It’s no secret that high-end gear is expensive.

And it is pretty hard to remember a time when this was different.

But there are more options now than ever before to help you get the latest stuff in your hands without having to outlay thousands of dollars.

Panasonic is entering that market with a novel solution for cameras but a pretty standard one as far as other things are concerned such as cars, apartments, and even smartphones.

The only catch is that it looks like it is just in the Japanese market at this stage and it is only for the G100 and S5II models. Still, it is an interesting idea and one that people would probably like to see expanded outside of the Japanese market.

Initially spotted by 43rumors.com, the leasing plan from Panasonic caused something of a stir on the Internet with many people pointing it out as yet another sign of the times as to how expensive things are becoming.

PetaPixel clarifies the situation somewhat and notes that there is a premium to leasing these cameras compared with purchasing them outright. While that is pretty standard, lessees get some cool benefits such as access to Panasonic’s Lumix Academy. Primarily aimed at content creators and vloggers, the two cameras have fairly manageable monthly fees and give a broader audience access to cameras that otherwise might be cost-prohibitive.

Again, it’s only in Japan at this point, but it sounds like a great idea for moving people beyond the smartphone to other formats.

What do you think of leasing out cameras? Smart move given the marketplace’s accelerating prices or would you rather own your camera outright? Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments.

We have some more photography news for you at this link right here.

[43 Rumors]

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There is a well-known acronym called KISS, Keep It Simple, Stupid. Created by the US Navy in the 60s, this tag could also be applied to modern-day photography. 

Adobe’s Lightroom is probably the widest-used photographic app there is. Its appeal is the seamless integration of image management and nondestructive editing. I have used Lightroom Classic for many years and have a catalog reaching around 80k images.

Recently though I have started to look at my workflow in Lightroom. Like many professional photographers these days, I dabble in multiple revenue streams, stock, prints, and courses to name some.

For that reason, I have used Lightroom’s powerful rating tools to isolate, edit, and export my images for each type of genre. The problem is that recently I realized that my workflow has become overly complicated. I tend to use pretty much every cataloging tool available to me, and that’s slowing me down. Today, we are going to look at Lightroom’s image management in general and why you should try to streamline your Lightroom workflow. 

Look Over the Shoulder of These Experts As They Show You Their Lightroom Workflow

The Problems With Over-Complicating Lightroom Workflow 

There are many potential issues with over-complicating your Lightroom workflow. Even before you start, you may have spread your images over multiple folders on multiple drives and have multiple catalogs. This in turn can make it difficult to sort and find images in your catalog.

Inconsistent importing can be an issue. You might apply metadata to some, copyright info to others, and apply a basic import preset to yet more images. This can lead to extra work in the future if you want your images to have a consistent default metadata and look.

Once imported, the use of Lightroom’s rating system can become very erratic and inconsistent. This can seriously slow down your workflow as you try to remember what a particular rating means. Before we delve any further into a rating workflow, let’s take a look at how they work.

Lightroom’s Image Rating System

Lightroom’s catalog has three main rating tools. Stars, Colors, and Flags. Let’s quickly break down each.

• Stars: The star rating system allows the photographer to give a rating of between 1 and 5 stars to individual images. By default an image has a 0-star rating, we can change that by pressing the applicable number key. 
• Colors. In addition to stars, we can give our image one of five different color labels. By default, these are red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The labels can be changed in the Lightroom settings
• Flags. These can be flagged, unflagged, and rejected. Pressing the X key will reject an image and hide it from view in the catalog. It can be found and deleted by using the catalog filter functions.

These three systems make cataloging very powerful but require that you use them consistently if you are not to overcomplicate your workflow. 

Define Your Rating System And Stick With It

One of the easiest ways to overcomplicate your workflow is inconsistent use of the rating system. For example, you might have recently imported a location shoot. You might start by star rating the images 3 for stock, 4 for prints, and 5 for portfolio. You might then rate an image red as to be worked on and green as ready for export. You might flag an image that requires more work. 

However, if you do not use this system consistently with every shoot you will struggle to remember what each rating represents. Let’s have a quick look at my own rating workflow.

