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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tfttf717 – Battery Thirsty

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There’s a new book on the block. The Film Photography Handbook is out as an ebook! Chris talks about DIY in photography, about binging on podcasts, JPGs that are too dark and the difference between DSLRs, mirrorless cameras and the good old rangefinder with its unparalleled overview of scenes to shoot.

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tfttf714 – Living The Photographic Life

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ANNOUNCEMENT This just in: I just received the unique chance to take a hand full of people for an 8 day / 7 night cruise/tour/workshop to Greenland at the end of August of this year at a sensational price. How young are you? ๐Ÿ™‚ To find out more, listen to this episode of TFTTF and/or contact me ASAP


Chris points out how photography and web design are pretty much the same thing. You will get the latest status update on The Film Photography Handbook (pre-order now!). Chris will also let you in on a NEW book project that is already in progress, there’s a movie tip and he has some very interesting thoughts on wide angle photography.

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ยป Download the MP3 for this episode

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