just rent what I need. I am lucky in that I have a big camera store close to home that has all the gear I could need. They even have a studio that I can rent out should I need more space.

Batteries and Cards

I purchased two extra batteries when I was a full-time wedding photographer, and because I sold my backup gear, I am now left with extra camera batteries for my primary camera.

This works really well because I carry all my batteries with me when I am traveling or going to a multi-day event. That way I don’t have to worry about finding a plug point or charging my camera battery in the field.

This was a lifesaver earlier in the year when I traveled to Portugal and lost my power converter/adaptor. Try figuring out how to say power adaptor in a part of the world where you don’t speak the language! I drained out my batteries to the very last percent of battery juice during that trip!

Side tip: try shaking the battery to squeeze out every last bit of battery juice if you are running out of battery life. I’m not joking. I have tried this successfully many times in Portugal to get that last shot before the battery died!

I have 5 x 32GB CF cards, 3 x 16GB CF cards and a handful of 8 GB CF cards. For the most part, all these cards travel with me for a multi-day shoot or a personal travel trip that is several days long.

Part of my pre-shoot workflow includes downloading all my cards, charging my batteries and packing my bag with everything I need the night before.

Camera bag

My camera bag is a backpack that I used not just my photography but also for excursions and trips around town. I ditched the proverbial camera bag many years ago when I started traveling with my family of young kids. Carrying a camera bag, diaper bag, and a purse was just not practical. Also, once I got used to carrying a day pack that held all my treasures, it just seems second nature to me to pick that bag up no matter what the occasion.

Since I have just one camera/day pack, part of my workflow is to make sure the bag is empty and ready for the next adventure as soon as I come back home from a shoot/trip or even just going around town.

Luckily, it has enough pockets to store batteries, CF cards and other things like filters, and flashes.

How to setup a workflow to protect your images Karthika Gupta

At a recent class I taught, I loved seeing the diversity in terms of camera bags that everyone was using!

2. During the shoot

There is nothing quite like learning the importance of having a workflow than losing data or content in the absence of one. I learned the hard way when I lost all my images from a shoot on a card that failed. Luckily it was for a family shoot that I could reschedule.

So from that point onwards, I change my camera data card with each logical break in the event I am photographing.

For example, if I am photographing a wedding, I have the getting ready activities on one card, the ceremony on another card and the reception on a third card.

Even though the cards are not full, this gives me the security of losing only a part of the day should anything go wrong.

Of course, my backup for weddings is my second photographer who does the same thing.

For non-wedding related client work, I use a backup SD card in my camera. The Canon 5D MkIII has a dual card slot, so I take full advantage of the technology at my fingertips. If I am on a personal assignment, I change out my cards every night and download the photos onto an external drive.

Another thing that is important to note is how you store used and unused data cards. Figure out a system that works for you in how you separate the two. For me, used CF cards from a photoshoot are placed in a separate pouch from unused CF cards. I place those in another pouch in my camera bag.

In terms of the actual shoot, try and come up with a game plan for what you are photographing. As a wedding photographer, one of the key things I make sure to discuss with my wedding couples is a shot list. A shot list is a list of all the key moments and images that the couple absolutely wants to have taken. Typically these are around photos with family members.

With client and commercial shoots, the clients typically have a list of images they want to get from you. Use this concept of a shot list to list down all the ‘must have’ images you want to get out of a photographic excursion.

Shot lists save you effort, and they help you become more efficient with your time in the field.

How to setup a workflow to protect your images Karthika Gupta 2

Wedding photography can be quite stressful. There isn’t really a do-over option if you mess up. Having a workflow is critical and life-saving for a wedding photographer.

3. After the shoot

When I am back home from a wedding or a lifestyle shoot, the first thing I do is pack away my gear. I separate my camera body from my lenses and pack them away separately. All batteries are removed, including those from my flash. I have heard horror stories where batteries, especially AAAs, have leaked into the flash socket, so I don’t want to have to deal with that mess! Plus I use rechargeable batteries for all my flashes and external lights. Once they are out, I put them back in the case ready to be recharged for the next photography gig.

If I am at a multi-day shoot, all batteries are plugged into the charger slots right away.