How I Use The Rating System to Save Time

After a lot of experimentation and inefficiency, I found it useful to make sure each rating sub-section is well defined. In my workflow, the number ratings are used simply to define how good the image is. I start at:

• 3 stars, suitable for stock
• 4 stars, a sellable print
• 5 stars, portfolio material

And that’s it. I do not use 1 and 2 and I only use 0 to derate an image that I discover to have technical issues when editing.

I also use the color rating system sparingly. It’s simply:

• red, image requires editing
• green, the image is edited

The flag system I use is only for rejecting images that I wish to delete. They might be poor composition, bad focus, or simply an image that is not interesting.

Using this workflow, I select 4 and 5-star images first and rate them red. I then edit them to my highest standards and add metadata such as caption, description, and keywords before giving them a green color rating. I repeat the process with 3-star only images but editing for stock rather than portfolio or print.

Going Beyond Ratings in Your Lightroom Workflow

Of course, there are situations that occur in my workflow that go beyond my rating system. Rather than add more colors or stars, I use collections or smart collections. For example, if I am working on a course about the exposure triangle, I might need images that demonstrate shallow depth of field, slow shutter speed, or high ISO. 

With collections, I can create a folder for each of these and drag suitable images into them. This negates the need for me to keep hunting down the images within their original folders. As a side note, dragging an image into a collection does not move it from the existing Lightroom folder. 

The Importance Of A Consistent Lightroom Import Strategy 

We touched on import earlier. When we do an import, we can choose to add certain bits of metadata. In my workflow, I simply add my current copyright data along with my name and contact details to each file. This is done through a metadata import preset.

However, one thing that I also do is add the location to the keywords. This will be city/town, state or county, and country. As much of my photography is location-based, travel, landscapes, and urban landscapes, this simple addition on import allows me to easily create smart collections.

For example, I might be looking for all pictures from Durham, County Durham. I can set up a smart collection that looks for those keywords in the metadata and shows them all in one place. You can theme your keywords to the type of photography that you do. 

Other Streamlining Considerations

The way you have your images stored can have a major impact on your workflow. If your shots are spread across multiple drives in multiple folders then organizing them will slow you down. This will be compounded by poor folder and file naming.

Try to get all your images into a well-organized file hierarchy all in one place. You can use Lightroom’s tools to refind the folders if you have moved them. Consolidating your images into one place will also make it easier to back up. 

If you have a huge number of images, break the catalogs up into smaller ones. Make sure you store each catalog in the same place with an easy-to-remember title. For example, in my own workflow, I have split catalogs into pre-2011 and 2012 to date. 

When it comes to editing images, you will, over time, develop a style. Try to use that style to limit the amount of time you edit a photo. Having a style will also reduce the need for multiple virtual copies, simplifying your catalog.

Further Reading

Summary

Just because Lightroom has such a vast array of cataloging tools, doesn’t mean that we need to use them all. Unless you have a photographic memory, it’s best to streamline your rating system to suit the work you shoot. 

The efficiency of a workflow is all about keeping it simple and retaining muscle memory for the key aspects of that workflow. The more you add to it, the more complicated it will become and the slower the process will be. Applying the KISS principle to your photography workflow will save you a lot of time. Time saved to go out and shoot more. 

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The AI game just got a new, major player in the form of one of the world’s largest e-commerce websites.

That’s right, Amazon is joining, well, everyone in the race to dominate commercial photography via artificial intelligence. Similar to other platforms, Titan Image Generator can accomplish a range of tasks based on the user’s specification with the touted feature being quick background swap for product photos.

TechCrunch quoted Vice President for data and machine learning services at Amazon Web Services Swami Sivasubramanian and his remarks on the Titan Image Generator, writing:

“[You] can use the model to easily swap out an existing [image] background to a background of a rainforest [for example]. …[And you] can use the model to seamlessly swap out backgrounds to generate lifestyle images, all while retaining the main subject of the image and to create a few more options.”

Sivasubramanian described how the Titan Image Generator was trained using various datasets and how it protects users from image tampering via watermark. Basically, it’s pretty on par with other services we’ve written about here on this blog albeit with the worldwide reach of Amazon and its various platforms.

