twelve million sunsets
As we relentlessly take photographs, store thousands of them, and interact with them on our phones and computers, many experts are beginning to point out the surprising and not always beneficial consequences of the “image overload” phenomenon.
"Today, images are being created, edited, shared and shared on an unprecedented scale in history"sociologist writes Martin's hand in his book Omnipresent Photography. Image overflow occurs when there is so much visual material that it becomes almost impossible to remember one photo. This leads to exhaustion from the endless processes of viewing, creating and publishing photo streams. It is necessary to document everything you do, like everyone else, with a series of images without value or quality, but with an emphasis on quantity (1). Many users collect thousands of images with their phones and digital cameras. Already according to reports from 2015, the average smartphone user had 630 photos stored on their device. There are many more of them in the youngest groups.
The all-consuming feeling of excess and satiety, the influx of images into modern reality, the artist, as it were, wants to convey. Penelope Umbricocompiling his works from the series "Portraits at Sunset" in 2013 (2) created from over 12 million sunset photos posted on Flickr.
2. Sunset portraits by artist Penelope Umbrico
In his book, the already mentioned Martin Hand writes about his students' fears that they experienced at the thought of accidentally deleting saved images, about the frustration associated with their organization or the lack of time to study them carefully. Psychologist Marianne Harry argues that the overabundance of digital images that people are currently exposed to may be bad for memorybecause the stream of photographs does not actively stimulate memory or promote understanding. Pictures have nothing to do with stories that can be remembered. Another psychologist, Linda Henkel, noted that students who visited an art museum with cameras and photographed exhibits remembered them less than those who simply watched museum objects.
As a professor of media studies explains Jose Van Dyke In Mediated Memories in the Digital Age, even though we can still use photography's primary function as a tool of memory to document a person's past, we see a significant change, especially among the younger generation, towards using it as a tool for interaction and mutual access with relationships. .
Artist Chris Wiley Back in 2011, he wrote an article called "Depth of Focus" in Frieze magazine proclaiming that the age of photographic abundance is also the time of the decline of the art of photography. Between 300 and 400 million photos are posted daily on Facebook and more than 100 million on Instagram. The number of photos available only on social media is in the hundreds of billions, if not trillions. However, no one has the feeling that these gigantic numbers are turning into quality, that the photograph has become at least a little significantly better than it was before.
What is the point of these complaints? With the advent of decent cameras in smartphones, photography has become something different than before, it serves something else. It currently reflects, captures and advertises our online lives.
In addition, about half a century ago, we experienced a revolution in photography, which in its scope was about the same. Appeared Polaroid. Until 1964, 5 million cameras of this brand were produced. The spread of Polaroid razors is the first wave of the democratization of photography. Then new waves came. First - simple and cheap cameras, and even with traditional film (3). Later . And then everyone swept away smartphones. However, does it ruin loud, professional and artistic photography? Some believe that this, on the contrary, emphasizes its value and importance.
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We will have a chance to find out where this revolution will lead. Presently, New technologies and exciting start-ups are emerging from a new understanding of photography and the role of images by the billions of people who take pictures and communicate through images. They can write a new book in the history of photography. Let's mention a few innovations that can leave their mark on it.
An example is the construction of Light in San Francisco, which created an extraordinary Light L16 device, using as many as sixteen lenses (4) to create a single image. Each module has an equivalent focal length (5x35mm, 5x70mm and 6x150mm). The cameras are designed to display images with a resolution of up to 52 megapixels. The prototype technology included more than ten apertures and used complex optics to reflect light from mirrors and send it through multiple lenses to optical sensors. Thanks to computer processing, many images are combined into one high-resolution photograph. The company has developed software to interpret lighting conditions and object distances to improve overall image quality. The multifocal design, along with mirrors that allow the lenses to be aimed at 70mm and 150mm, provide crisp optical zoom for stills and video.
Light L16 turned out to be a kind of prototype - the device can be bought normally, but only until the end of this year. Ultimately, the company plans to create mobile equipment with the ability to take higher quality photos and with true optical zoom.
Smartphones with a large number of photo lenses are also increasingly appearing. A third rear camera was widely discussed last year OnePlus 5Twhich houses a high-resolution camera for better noise reduction, as well as Huawei's innovation of adding a monochrome camera to also improve contrast and reduce noise. In the case of three cameras, it is possible to use both a wide-angle lens and a photographic telephoto lens, as well as a monochrome sensor designed to improve low-light performance.
Nokia returned to glory this spring with the introduction of the world's first five-camera phone. New model, 9 PureView (5), equipped with two color cameras and three monochrome sensors. All of them are connected using optical technology from Zeiss. According to the manufacturer, the set of cameras - each with a resolution of 12 megapixels - provides more control over the depth of field of the image and allows users to capture details that are not available with a conventional camera. What's more, according to published descriptions, the PureView 9 is capable of capturing up to ten times more light than other devices and can produce photos with a total resolution of up to 240 megapixels. The Nokia model was one of five phones presented by the eminent company before the MWC in Barcelona.
While artificial intelligence is rapidly making its way into imaging software, it has yet to make the leap to traditional cameras.
There are several elements of photography that you can improve, such as scene recognition. With breakthrough machine vision solutions, AI algorithms can also recognize real objects and optimize exposure for them. What's more, they can apply image tags to metadata during capture, which takes some of the work out of the camera user. Noise reduction and atmospheric haze is another promising area for AI cameras.
More specific technical improvements are also on the horizon, such as use of LEDs in flash lamps. They would eliminate the delay between flashes even at the highest power level. They will also offer adjustments to the colors of the light and its "temperature" to make it easy to adjust it to the ambient light. This method is still under development, but it is widely believed that a company that overcomes difficulties, for example, with the correct light intensity, can revolutionize the market.
The wide availability of new methods contributed to the popularity of what might sometimes be called "fashion". Even HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a concept that increases the range between the darkest and lightest tones. Or spill Panoramic shooting 360 degrees. The number of photos and videos is also growing вертикальный Oraz drone images. This is closely related to the proliferation of devices not originally designed for visualization, at least not in the first place.
Of course, this is a photographic sign of our time and, in a sense, its symbol. This is the world of the photostream in a nutshell - there is a lot of it, from the point of view of photography it is generally not good at all, but it exists communication element with others online and people can't stop doing it.