These are the steps I take with my images:

  1. I download all the images from my CF cards onto TWO external hard drives, that act as a storage for my RAW images. 
  2. Once the RAW images are successfully transferred to my external hard drive, I go through and spot check the images and the total image count to make sure all the images are moved over.
  3. Images are moved over based on the shoot, location or event. For example a wedding will be downloaded as follows on the primary storage drive:

20190101_ClientNameWedding_GettingReady

20100101_FamilyName_LifestyleShoot

20100101_Personal_VacationLocation_Day01

  1. The secondary drive is less formal and has images just based on the event. For example:

2019

WeddingClientCard01

WeddingClientCard02

FamilyLifestyelShoot

Personal_TripCard01

Personal_TripCard02

  1. I then format the cards in camera. This is done on the camera rather than the computer. The reason for this is because I have found that sometimes all the images are not cleaned out and the card still retains some data that occupies unnecessary space.
How to setup a workflow to protect your images Karthika Gupta

Treating every client shoot like it was a wedding really helped me nail down a process and workflow that works for me. Now it is second nature and something I don’t even have to think about.

4. After the shoot (remote)

When I am traveling for work or pleasure, I carry one WD My Passport Ultra external hard drive and all my camera data cards. Earlier in my career, I would carry two external hard drives and create primary and secondary backups in the field. Now I have found that I don’t photograph as much because I am more thoughtful about what I photograph.

So now I just carry all my cards, and one external hard drive to back them up in the field. I avoid taking an external hard drive when I am just traveling for pleasure or personal work to reduce my load.

When I get home, the RAW files from the CF cards used during the trip are copied over to both external hard drives (primary and secondary) that house all my raw images. They are deleted from the WD Ultra so that it is ready for my next trip.

Early in my photography career, there were times where I would travel with almost every lens I owned, a laptop, two external hard drives, and many camera cards to be safe. Perhaps it is age, or perhaps it is maturity (I like to think it is a little bit of both), but now I try to travel light and take only what is absolutely needed to get the job done.

If I need something along the way, I either borrow, rent or figure out creative solutions to make things work.

How to setup a workflow to protect your images Karthika Gupta

I would argue that personal photos are more important than professional ones – especially as the dedicated photographer of the family. I love documenting our journey for no-one but me!

5. Editing workflow

Eighty percent of my editing happens in Lightroom (LR). Photoshop is used sparingly if I have to make any advanced editing. I have invested in the Adobe Creative Cloud for LR and Photoshop. I’ve installed them on my iMac (my primary editing device), as well as my MacBook Pro (my travel companion).

My Lightroom catalog lives on an external HD. I understand some people have concerns over running a LR Catalog on an external HD, because of potential LR speed issues. So far, I have not experienced any issues with LR in terms of speed by having the catalog on an external HD. However, if you are concerned about speed, then your LR catalog can be put on your computer’s hard drive, and keep a backup on the external HD. A backup of my LR catalog lives on a cloud service that is updated every six weeks.

I used to use iPhoto on my iMac to store all my images and only upload selected images to Lightroom. I tried to use Bridge for a few years to select images that I want to import into Lightroom. Now I use Photos on my Mac to select images that I want to edit and upload them into Lightroom.

I know it is probably easier to just upload all images to Lightroom and sort them via the software to save an extra step. I have one Lightroom catalog that houses all my work since 2012, and so there are quite a few images in the catalog. I had found that when I used Lightroom to sort and select images, it takes forever to load.

My Lightroom catalog is sorted by year, and I use the following naming convention for my Lightroom. I am less worried about the naming convention in Lightroom than I am with my primary and second storage units. This is just my personal preference.

YYYYMMDD_ClientName_TypeoftheShoot.

After editing is complete, I export my client images onto the same WD Ultra external hard drive as my Lightroom catalog.

The client folders get arranged by the date of the session.

This time the naming standard is as follows:

CompanyName_ClientNameEvent_Date

All images have the same naming convention as the folder, along with an image sequence number.

Every few years I go through and delete edited galleries from the external hard drive. I don’t delete client RAW files – just the edited files. I have found myself going back to many client galleries and re-editing images as my style evolves and changes. There is no point in keep multiple copies of the same image.

I use a mix of presets and hand edits for my images. It took me many years to finally come up with a style and method of how I want my images to look. Ninety percent of my edits follow that same process. Every once in a while I drastically change my “look” to keep things fresh.

As a rule, I spend no more than a minute on each image. I would much rather be outside photographing than indoors editing.