There’s also the company’s commitment, along with others, to fight abuse and the use of AI image generators for misinformation. As TechCrunch notes, however, it isn’t really clear how Amazon is watermarking these images to combat this kind of misuse. Maybe over time more information will become available but one thing is quite clear from this news and that is that AI is far from a fad and likely here to stay.

Let us know what you think of Amazon's foray into artificial intelligence in the comments section.

We have some more headlines for you to read at this link right here.

[TechCrunch]

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“Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched” the old adage goes and, as far as Adobe and Figma’s potential deal, it is looking to be increasingly appropriate when describing that situation.

That’s because the UK government just stepped in and called a halt to the whole thing, arguing that such a move could “harm the digital design sector in the UK.”

The UK government hopes to spell out how exactly the Adobe and Figma deal accomplishes this in the interim. Meanwhile, there’s little doubt that Adobe enjoys quite an oversized presence in most markets but it isn’t like it is without competition.

The UK government briefing details how important, in numbers, graphic design is to the national economy. Additionally, they spell out how many people are employed in that sector and how Figma and Adobe are two of the major players in that space. The argument basically asserts that the combination of the two companies leaves consumers with fewer choices in the marketplace. It’s probably also somewhat of a concern that Adobe’s purchase of Figma would add it to that company’s ever-growing borg of services and thus remove an important part of the UK design sector.

Under the “Product Design Software” heading,

“Figma’s products play a critical part in how companies design apps and websites to appear on people’s phones and tablets. Figma’s software is used by well-known firms in sectors, which are important to the success of the UK digital economy, including short-stay holidays (Airbnb), fashion (Patagonia) and telecommunications (Vodafone).

The inquiry group has provisionally concluded that the deal would remove the constraint Adobe exerts on Figma through its existing product design software, Adobe XD. The inquiry group also provisionally concluded that Adobe abandoned development of new product design software which could have competed even more closely with Figma and, given the timing of the decision, did this as a consequence of the merger. This supports the CMA’s concern that this proposed deal would likely reduce innovation and the development of competitive new products.”

Will the deal go through? Probably, but it remains to be cleared up on the UK regulatory side of things. Of course, we’ll keep you updated.

Do you use Figma? Let us know what you think of the company’s potential deal with Adobe in the comments.

We have some more headlines for you to read at this link.

[UK Gov]

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If you are a curious person, passionate about trying to read images, then this is something you've already felt before. Sometimes, images come with an extra spiciness we can't ignore. That fascinating extra of drama that triggers imagination in a seamless way. Of course, we are talking about vignettes, those that can be faded or crisp, framing a precious photographed scene.

Vignettes can be achieved in both ways — light and dark — and the decision behind any choice should always correspond with a particular visual intention. If we want to achieve something eerie or celestial, we would pick a lighter vignette. And if you want to transmit a moody or even dark atmosphere, then you should consider this approach. Usually, I apply a slightly dark vignette in a rather subtle way. Just enough to fine-tweak the overall lighting in the scene.

As you have already guessed by now, today's weekly digest brings a dollop of aesthetic photographs developed with the concept of vignetting in mind.

Photo Of The Week

For this week’s photo selection, we’ve agreed to award Timothy‘s beautiful landscape shot. This image was shared with us on the 670th weekly photographic challenge. Therefore, the image's sole purpose was to draw attention with the aid of a vignette, but the gorgeous scene delivers more than that; it almost feels like a classic advertisement don’t you think?

What Are Our Members Up To?

Adjust your screens, sit back, and enjoy all these good-looking vignettes!

As a photographic tool, vignettes can be applied via filters or can be achieved via post-processing. Either choice serves a somewhat unique purpose. Here, Rose applied a dark vignette which helps to narrow our vision into the tension achieved between each obelisk; a wise choice indeed!

A classic use of vignettes resembling those from the early days of our beloved photographic practice!

A couple of more proper examples of this duality between light and dark vignettes:

A compelling use of a vignette in which the darkening of the frame enhances the cinematic feel of this beautiful shot:

And a dreamy effect was achieved with the aid of a bright vignette!

Have you ever heard of hi-key photographs? Well, then bright vignettes are the secret sauce behind this beautiful kind of imagery. It also applies the other way around with lo-key photographs by the way!

Interested in achieving a vintage result, vignettes can help you out!

