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7 Tips for Getting Started With Portrait Photography

By in Photography

7 Tips for Getting Started With Portrait Photography

Portrait photography is a popular but challenging genre, as it requires good technical skills with your camera and lighting, the ability to pose people and make them feel comfortable, and solid capabilities when it comes time to edit the image. If you are new to the genre and looking to improve, check out this helpful video tutorial that offers seven tips sure to put you on the right track. 

Coming to you from Koldunov Brothers, this great video tutorial offers seven tips for getting started as a portrait photographer. If I could give one piece of advice to new portrait photographers, it would be to err on the side of doing less when it comes time to edit. It is extremely common for new photographers to have too heavy a hand when editing their images, and when it comes to portraits, this can result in your subjects looking unnatural or even plastic. As you continue to practice, you will build up a finer sense of how far to push edits. Check out the video above for the full rundown. 

If you would like to continue learning about the art of portraiture, be sure to check out our range of tutorials on the subject in the Fstoppers store.

A Study of Color and Time: Projects x Albers Watch Collection

By in Design

A Study of Color and Time: Projects x Albers Watch Collection

The title of last year’s tome dedicated to the life and work of artist Josef Albers and textile artist and printmaker Anni Albers, You Can Go Anywhere, seems rather spiritually apropos of this new collaboration commemorating the creative imprint of the Albers across art, craft, and the study of color perception, with the  Projects Watches X Albers watch collection encapsulating Josef’s exploration of color and Anni’s textile artistry into a trio of timepieces appropriate to be worn anywhere and at any time.

Two of the watches, Persistent and Wide Light, each draw upon Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square series, paintings that applied a systematic application of colors in his exploration into the subjective nature of our senses. That same geometric abstraction of color is reinterpreted using stacked laser-cut to form the face of the two timepieces, in sum adding a physical dimensionality only implied by the original paintings.

Close up of four layers of yellow, blue, and steel laser cut squares of color inside a 35mm stainless steel watch case with stainless steel band inspired by the artwork of Josef Albers on man's wrist; man is wearing denim long sleeve shirt with cuff unbutton and white pants.

40mm round gold plated stainless steel watch with stainless steel mesh band with circular color blocks inspired by Anni Albers' tapestry. Time is told by reading red for the hours, blue for the minutes, and yellow for the seconds. with each section revolving with the passing of time.

While the first two watches are bound by a box, 1925, the watch inspired by Anni Albers’ textile tapestry colors its circular watch face in a mesmerizing layer of circles assembled to turn with every passing minute.

How does one read such an abstraction of an analog watch? Red represents the hours, blue for the minutes, and yellow for the seconds.

All three Projects x Albers Foundation wristwatches set flat against a red-orange background.

All three Projects x Albers watches feature a durable glass case made of hardened mineral crystal, and operate by battery-powered Japanese Miyota Quartz movement. If you’re a swimmer, you can rest assured you can take a quick plunge wearing these watches, with each rated for water resistance down to 30 meters.

Cardboard packaging for Project Watches x Albers Foundation timepieces staged alongside Josef Alber's book Interaction of Color, a boxed set of Josef's Homage to the Square paintings, and Anni Albers' book, On Weaving.

Projects Watches describes the three as “one of our first releases with The Albers Foundation,” implying more designs may arrive down the line.

Projects is selling each with a limited discount ahead of the collection’s upcoming release, priced at $139 for the 40mm brushed stainless steel 1925, and $159 for both stainless steel banded, Persistent and Wide Light. 

This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.

Eclectic extravaganza: Fifth-annual event to showcase variety of Alamance artisans

By in Native

Eclectic extravaganza: Fifth-annual event to showcase variety of Alamance artisans

The Alamance Artisans Art Extravaganza is coming up Oct. 28 and 29, and is sure to be a memorable event that will bring together a diverse group of talented local artists exhibiting their artwork. Twenty-one artists will present works in woodworking, painting, fiber art, pottery, jewelry and more. Among the exhibiting artists are Dottie Blanchard, Pat Scheible, James and Rita Duxbury, and Jean Fortune Kaplan.

