926 Digitizing 88-Year-Old Photos, AI Protests, Relaunches

On this episode: JUST RELEASED: the third edition of The Film Photography Handbook. JUST RELAUNCHED: chrismarquardt.com (now offers information about my services in training, consulting, production, and photography as well as some references to past work). COMING UP: The 10-day Eastern Europe photo road trip in Sep 2023 for amateur and professional photographers to visit iconic landmarks and hidden gems in Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and Transylvania. OLD PHOTOS: A personal project to digitize and restore a collection of 88-year-old photos of my family on glass plate negatives and celluloid film. DRAMA: The debate over the use of AI in art is ongoing, with some people excited about its potential and others concerned about negative effects on artists and the industry.

Topics:

  • [PHOTO, ANALOG] New Release: The Film Phtography Handbook 3rd Edition
  • [OTHER] Relaunch: chrismarquardt.com : My new website answers the three important questions: A) What has Chris done? B) What can Chris offer (hint: a lot) and C) What is Chris up to right now? Check it out to learn about my services (training, consulting, production, photography) and to answer the general question: “what is it you’re doing anyway?”
  • [TRAVEL, PHOTO] Travel and Learn: Eastern Europe Photo Road Trip : Join me in September 2023 on this 10-day photo tour through Eastern Europe, visiting Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and Transylvania. Discover iconic landmarks and hidden gems as you capture stunning images of the region. Perfect for both amateur and professional photographers.
  • [PHOTO, PROJECT] Glass Negatives from 1933: The Between-The-Years Project : Over the holidays, I took on a personal project to digitize and restore a collection of up to 88-year-old old photos of a part of my family. These pictures are on glass plate negatives and celluloid film, kept in a wooden box, showing family and others from the towns of Rottweil and Horb am Neckar in Germany.

    I spent a lot of time working on this project, carefully digitizing and restoring the negatives as needed. It was a labor of love, as these photographs are part of my family history and I’m excited to share them.

    Overall, it was a rewarding and meaningful project for me to take on over the holidays. I am proud to have preserved and shared these glimpses into my family’s past.

  • [PHOTO, CREATIVITY, AI] What’s Up With the AI Discussion? : Artists on platforms such as artstation.com are protesting the use of AI in art, claiming that it is theft. While some people are excited about the potential of AI in art, others are worried about the potential negative effects on artists and the art industry. The use of AI in art is here to stay, but there is a question of where to draw the line in terms of what is considered art and what is not. This debate is not limited to art, as similar debates have arisen in other fields such as music, film, and photography. The potential for AI to increase productivity and efficiency is undeniable, but it is important to also consider the ethical implications of its use.
  • [NEWS] Drama in AI Land : An anti-AI group of artists has been rallying support against the use of AI in art, leading to the cancellation of the Unstable Diffusion project on Kickstarter and the suspension of the Unstable Diffusion account on Patreon. The group has raised over $150,000 in a GoFundMe campaign to lobby governments to make AI art illegal. The backlash has had a chilling effect on the entire AI art community, with some creators considering stopping their work or removing their association with it due to the potential career and personal implications. Unstable Diffusion has updated their website and moved to a direct payment system in response.

    Kickstarter suspends Unstable Diffusion / Unstable Diffusion answers / Patreon suspends Unstable Diffusion / Pro-AI videos:
    YT-Video The Most Common Arguments For & AI / YT-Video Stop the Lies!

  • [AI, PHOTO] Opting Out: Have I Been Trained? : Some (many?) AI art models have been trained using the LAION dataset of 5.8 billion images. If you want your art to be excluded in the future, here’s a site to register an account and opt-out your images from being included in the Stable Diffusion V3 model.

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925 Where Pilsener Is From

Oh look, it’s a new episode! Reframing shots in 3D, a relaunched website, listener feedback, a look at NeRFs (no, not the toy guns) and the importance of the real world experience.

Topics:

  • [NEWS] Relaunched chrismarquardt.com : Chris has been working on a new website design to better showcase his various skills, experiences and showcase his art and projects. The website is organized into clear categories, making it easy to see the full range of what Chris does. The design focuses on simplicity and minimalism, with a clean and straightforward layout. If you have a moment, check it out at chrismarquardt.com and let Chris know what you think!
  • [COOL] : Stable Diffusion is now available offline, on your device. This new development allows for offline image generation on iPhones without the need for the cloud. It includes a range of features and customizable parameters, as well as the option to download specialized models. Although these models are large, they enable offline generation.
  • [PHOTO] Corridor Nerf : Chris has been exploring the potential uses of NeRFs in photography. NeRFs are a machine learning-based method for rendering photorealistic images, allowing for the complex interactions of light and materials to be replicated. One possible application is the reframing of photos in 3D, allowing for new perspectives to be created. While the technology is not yet production-ready, there is a clear path for its future development.
  • [PHOTO, AI] Drone nerf : Great example of using a NeRF in photography: Someone has been using old drone footage to generate a NeRF and modify the flight path, effectively 3D editing the video. This allows for variable focal length, the addition of a dolly zoom, and modification of the drone’s position in space.
  • [PHOTO] Oliver’s Romaina Photos : Oliver sent in some great feedback about his own Romania travels. Here are his travel blogs (in German) and photos.
  • [PHOTO, NEWS, CREATIVITY] The importance of the real experience : The trend towards virtual experiences is hard to miss. That’s why Chris is offering a real-world photo road trip to eastern Europe in response. The trip will allow participants to experience the sounds, sights, and culture of the regions, as well as spend time together honing their photography skills. Chris is currently forming two teams of three participants each and will be hosting a video chat to get to know each other before the trip. More information is available on the website.

<3 Feedback on this episode by Brad – Group Photo using AI & oli
(leave your own feedback at tfttf.com/hi)

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924 You’re Hoarding It Wrong

Topics:

  • [COOL] Register Now: Eastern European Photo Road Trip : The 10-day Eastern European Photo Road Trip from Berlin via Dresden/Prague/Vienna/Budapest to Transylvania is now officially open for registration! The dates are: Tour 1 (Berlin to Transylvania) Sep 2-11 2023 and Tour 2 (Transylvania to Berlin) Sep 14-23 2023. If you’re interested, send Chris a mail at [email protected] or get on the list. The (still slightly work-in-progress) new workshop site is at workshops.discoverthetopfloor.com. Questions? Drop Chris a line or a voice mail at tfttf.com/hi
  • [NEWS] Fujifilm Class Action : Class action lawsuit against Fujifilm regarding the X-Pro3. Hadn’t even heard about the issue, apparently some ribbon cable in the camera wasn’t reliable and caused issues on some (how many?) cameras.
  • [NEWS] Panasonic: Photo to Video – and Small TVs? : Panasonic’s CEO Akira Toyoshima says that they’ll focus more on video and less on still cameras. Which likely is about their compacts and probably means end of the LX line of cameras, LX10, LX100. But that’s not really surprising, given that everyone in the industry is feeling massive pressure on their compacts mainly from smartphones. Surprising that they also want to focus on portable TVs of all things. I have a perfectly portable TV in my pocket every day. It’s called a phone.
  • [PHOTO] How Much Unused Tech Do We Own? : The US population is hoarding $650 billion worth of technological devices they do not use. That’ll bring the average US adult to almost $2500 worth of unused tech. If you break out the 18 to 34 age bracket, that takes it to $3,691. On the other hand, the average annual consumer spend on technology is around $500. So if you have a habit of hoarding unused tech, you could easily finance your spending, especially as half of US adults report that they have never traded in a used tech item to get a new one. Might be worth it.

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