Creative results derive from the aid of photographic vignetting!

It is a beautiful result indeed, it almost feels like a classic advertisement.

And we want to honor this digest to Buster, who recently passed away at the epic age of 24! We're deeply sorry Diane, thanks for sharing this beautiful image with us.

What You Shouldn't Be Missing from the Light Stalking Community

Take a look at this astonishing frame captured by Tersha:

She also shared this beautiful scene which looks just like one of those perfectly perfect postcards:

And a gorgeous Thanksgiving sunrise captured by Daniel:

The Mobile Monday Challenge is open for sharing some shots! And if you want to see more shots, take a look at the Members Picks, a place where our community shares their favorite photographs from our forums every week.

We'd Love To Hear Your Thoughts

Also, our Feedback Forum got some nice pictures, and it is clear that some of you have started building a solid photography style. This is the right place for all those people who want to grow fast as photographers.

Here, you'll get your work critiqued by plenty of well-intended people, but you'll also have the chance to critique your peers. We truly believe in the power of criticism and feedback. Here are some of the most interesting shots shared during the last week:

The Shark Tank is a great place to learn and to discuss, so please read the instructions in order to get a better critique experience. Share your comments, opinions, and doubts on any or all of the images above. We also will be delighted to see some of your own images. Don't be shy, critiques are given to photographs and not photographers.

Also, don't forget to participate in our next challenge!

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This might seem like a no-brainer for some of us but, in many ways, it’s just another sign of the times.

That’s because you might wonder “Who wants a fake photo of a real-world event?” and, if you’re like the rest of us, that alone might leave you scratching your head. After all, aren’t there plenty of actual photographs of said event without delving into the realm of fiction?

Well, apparently, some people out there are creating such media for various purposes and Adobe Stock says that its content is not what stock photography’s primary purpose. They say it in a much more political way, naturally, but the whole blog post still feels a lot like reading a primer on common sense.

“Stock content represents creative illustrations, photos, designs, videos and more that can be licensed for commercial use. …As the demand for content increases, Stock contributors have had to race to fill a growing appetite for these types of assets, and for many, generative AI has proven a key unlock. Our Stock contributors have found generative AI to be a very successful tool for engaging in the Stock marketplace. But I want to be clear: Adobe Stock content is not real-world journalistic content and should never be used in journalistic mediums to depict newsworthy events.”

Later in the post, we discover some of the impetus for this clarity when Adobe notes that some AI-generated images are being used for what we would call “fake news” purposes. Or, in other words, to advance a false and/or misleading narrative.

“Recently, some members of our community have shared concern over generative AI war-like images being used on social media to misleadingly describe the Israel-Hamas war. It is disappointing to see people misrepresenting and misusing images, including Adobe Stock content, in this way, especially around a situation that is already causing so much grief, devastation, and destruction.”

To make things easier to navigate (as well as determine what’s what), Adobe Stock is updating its stock submission policies as well as adding clear labels to this type of content. They do admit that, no matter how many policy updates, labels, and changes they make, they ultimately cannot control how some of this stock photography is used. Nonetheless, clear labeling might help combat the problem somewhat and we commend Adobe Stock for that.

Any thoughts you might have on AI-generated photos of current events are welcome in the comments section.

We have some more photography news for you to read at this link.

[Adobe]

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Als die World Press Photo Foundation vor ein paar Tagen bekanntgab, ihre offene Kategorie für künstliche Intelligenz zu öffnen, gab es eine Welle der Empörung. In einem offenen Brief unterschrieben Fotograf*innen, Redakteur*innen und Fotoagenturen einen Appell an die Organisation, sich gerade in Zeiten der viralen Desinformation auf die ethischen Standards und vertrauenswürdigen Journalismus zu besinnen – mit Erfolg!
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While there might be a debate in certain circles about whether or not content created via artificial intelligence is acceptable for entry into a photography contest, there’s little doubt that actual photographers continue to demonstrate more excellence and creativity than a chat prompt ever could.

And it is on full display in this year’s 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography award winners. As the name implies, this contest is less about serious captures showing Mother Nature's visceral and surreal side in favor of something a little more light-hearted.