And there’s also Coy Quakenbush, a native of Saxapawhaw, but who now lives in Graham, and whose artwork and style are unmistakable, but tricky to put under one label. He’s well-known for his pottery, which is done in the centuries-old Mata Ortiz style that originated in Mata Ortiz, Mexico. The method uses a coil implementation.

“It’s all hand-built,” Quakenbush said. “I sand it, scrape it, burnish it to get it smooth and shiny. And then I decorate it with clay slips to do the design work. It’s a structured process until you get to the design, and then you can go where you want with that.”

Among the advantages of the Mata Ortiz method is it requires less of a financial investment from the artist, since a pottery wheel isn’t needed to make the vessels, and “firing” is done outdoors in a bonfire instead of a kiln. The color of the pot is from the natural color of the clay, and not from a glaze.

Quakenbush, a master potter, creates bowls, vases, pitchers and other vessels using the technique that isn’t often seen in these parts, which has enabled him to carve a niche among other local pottery makers. 

“The Native American artwork, especially if it has a southwest look, isn’t something you find much in these parts,” he said.

When he first started making the Mata Ortiz-style pots, Quakenbush would spend as much as a week creating one piece. Over time, he has honed his skills and now has the process down to about three or four days. That now leaves him with time to pursue other methods for creating artwork, including painting, drawing and making abstract sculptures using paper clay.

This year’s Alamance Artisans Art Extravaganza will be a celebration of its 5th anniversary. The exhibit is the biggest event of the year for members of the guild, and offers the public an opportunity to view and purchase the artwork, and also provides a chance to meet and get to know the artists. Alamance Artisans members will donate art pieces to raffle, and some members will be on hand to demonstrate their art process.

This year’s show will, for the first time, be held at The Inn at Elon, at 605 N. O’Kelly Ave. in Elon. The show is Oct. 28 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Oct. 29 from noon to 5 p.m.

Luminar Neo brings generative AI tools to hobbyist photographers

By in Photography

Luminar Neo brings generative AI tools to hobbyist photographers

While Adobe is bringing generative AI models to professional photographers and designers, another company is working to make easy-to-use generative AI tools available to a wider range of photographers, including hobbyists. Starting today, Luminar Neo, the photo-editing software from Skylum (formerly Macphun), is rolling out a set of generative AI features to its desktop apps for Mac and Windows that will allow users to remove unwanted objects from their images, expand a canvas, or replace and add specific elements into a photo.

The tools are similar in some ways to Google Photos’ Magic Editor and Magic Eraser or Adobe’s own Generative Fill tool. The difference between Adobe’s Generative Fill is that Luminar Neo offers two tools, GenErase and GenSwap, instead of one. It also doesn’t require the use of a text prompt field. Instead, the user selects an area on the image to remove and clicks “Erase.” But unlike Adobe’s Generative Fill, it doesn’t offer result options to choose from — the user would have to click the “Erase” button again to get a different outcome.

Founded in 2008 as Macphun by game developers and amateur photographers Paul Muzok and Dima Sytnik, the company now known as Skylum originally focused on iOS applications, like Vintage Video Maker, which Apple recognized among the best apps of the year in 2009.

The team then proceeded to develop around 60 other iOS apps over the years that followed, but were always drawn to photography. That eventually led the team to launch their first Mac app, FX Photo Studio Pro in 2010, which topped 50 million downloads. On Mac, they also launched other image editing apps like Snapheal, Intensify, Tonality, Noiseless, Auora HDR, then later merged several apps together to make Creative Kit. Photo editing software Luminar came about in 2016.  And in 2018, when they also rebranded as Skylum, the team began to focus only on their Luminar project.

Image Credits: Skylum

The idea with Luminar was to create photo editing software for desktop users that lets you perform complex tasks in simple ways. The latest version of this app was launched in 2022 as Luminar Neo, and its user base is primarily hobbyist photographers. But a handful of professionals use the app, as well, the company says. For example, some commercial photographers tend to use Luminar Neo more as a plugin for Lightroom or Photoshop, they note.

With the rise of generative AI models for image editing, the team knew they wanted to incorporate this functionality into the product to make editing photos even easier. The plan is to release one generative AI tool each month through the end of 2023, starting with GenErase on October 26.

