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Apple. Better & better cameras. Apple’s Wunderlist event announced new iPhone models with yet again more versatile cameras. While the mass media headline was USB-C support (thank you European regulators!), for the photography world it was again the impressive improvements on the photo capture side of things.
Much more to read on the various tech sites, but arguably the star of the show was the all-new telephoto camera exclusively in the 6.7-inch iPhone 15 Pro Max. Unlike the rumors of a "periscope" style setup, Apple is using a tetraprism to bounce light back to the sensor, enabling an equivalent focal length of 120mm. This camera also has optical stabilization and 3-axis sensor shift working in tandem to keep the image sharp.
Food for pondering with a good glass of wine: who would have thought that the competitive differentiator of this portable computing device that we always carry with us and let us do so many things – ranging from email to chat to video calls to web design to banking and so much more – has been and continues to be its camera?
Pinterest. Inclusive body types. With social media algorithm-tuned social media services amplifying the long-standing bias toward thin, light-skinned women as the ultimate standard for beauty, Pinterest has developed algorithms to enable its users to view posts with photos that have a more representative view of the human body. Following earlier pioneering launches of algorithms that can recognize a range of skin tones and hair patterns, Pinterest’s newly launched Body Diversity project shows a more representative collection of body types.
Microsoft. AI: the next crypto? I’m not referring to a possible deflation from today’s hyped expectations – I’m talking Green here. Microsoft reports its water usage rose by 34% between 2021 and 2022, largely for use in cooling data centers running AI training models, according to Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside. Ren’s team estimates that ChatGPT gulps up 500 milliliters of water (close to what’s in a 16-ounce water bottle) every time you ask it a series of between 5 to 50 prompts or questions.
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Mediaclip. Webinar: Bringing contents to life. Visual 1st sponsor Mediaclip is hosting a free webinar Sept. 28 at 11 a.m. EST. Drawing on insights from millions of product purchases, Mediaclip's chief solutions officer, Marie-Eve Lemieux, will delve into the changing landscape of product personalization and how this enables companies to bring their visual contents to life.
Dead Pixels Society. Podcast: The impact of generative AI on the imaging industry. Gary Pageau interviews yours truly to explore the transformative difference between Generative AI and traditional AI, and how AI can generate media from simple prompts. All this before we venture into the complex arena of digital rights in AI-generated images and the legislative and industry efforts to counterbalance the possible negatives of generative AI.
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Bria AI. AI Image foundation + attribution models. Past Visual 1st Spotlight presenter, Bria AI announces a new foundation AI model that uses visual content from Getty Images, Alamy, and Envato to build its platform. Bria stresses that it only uses permissible content and fairly compensates copyright holders.
Along with the new foundation model, Bria also developed an attribution model that can help researchers see how data sets — in this case specific photos — influence an AI model. Bria plans to use these insights to compensate creators when the AI platform generates images based on their photos.
Artisse. AI-generate your perfect selfie. On the tail of Remini’s viral runaway feature (turning your selfies into slick corporate headshots), the new Artisse app lets users upload 15 images of themselves to train the AI on their images. When the upload is complete, you can use either a text prompt or an image prompt to generate new AI photos of yourself. With the latter, you can opt to choose from a template or upload your own reference photo instead to generate photo-realistic images of yourself in various settings, postures, and styles. Go wild – or go corporate!
Fujifilm. Instax still going strong. Trends come and go among youngsters. What stays remarkably strong: youngster’s appetite for lo-fi analog photo prints. Not convinced? Check out 5 random tween or teenage bedrooms and she what’s all pinned on the walls. Still not convinced? Citing increased global demand for its Instax film, Fujifilm is investing 4.5 billion yen (about $30 million) into its Ashigara Site at the Kanagawa Factory in Japan in order to boost its Instax film production capacity by 20%.
Catchlight.io & the Knight Foundation. Investment & partnership. Congratulations to our Visual 1st co-moderator Elodie Mailliet, CEO of Catchlight, which received a $2M investment from The Knight Foundation, as part of this foundation’s Press Forward philanthropic initiative to strengthen and revitalize local journalism in the U.S. The investment will enable CatchLight’s Local Visual Desk, with a goal of delivering visual journalism services, tools and expertise, to local newsrooms across the country.
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