How to setup a workflow to protect your images Karthika Gupta

How to setup a workflow to protect your images Karthika Gupta

Exact same image – two different looks. And I love them both.

6. Editing Remotely

I really avoid extensive editing of images in the field. I prefer to focus on documenting and photographing rather than same day edits. I would much rather take a quick snapshot on my iPhone and edit using phone apps for a quick social media preview than spend time and effort in editing in the field.

A couple of years ago, I traveled out of the country for three months over the summer. This was before Lightroom came up with their cloud version. Because I was gone for so long, I took my Lightroom catalog with me on an external drive and used that for 3 months.

Recently, I started using Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC for my workflow. I primarily used them for working when traveling. When I know I need access to my files for a particular project or a particular job, I upload those files to my Lightroom CC and work on them while on the road. Once back home, I ‘sync’ Lightroom CC as a collection in my Lightroom Classic and have all those edits readily available.

7. Client workflow

I use an external portfolio service to host my images for client work. These client galleries are only online for three weeks, and then they are deleted. My wedding photography packages all include edited images on a personalized flash drive whereas my family portraiture clients have the option of purchasing digital images if they want them for future use.

Every few years I go through and update client galleries and delete old ones. Keep in mind these are just the edited files. My client RAW files are stored indefinitely in case a client comes back after a few years for the images. If you don’t want to delete client images, you can invest in an external cloud storage system.

How to setup a workflow to protect your images Karthika Gupta

In Conclusion

While it might seem like a lot, my workflow has simplified over time. Just as I limit the gear I own and use, I also try and limit the images I capture – for both client and personal work. Having 100 photos of a spectacular sunset no longer make sense to me. I also stick to my workflow because it saves time in the long run.

One of my favorite things to stock up on are external hard drives. Every so often they fail, and I have to replace them. As cloud storage gets more accessible and less expensive, I can see myself moving things over to the cloud and simplifying my process and workflow even more.

I encourage you to use this, or some variation of this workflow and tweak it to make it your own. If you do it consistently and often enough, it becomes second nature and saves you time so you can do what you enjoy doing – photographing.

 

The post How to Develop a Photography Workflow that Preserves Your Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Karthika Gupta.


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How to Develop Better Black and White Photos in Lightroom

08 Mar

The post How to Develop Better Black and White Photos in Lightroom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darina Kopcok.

Achieving great looking black & white images in Lightroom is not about converting your colour images to grayscale with the click of your mouse and calling it a day.

Black & white photography is subtle, and it takes experience to see and understand its nuances. Lightroom has a fantastic set of tools to help you create stunning black & white images.

Here are some tips and some mistakes to avoid.

Develop Better Black and White Images in Lightroom-Darina Kopcok-DPS

Converting to black and white

There are several ways to convert your color images to black & white in Lightroom.

You can use one of Lightroom’s presets or completely reduce the color saturation.

Or you can convert your color image to grayscale in Lightroom by simply hitting “V” on your keyboard, or clicking on Black & White under Color Treatment in the Basic panel.

Whatever you decide to do, know that you will have to make some tweaks in Lightroom to get the best possible result.

Develop Better Black and White Images in Lightroom-Darina Kopcok-DPS

Using Black and White Mix

Once you  have converted your image, a panel called Black & White Mix will appear under the Tone Curve panel.

The sliders here give you control over the way colors are translated into grey tones in Lightroom. When you convert to grayscale, all the colors will be at zero.

Develop Better Black and White Images in Lightroom-Darina Kopcok-DPS

Making some simple adjustments in this panel can make a dramatic difference in the quality of your photos.

For example, if you’re working on a landscape image, using the blue sliders will help you adjust the sky.

If you’re new to black and white processing in Lightroom, play around with the sliders to see how each of them affect your photo. With a bit of experimentation, you’ll get a feel for which sliders alter the various tones in your image in a way that helps you achieve the look you’re going for. You’ll also develop your signature black and white editing style.

Develop Better Black and White Images in Lightrppm-Darina Kopcok-DPS

Boost Tonal Contrast

In addition to tweaking the Black & White Mix sliders, you should make other manual adjustments in Lightroom to adjust the tonal contrast in your photograph.

Tonal contrast is the differences in brightness throughout your image. If there are stark differences between your tones – say, a very light subject against a dark background, then we would say the photo has a lot of tonal contrast.