GenSwap (to replace elements) and GenExpand (to expand the canvas) will arrive on November 16 and December 14, respectively.

Image Credits: Skylum

“All three generative features that will be released this year are based on the same technology, but combining and changing the parameters gives us different results and covers different use cases for the end user, which is why we decided to have three separate features,” explains Ivan Kutanin, the Ukraine-based CEO of Skylum, in an email interview with TechCrunch.

The models are based on Stable Diffusion, but Kutanin says the company also uses its own Upscale AI model and others in a single pipeline, which allows the software to increase the resolution and quality of the generated images. Currently, it offers up to 1536×1536 in image resolution, he says. For comparison, Photoshop currently offers a
resolution of 1024×1024.

The processing itself takes place in the cloud, so the app requires an internet connection to work. However, the company doesn’t store either the input or output images to protect customer privacy.

The ease of use is what the company hopes will set its software apart from others that offer similar generative AI tools.

Image Credits: Skylum

“Luminar Neo is the latest-generation photo editing software and has around 40 complex AI models as part of its architecture, which makes it truly powerful. What we’re best known for is the ease of use and how effortless it is to start out if you’re a complete beginner,” says Kutanin. “Since a huge part of our user base are photography enthusiasts, we really focused on the user interface and making it as pleasant and fresh as possible,” he adds.

The software is offered at multiple pricing tiers for both new and existing users. After Oct. 28, it’s either $14.95 per month, $119 per year, or $179 for 2 years. A lifetime pass is available for $299, which comes with a “Creative Journey Pass” that has time limits on the new generative AI features through August 16, 2024. After that point, they need to purchase a new Creative Journey Pass or switch to a subscription.

For current users, the upgrade is slightly less expensive with the 1-year plan starting at $79 for year 1, then $99 per year going forward, also after Oct. 28. There are other discounts available if bought prior to Oct. 28.

The company has never raised outside funding and has been profitable for a few years now, employing a team of over 120.

Leica helps photographers protect their work with the M11-P camera

By in Photography

Leica helps photographers protect their work with the M11-P camera

Leica has launched a new version of the M11 rangefinder camera that’s designed to help photographers “create a seamless chain of authenticity, from capturing to publication” by applying a secure digital label to images.

“Leica cameras have always stood witness to iconic moments in world history,” said Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Leica Camera AG. “However, determining the authenticity of visual content has become increasingly difficult and important in the age of digital photography. Now with the ability to provide this proof, we are once again strengthening trust in digital content and re-establishing Leica cameras as authoritative tools in the documentation of world events.”

When a user captures an image using the M11-P, a digital label can be applied that includes information entered into a Content Credentials menu on the camera – such as the name of the photographer and any copyright information. Each image is given a unique digital signature that’s compliant with the Content Authority Initiative open-source standard.

The Content Credentials image provenance information includes the name of the photographer and any copyright information
The Content Credentials image provenance information includes the name of the photographer and any copyright information

Leica

And any changes made after capture will be recorded in secure metadata, and authenticating images can be undertaken at any point using freely available, open-source tools or by checking in online at Content Credentials.

“We’re thrilled to see Leica pioneering the integration of Content Credentials into their flagship M11-P camera,” said Santiago Lyon from Adobe, one of the companies spearheading the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. “This is a significant milestone for the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) and the future of photojournalism: It will usher in a powerful new way for photojournalists and creatives to assert their digital rights, combat misinformation and bring authenticity to their work and consumers, while promoting widespread adoption of Content Credentials.”

Photographs taken using the M11-P can include a digital label containing the photographer's name and copyright info, to help prove authenticity
Photographs taken using the M11-P can include a digital label containing the photographer’s name and copyright info, to help prove authenticity

Leica

Elsewhere, the M11-P follows a similar design story to the M11 before it, but the iconic Leica dot is missing from the body and replaced by a more discreet engraving on the top plate. The internal memory also gets a boost to 256 GB.

It features the same 60-megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, Triple Resolution Technology and Maestro III processing engine. Light sensitivity comes in at ISO64 to 50,000, there’s a built-in flash, a “large, bright-line rangefinder with automatic parallax compensation” and a 2.95-inch touch panel topped by sapphire glass.

The M11-P is available now for US$9,195.