“Air Guitar Roo,” for example, shows a kangaroo rocking out in a field while “Otter Ballerinas” shows a pirouetting otter amid a background of curtains of hanging green foliage. Another, called “The Dispute,” shows a gray bird seemingly pointing off-camera while looking at a bird standing beside him with the conceit being that the bird is complaining about something. While most of the winners anthropomorphize the animals in some way, others simply show that nature isn’t as elegant and graceful as perhaps stereotypes would allow (as demonstrated in the winner “Unexpected Plunge.”

All of this is certainly a palate cleanser after certain controversies erupted in other photography contests, again, centered on AI. We have covered a few of those stories on this blog as well as the general proliferation of AI-generated material. Whether using Adobe or Google itself, AI is seemingly everywhere these day so it helps to remind ourselves that, yes, truth is better than fiction, especially when it comes to the Comedy Wildlife Photography awards.

Any thoughts on wildlife photography and this year’s Comedy Wildlife Photography Award winners are welcome in the comments section below.

We have some more photography headlines for you to read at this link.

[USA Today]

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Artificial intelligence is coming for video but that’s not really anything new.

Hey, we’ve covered articles about AI-generated holograms impersonating dead people, among other topics.

But what is big news is when a major name like Stable Diffusion enters this space.

And that’s exactly what just happened as the company just announced Stable Video Diffusion, a generative AI platform capable of transforming thoughts into video.

One of the major techniques demonstrated is the ability of Stable Video Diffusion to take a still image and turn it into a video. Of course, the technical language behind this process is a little more involved.

“Our video model can be easily adapted to various downstream tasks, including multi-view synthesis from a single image with finetuning on multi-view datasets. We are planning a variety of models that build on and extend this base, similar to the ecosystem that has built around stable diffusion.”

Specific use cases that Stable Video Diffusion envisions for its platform include “advertising, education, entertainment, and beyond,” or, essentially, everything.

So, if you were someone worried about whether or not AI was coming after your job, you probably wouldn’t find any comfort here. The company then compares SVD to notable competitors in the space to show that, even though they’re just coming out of the gate with this, they’re pretty much on par with the rest of the playing field. As mentioned in the beginning of the article, Stable Diffusion is sort of a big deal in the AI world and their move into video is a pretty big moment for that nascent technology.

You can watch a video showing it off on YouTube at this link.

Let us know what you think of generative AI for video in the comments below.

We have some more photography news at this link right here.

[Stability.Ai]

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There’s little doubt that AI is changing the world around us.

But that doesn’t mean it has to be given the same acceptance as traditional photography.

Sure, generated images are impressive and more than creative (shouldn’t they be), but they’re not the same as traditional art.

At least that’s the argument that seems to have won out over at the World Press Photo Contest after the organization made a splash with an initial acceptance of AI content.

Specifically, AI content was going to be permitted in the contest’s “open-format” category.

The blog post announcing the acceptance of AI-generated content begins in an interesting way: “People have altered photographs for almost as long as they have existed. The earliest known manipulated images originated in the 19th century, and Stalin famously had rivals edited out of photographs in the 20th century. Once digital tools became commonly available in the 1990s, the ease and extent at which photographs could be manipulated greatly expanded. This brings us to today’s age of AI proliferation, which has put the power of image generation and manipulation at our fingertips at a speed and scale never seen before. These new tools are transformative, but within the context of press and documentary photography, they need to be carefully regulated.”

Of course, that’s all gone out of the window now as the World Press Photo Contest has updated its rules, stating in a brief update on its website: “Thanks to the honest and thoughtful feedback over the past days, we have decided to change the rules for the Open Format category in our contest to exclude AI generated images. Both generative fill and fully generated images will be prohibited in the Open Format category (as was already the case in the other categories: Singles, Stories and Long-Term Projects).”

This isn’t the first contest we’ve seen that at least broaches the subject of AI content. Whether submitted as such or under subterfuge, the rise of AI content as a category separate and apart from traditional photography is certain to go down as one of the hallmarks of 2023. Yet it helps to keep in mind that, for many of us, this isn’t really an open debate.

What do you think of the World Press Photo’s decision to reverse accepting AI photos? Let us know in the comments.

We have some more photography news for you to read at this link.

[World Press Photo]

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