One benefit of actually shooting in black & white is that you don’t have to ignore color and try to understand your scene in terms of light or dark tones. Shooting with your DSLR camera in Monochrome Mode will help you with your composition, especially if you’re new to black & white photography.

Develop Better Black and White Images in Lightroom-Darina Kopcok-DPS

Boost texture in your images

A key way to enhance your black & white photographs in Lightroom is to boost texture. Bringing out the texture emphasizes the details in a photograph.

One of the easiest ways to enhance texture in your black & white images is with the Clarity slider.

Clarity increases the contrast in a photograph, but not as drastically as the Contrast slider does.

You have more leeway with clarity in black & white than you do with color.

In Lightroom, there are to ways to work with clarity. One is to use the Clarity slider in the Basic panel. This is a global adjustment that affects the entire photo. You can also selectively add Clarity with the Adjustment Brush.

You want to do this when it makes sense to boost the texture in a certain part of the photo.

If you have an image where the subject is in focus but the background is blurred out, there is no point in adding clarity to the whole image. Focus on the area that you want to enhance. This will increase sharpness. Since the eye tends to go to sharper areas first, it makes sense to boost sharpness selectively. Adding clarity is one way of doing that.

Develop Better Black and White Images in Lightroom-Darina Kopcok-DPS

Mistakes to avoid

Common mistakes that photographers make are related to misuse of texture and contrast.

If you’re converting your color images to grayscale, you’ll notice that they look a little flat. You need to add some contrast, but the problem is that it’s easy to go too far and lose details in the highlights and shadows.

Look closely at your images. Are they too dark in the darker areas? Do they look muddy, or even “crunchy”–with angular rather than blurred edges?

This gives images an over-processed HDR look, which is not desirable in most cases.

Do add contrast and clarity, but fine the right balance for each particular image. The same goes for clarity.

Develop Better Black and White Images in Lightroom-Darina Kopcok-DPS

Again, the amount you add will really depend on the photograph. For example, you may want to add clarity to a portrait of a male to bring out the textures in the skin and hair, but use negative clarity to smooth the skin in a female portrait. Clarity can bring out wrinkles and imperfections in the skin and make the subject look older if not applied with care.

Another mistake photographers make when editing their black & white photos is to over-sharpen them.

When sharpening, I recommend using the Sharpening Mask.

To do this, choose the sharpening level you desire in Lightroom. Hold down the Alt/Option key and slide the Masking slider. You’ll see the image change to look something like an x-ray. This is showing you where Lightroom is intelligently sharpening your photograph.

Developing Black and White in Lightroom-Darina Kopcok-DPS

In most photographs, you don’t necessarily want every single bit of the image sharpened, the same way you don’t need texture in every part of the image. By using Sharpening Mask, you can apply the sharpening to the most important part of the photo. I often leave mine in the range of 70-90.

Plug-Ins

There are a host of plug-ins available for Lightroom that can really enhance your images and your editing process, such as Topaz Black & White, or Perfect B&W.

However, a lot of black & white photography photographers say the gold standard of plug-ins for black & white photography is Silver Efex Pro.

Silver Efex Pro has a tool called Structure, which works in a similar way to Clarity in Lightroom, but has four sliders that help you tweak your tones with a great deal of control. If you shoot a lot of black & white photography, or plan on doing so, this is definitely one plug-in I would recommend that you purchase.

Develop Better Black and White Images in Lightroom-Darina Kopcok-DPS

In Conclusion

To achieve better black & white photos in Lightroom takes a subtle hand and training your eye to look at tones instead of color.

The good thing about Lightroom is that your files are non-destructible, so feel free to tweak your images to your heart’s content. Everything is undoable with the click of your mouse.

With a bit of practice and experimentation, you’ll be developing brilliant black and white images in no time.

If you have any other tips or black and white photos you’d like to share, please do so in the comments section.

The post How to Develop Better Black and White Photos in Lightroom appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darina Kopcok.


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How to Sync Your Develop Presets to Lightroom Mobile

10 Oct

Better. Faster. More efficient.

That’s what we photographers demand from our gear as we keep pushing them to perform at levels that were unheard of a few years ago. Even the means to post-process our digital images has been ramped up to the point where we can do it on our mobile device within minutes (if not seconds) of making the exposure.