Product page: Leica M11-P

Lucy Ralph Uses Visible Repairs to Promote the Longevity of Clothing

By in Design

Lucy Ralph Uses Visible Repairs to Promote the Longevity of Clothing

Repair specialist Lucy Ralph describes herself as “a future-focused designer who loves to experiment and play.” A recent graduate, she studied surface pattern and textiles at Swansea College of Art, and is now continuing her practice within fashion, exploring concepts of visible repair and reworking garments.

Tell me about your childhood, education, and background and how you first became interested in repair.

I think my mum should get the credit – she is a farmer, so is out working in all weathers and regularly catching her clothes on fences and things – she is quite a frugal lady, so will just patch them back up using scrap materials – either from other damaged clothing, or our old school t-shirts and pillow cases. So seeing that as I grew up forged my attitudes – I really never viewed anything as waste, always finding a second life for things, and instead of buying new, making things out of what I already had. This translated into my interest in fashion, and I began upcycling and reworking my existing clothing, which developed into my creative practice today as I learned about the impact the fashion industry has on the environment, driven by the quick turnaround of clothing, and how much is just sitting in landfill having barely been worn. Repair became my specific focus when I discovered the concept of visible repair, following an internship with Hiut Denim in West Wales, where I experimented with Sashiko embroidery. Even the phrase “visible repair” I find really lovely – I love that when you wear a visible repair, you’re not only extending the life of the garment, but you are promoting an alternative fashion future. It becomes a conversation-starter that can influence and inspire others.

What appeals to you about repairing existing objects versus creating something new?

You are putting your imprint on the item and, with clothing especially, there is a big disconnect emotionally as we no longer see the value in it and how it’s made, so we heartlessly dispose of it or lose interest in it so quickly. When you repair clothing to add to its story, and it becomes a richer item you are more emotionally connected to.

There are many words for repair with slight nuances in their meaning – mending, fixing, hacking, restoring, repurposing… which do you prefer in relation to your work and why?

I say “repurposing” because nowadays many people dispose of their clothing before it’s even worn enough to become damaged so, through repurposing the item, you are (hopefully) repairing the relationship between the clothing and the wearer. I think it also depends on who your audience is, because there are some items of clothing that are really loved for how they first existed, so an invisible “fix” would be required, likewise with workwear.

How would you describe this project or body of work?

Playful, experimental, and hopeful.

What is the inspiration behind it – where did the idea come from?

It came from me recognizing my responsibility as a designer to, not only lower the impact of the pieces I was creating, but to also educate and facilitate change through connecting with consumers, so they are able to lower the impact, with the idea of visible repair being a conversation starter, as well as something to be taught in workshops. At the Green Grads hub in Heals during the London Design Festival recently, I collaborated with fellow Green Grad Lucianne Canavan, to host a repair and patchwork workshop, with an outcome of “The Green Jean” which was a second-hand pair of jeans adorned in patches made from scrap materials, by participants in the workshop.

Which repair techniques are you using and why?

Sashiko, because it’s simple but beautiful, and also because the history behind it connected to the ideas of visible repair, and seeing the value in our clothing. And patchwork because it is a good way of highlighting that even the smallest of scrap fabrics can be utilized, and not thrown away. I also love to create collages, so I view patchwork as a sort of textile collage, and therefore a way to put art on your clothing – or make the clothing into art.

How did you learn the techniques you use in your work?

Practice and experimentation, but also from books, online, and in workshops – Restoration London do some great ones.

How do your repairs change the function or story of the object?

You can transform your clothing however you like with repairs, you can make it more jazzy, or keep it smart. One of my lecturers informed me of the word “palimpsest” – something that has been reused or altered but still bears visible traces of its earlier form – when repaired clothing becomes a palimpsest, it adds layers of richness and value and it becomes a conversation-starter.

How visible or invisible is the repair and why is that important?

I like to work with visible repairs, mainly because I recognize that people lose interest in their clothing before it has even become damaged, and are always seeking newness – through visible repairs, you can create novelty, and communicate the idea that clothing is non-disposable, and we should be utilizing what we’ve already got.

How have people reacted to this project or body of work?

Really positively! I’ve been told by a few people that it’s good to see a more contemporary “designed” approach to repair and patchwork and that it’s not just tartan squares, opening people’s eyes to what it is and can be.

How do you feel opinions towards mending and repair are changing?

I start thinking that they are really changing in a positive direction, but then I realize that I’m mainly surrounded by people with similar mindsets to my own, and outside of my bubble it is business as usual. I think it is going to take a lot more noise, but also for bigger businesses and designers to start exploring concepts of repair and repurposing, and collaborating with consumers to facilitate it.

What do you think the future holds for repair?

I think we will get there eventually – sustainability is already the buzzword of the moment, with circularity starting to gain traction as well, but it’s going to require big businesses to really adapt and make honest changes. As people begin to explore circularity more, it is really going to breed innovation and great design, which is really exciting – starting to see “haute repair” on the runway would be sick!

advertisement for wasted by katie treggiden

Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author and, podcaster championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. She is also the founder and director of Making Design Circular, a program and membership community for designer-makers who want to join the circular economy. With 20 years’ experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine and Monocle24 – as well as being Editor at Large for Design Milk. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and a podcast, Circular with Katie Treggiden.

Scary good Pixel 8 Pro gen AI turns photos into paintings: Photographers losing their jobs?

By in Photography

Scary good Pixel 8 Pro gen AI turns photos into paintings: Photographers losing their jobs?

“I haven’t been as excited and as terrified about a new software feature since… literally forever. It’s 1 AM right now, and I’m on my fifth 15-minute long YouTube video about Adobe’s generative AI”.

This short paragraph is from a story I never finished – I wrote it down after first discovering Adobe’s Generative Fill feature (now part of Photoshop). After seeing what the generative AI can do with photos, I loaded some of my old pictures into Photoshop and started to add, remove, or expand content in the images with simple text prompts powered by Adobe’s mind-blowing generative AI. I might or might not have asked the AI to give me blonde hair.As a bit of a tech nerd, I was seriously impressed with what generative AI can do, but I was also having real fun involving a computer for the first time in ages (I stopped gaming a long time ago).

At the same time, I kept doing research on the topic. Video after video and article after article… It began looking like Adobe’s mind-blowing AI features might be “too good”. Some photographers reviewing the generative AI in Photoshop were expressing serious concerns over losing their jobs. The same is true for designers, hairstylists and pretty much every person involved in the visual/creative medium.

If I run a modelling agency and want my models to have blonde hair, for a particular photoshoot, I can now get Photoshop to give all of them a hairdo that looks scarily authentic, without having to pay a hairdresser and a hairstylist to do the job. You want to fix your wedding photo where someone blinked or got in the frame? You can do this with a simple prompt in Photoshop. A photographer with experience in editing would need hours to get a similar result.

But generative AI doesn’t have to live on a piece of software only your laptop can run, and Google’s new Pixel 8 Pro flagship is now the living proof for that.

Google kept the promise it made during I/O 2023, and the new Magic Editor is now here, right in the Pixel’s Photos app. Because smartphones just got more exciting again! Exciting and controversial.

Google Pixel 8 Pro’s generative AI takes social media by storm with jaw-dropping Photoshop-level photo editing

As you can see in the samples above, one of the main features of the new Magic Editor is to be a more powerful Magic Eraser, which better understands context, and doesn’t simply erase objects from the photo but replaces them with much more realistic pixels, or objects that weren’t there in the first place – like in the example with the car (which was there in the original photo) and the bush (which wasn’t).We can also see that shadows and reflections are somewhat challenging for the Magic Editor, which struggles to remove the reflection of the colorful backpack in one of the examples. Still, I’m pretty sure if you had to convince someone the bag was never there, the Pixel 8’s edit would totally get the job done.

Meanwhile, in the last edit (courtesy of Max Weinback), you can see how good the Magic Editor can be when it comes to some textures (the carpet, the wall), and how mediocre of a job it can do as far as complicated shakes like the door ledge and curtains are concerned. What you might’ve missed is that the yellow sign in the top left corner of the photo has been moved down to cover the power outlet.