For the past couple of years Adobe has done its best to keep pace with the need for mobile-friendly editing with Lightroom Mobile – the mobile device counterpart of the Lightroom CC flavor of our beloved Lightroom Classic. But in June 2018 Adobe upped the ante by fully integrating develop presets into the Lightroom Mobile application. This means we can take ALL of our develop presets (purchased and self-made) with us on our mobile devices, which is a huge deal for those of us who use presets for the bulk of our photo editing.

So how do we get the presets from our computers to our Lightroom Mobile app? Until recently we could do it only by using some unofficial workarounds. But with Adobe’s newly minted cross-platform support for develop presets, you can carry your  presets with you wherever you go simply by clicking a button.

Let me show you how to sync your beloved develop presets from Lightroom Classic to your Lightroom Mobile app.

What You’ll Need

To sync your develop presets from your computer-based Lightroom Classic you currently need to be a member of the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan. If you have a standalone (non-cloud) version of Lightroom you won’t be able to sync your presets with your mobile device.

Every Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan includes both Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC. I realise these names can get a little muddled up, but bear with me.

Lightroom Classic CC is the tried and true version of Lightroom most of us remember. Adobe calls it the “desktop-focused” version of Lightroom, and what many of us moved from when we switched to the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan.

Lightroom CC is the new cloud-based version of the Lightroom we knew previously. While it’s a boiled down, more streamlined incarnation of the classic Lightroom, it still has all the tools we know and love. And it’s the software we’ll use to sync with our Lightroom Mobile app.

So you need to have Lightroom CC installed on your computer to sync your develop presets with your mobile version of Lightroom. You also need to have the Lightroom Mobile (Lightroom CC) app installed on your mobile device.

How to Sync

Getting your develop presets from Lightroom Classic CC to Lightroom Mobile is incredibly easy once you understand a few simple steps. In fact, the process is almost automatic once your install Lightroom CC alongside Lightroom Classic CC.

Once you installed and open Lightroom CC, your develop presets and profiles will sync automatically through your Adobe Cloud account. Keep in mind that while you can sync catalogs from your Lightroom Classic CC software, your develop presets won’t sync to Lightroom Mobile until they’re synced to your Lightroom CC software.

Once you have your presets in Lightroom CC, sync your devices by clicking the cloud icon at the top right.

When your develop presets appear in Lightroom CC, it’s time to open your Lightroom Mobile app.

Open an image, and scroll to the develop presets icon.

You should now see your newly synced develop presets from Lightroom CC (and thus Classic CC) available for use on your Lightroom Mobile app.

Final Thoughts on Syncing Develop Presets to Lightroom Mobile

Whether you love it, hate it, or just want to get on with your processing, the fact we photographers can now work more readily on the go can’t be ignored. We no longer need to get back home, or even back to a waiting laptop, to begin processing our images. Whether or not it’s a good thing is entirely up to you.

Being able to use our develop presets across all of the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan platforms will make our photographic lives even easier. If you use Lightroom Mobile regularly, be sure to share your thoughts about this newfound mobility in the comments below.

The post How to Sync Your Develop Presets to Lightroom Mobile appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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NVIDIA researchers develop AI that removes noise from images with incredible accuracy

10 Jul

A team of NVIDIA researchers, in partnership with researchers from Aalto University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has shared details of a new artificial intelligence (AI) program that can remove grain from images with such accuracy that it’s almost scary.

‘Using NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPUs with the cuDNN-accelerated TensorFlow deep learning framework, the team trained [its] system on 50,000 images in the ImageNet validation set,’ says NVIDIA in its announcement blog post.

What’s incredible about this particular AI is its ability to know what a clean image looks like without ever actually seeing a noise-free image. Rather than training the deep-learning network by giving it a noisy image and a clean image to learn how to make up the difference, NVIDIA’s AI is trained using two images with different noise patterns.

‘It is possible to learn to restore signals without ever observing clean ones, at performance sometimes exceeding training using clean exemplars,’ say the researchers in a paper published on the findings. The paper goes so far as to say ‘[The neural network] is on par with state-of-the-art methods that make use of clean examples — using precisely the same training methodology, and often without appreciable drawbacks in training time or performance.’

In addition to being used on photographs, researchers note the AI will also be beneficial in scientific and medical fields. In particular, the researchers detail how magnetic imaging resonance (MRI) scans — which are very susceptible to noise — could be dramatically improved using the program, leading to improved diagnoses.

The team behind the AI will present their work at the International Conference on Machine Learning on July 12, 2018.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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