All that being said, I’m more than sure most people would never notice these photos were altered in any way, especially if they are looking at them on Instagram or Snapchat. Of course, inspective the images closely (on a large monitor) is a different story, but even then, you’d still need a keen eye to pinpoint the imperfection.

Google’s new Magic Editor goes way beyond removing objects from your photo – you can create completely new backgrounds and even generate portions of the image that were never there before

But once you start playing around with the generative AI and let the Magic Editor’s “imagination” run wild, things start to get… scary.

The above samples come from Ben Sin, and as you can see selecting the busy background in a photo now doesn’t just let you remove people and objects but replace the background altogether. The cutout of the lady in the first photo looks pretty spectacular and makes for a totally different picture than the original.

The photo of the street musician is where the Pixel 8’s true AI power comes into play, as the Magic Editor has managed to recreate the guitarist’s legs, which aren’t visible in the original image. Ben says it took several attempts to achieve this result, but again – it looks pretty convincing (if you don’t look closely). The photo of the dog is similarly brilliant at recreating what you couldn’t see in the original photo.

How is Google Magic Editor generative AI different from Adobe’s Generative Fill?

Without a doubt, the most impressive part about the Magic Editor generative AI feature on Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro is how simple and easy it is to use. However, there are some notable differences compared to Adobe’s super-powerful Generative Fill:

  • Unlike Adobe’s Generative Fill, the Pixel 8’s Magic Editor doesn’t need a written prompt to work, because it can’t create/add specific images based on your input – you simply circle the object you want to be removed/replaced, and you get what you get; that’s why the Pixel’s Magic Editor can sometimes take several attempts before giving you the desired outcome

  • Adobe’s Generative Fill can do some mind-blowing things like alter reflections, add specific objects that weren’t part of the photo before, change your clothing, your face – you name; on the other hand, the Pixel 8’s Magic Editor’s main use cases are resizing, removing objects/people from the photo, and replacing certain parts of the image with what the AI thinks should/should be in that spot (it can also completely change the appearance of the sky and a body of water)

  • It seems that in its current iteration, Google’s generative AI doesn’t always get it right from the first try; however, it’s important to note that even Adobe’s supercharged gen AI can produce some hilarious results – for example, I’ve seen it add cartoonish clouds to a photograph set in the real world

Pixel 8 does need to back up to Google Photos before it lets you access the Magic Editor, so it seems like it may be (processing images) through the cloud.

The revolutionary generative AI in Google’s Pixel 8 lets you turn your photos into paintings, but you decide if you want an authentic photograph or a digital painting

With great (AI) power comes great responsibility, which makes it interesting to see how companies like Google and Adobe will handle the ethical side of generative AI photography.

For example, Adobe sends warnings when you are about to add something like blood to an image, and Google shows this message: “Magic Editor is unable to show results that might violate our Gen AI terms.” when the phone thinks you’re about to edit out a logo from an image.

Soon, we might not be able to tell authentic photos apart from generated images. What about influencers who upload photos of themselves in rented sports cars to convince you they are rich and successful so you can buy into their life coaching advice? Now, all they need in order to maintain their “fancy lifestyle” is a laptop with Photoshop, or (soon) just a smartphone?

And what about “authentic” photography? Sure, every photographer applies some editing to their photos (some more than others), but are “photos” becoming “paintings” now? Well, guess what – smartphone cameras already make photos seem more appealing by boosting their vibrancy and sharpness without giving you much of a choice (Samsung is quite famous for doing this but Apple and Google use just as much computational photography).

In the end, Google isn’t making anyone alter their photos. You can choose whether you want to keep them authentic or not.

Generative AI in photography will soon be able to replace photographers (and other professionals)

That being said, by far the biggest negative side effect of the whole generative AI thing will be how many jobs will (inevitably) be put in danger. I was watching this video of a professional photographer reviewing Photoshop’s generative AI features, and he seemed genuinely blown away by what the AI can do, but also, concerned.

This is something that the special effects artist wouldn’t and couldn’t have been able to do at the time (when he hired her to work on the model). 

Photographer talks about the incredible power of Adobe’s Generative AI

If Photoshop, and eventually your phone can edit photos (and videos) to/beyond a professional level, why would you need a photographer/editor in the first place? In fact, Adobe is now making its generative AI features commercial, which means they can be used to create content (like ads). You can also get paid to contribute original images to the AI database.

This means, you can become a social media model without moving a finger. You don’t need to go to a place, get your hair and makeup done, or even be photographed. You can sell your image and be a model from the comfort of your couch.

Professionals voice their opinion on the use of powerful generative AI features in photo/video editing – some don’t feel threatened by AI

Photography is now more like painting than ever before. Creating the changes is not “fake / false” but merely allowing photographers to become creative painters. This is beyond impressive and opens massive improvement potential for any “creator.” Thanks for your video.

YouTube comment

I love it. Our design team does as well. We’re always asked for extracurricular things to spice up images in post, or remove very difficult things like cranes, forklifts, woodpiles and tricky licence plates. This has greatly sped up mock-ups and workflows. It’s light years better than the content aware algorithm and this is still in its infancy, let’s see how accurate it gets 2-5 years from now.

YouTube comment

We can’t trust photographic evidence of ANYTHING anymore. These are so good! As a retired, old-school designer (who taught PS 3.0), you’ve blown my mind about what can be done now with a few loose strokes and a descriptive vocabulary. I love your teaching style — clear, concise and quick.

YouTube comment

I love the creative opportunities and the ability to enhance one’s own original work. The main thing that concerns me though (with AI generation generally, not just Adobe’s Generative Fill) is where the replacement / additional elements are being harvested from other photographers’ work. For instance, were all the hair options for the viking created from scratch by Photoshop? Far more likely they were derived at least in part from the work of another unknown, unpaid photographer. Next time it may be your work making-up someone else’s photo. Is that saleable as an original work? Is it copyrightable? What happens when the client spots that ‘copy’ in another work, when they think they have an original work with exclusive rights?

YouTube comment

Regardless, both photographers and regular people can benefit from the Pixel 8’s Magic Editor, which can help you fix ruined photos, or make them more Instagram-ready. Am I a fan of this style of editing? Not really. But that’s just me. Other people literally give themselves bunny ears and use this photo on social media because they like it.

In my view, Google is really up to something here. Apple and Samsung will likely follow in the Pixel’s footsteps sooner or later. So, don’t be surprised if the iPhone and Galaxy get their own “magical photo editors” at some point.

AI is powerful, and (ironically) it’s up to the people in power to harvest the power of AI. That being said, I hope I’m not going to lose my job because of a robot who does what I do.

A Sculptural Bench That Invites Visitors to Take Pause

By in Design

A Sculptural Bench That Invites Visitors to Take Pause

Soul Sculpture Bench is a minimalist bench created by Madrid-based designer Verónica Mar for Les Ateliers Courbet. Mar’s approach to design goes beyond the tactile, incorporating elements with a spiritual sensitivity, featuring pieces designed to alter and balance the energy of spaces they inhabit.

Drawing inspiration from the recurring spiral patterns found in the vastness of galaxies, the intricacy of DNA chains, and the swirling of water currents, the Soul Sculpture Bench showcases the seamless ties between nature and design. Its form brings to mind the vastness of the universe and the delicate connections that exist within.

Intended as a versatile piece, it can seamlessly fit into both public areas and private indoor settings. More than just a seating solution, it serves as a thought-provoking installation, inviting those who encounter it to pause, reflect, and appreciate the profound intricacies of the natural world.

Straight on view of the Soul Sculpture Bench

Angled shot of the Soul Sculpture Bench

Macro shot of edge of Close up of the Soul Sculpture Bench

Macro shot of edge of Close up of the Soul Sculpture Bench

Macro shot of curved edges of Close up of the Soul Sculpture Bench

Close up of the Soul Sculpture Bench

Photography by Joseph Kramm.

Leo Lei translates his passion for minimalism into his daily-updated blog Leibal. In addition, you can find uniquely designed minimalist objects and furniture at the Leibal Store.

Review | At the National Gallery, a belated corrective for Native American art

By in Native

Review | At the National Gallery, a belated corrective for Native American art

It wasn’t until 2020 that the National Gallery of Art made its first acquisition of a painting by a Native American artist: “Target,” a 1992 mixed-media work by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation in Montana. Three years later, Smith is the curator of “The Land Carries Our Ancestors,” the museum’s first exhibition of Native American artists in 30 years and its first featuring contemporary Native American artists since 1953.

It’s a belated catch-up, but times seem to be changing, if slowly.

“In the 1970s when I was doing this work, I probably could count on maybe four hands the Native Americans who were actually showing in museums or in galleries,” says Smith, whose own work was the subject of a retrospective at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art earlier this year. “We weren’t showing in museums because they weren’t interested in our work — unless we made pots, jewelry or blankets.”

The works in “Land” are vastly different from those stereotyped notions of Native American art, revealing the huge diversity of Native artists working today. The varied media, formats and methods include paintings, lithographs, prints, mixed-media sculptures, fiber art, beadwork, blown glass and a video piece.

“Usually, what you see in a museum is antiquities, as though we’re all dead and we are not here anymore,” Smith says, adding that most Americans know of only the largest two or three of the 574 federally recognized tribes, such as the Navajo, Cherokee and Sioux.

Of the roughly 50 artists in the intergenerational exhibition, all are living, except Jim Denomie (Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe, Ajijaak Clan), who died in 2022 after his darkly humorous painting “Edward Curtis, Paparazzi: Chicken Hawks” had already been selected. Representing dozens of tribal groups, the artists are about evenly divided by gender, with about two-thirds of the pieces made in the past decade.

The show explores the concept of land in ways both literal and abstract. Some landscapes are pleasing and affirmative, including “Ute’s Homelands” by Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee Nation/European descent), a warm-colored Southwest setting overlaid with traditional designs. “Indian Canyon” by Cara Romero (Chemehuevi) is a wide-format photo of a child wearing a headdress, seated on a large boulder in rocky terrain. Romero describes the arresting work as “a time-traveling apparition in a sacred landscape of Southern California.”

Darker works depict barbed wire, earthmovers, decaying bones or factories spewing smoke. In “To Feel Myself Beloved on Earth,” Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians/Cherokee Nation) uses an elaborately beaded punching bag to represent how destruction of the land is also damaging to our bodies.

Particularly striking is “Impact vs. Influence” by John Hitchcock (of Comanche, Kiowa and European descent), a site-specific installation that fills parts of two walls and the ceiling with black-and-white cutout images of wild animals, birds, helicopters, a tank and geometric symbols. Hitchcock, who describes the work as drawing on his childhood growing up on Comanche tribal lands next to the Fort Sill military base in Oklahoma, says he found particular importance in bringing it to the National Gallery.

“This is about invasiveness: invasion of military elements, invasive in the sense of moving animals to reserves, and moving humans to them, too — Indigenous people,” Hitchcock says. “So that colonization, if you think about its relationship to this space, it’s coming into the museum and rethinking the museum.”

Twenty-one smaller pieces are arranged on the wall in a checkerboard pattern — a reference to the Dawes Act of 1887, which parceled out communal tribal lands into allotments for individual ownership, with “surplus” land then being offered for sale to non-Native people.

These more intimate works include the housing-themed “The (HUD)” by Wendy Red Star (Apsáalooke) — one of six American artists recently invited to create the first-ever outdoor art installations on the National Mall — and a symbols-based lithograph by Raven Chacon (Diné), a composer and artist who last year became the first Native American to win a Pulitzer Prize in music.

Wall labels center the creators’ many voices rather than a single, authoritative one, offering only basic biographical information and a short quotation from each artist; visitors seeking additional insights may wish to read the catalogue (copies of which can be found in the gallery rooms).

Also featured are several recent National Gallery acquisitions, including “Fog Bank,” a luminous mixed-media work by Emmi Whitehorse (Diné) that conjures a dreamscape with its ethereal abstract symbols and forms floating in a sea of blues.

Although Smith’s two works in the permanent collection are not part of “Land,” they are on view elsewhere in the museum: “Adios Map” hangs in the foyer area outside the exhibition, while “Target” is just inside the nearby Pop and Figuration gallery.

The show closes with “Orchestrating a Blooming Desert,” a 2003 oil painting by Steven Yazzie (of Diné, Laguna Pueblo and European descent) depicting a man in a wondrous desert landscape filled with cactuses and colorful flowers, holding a bird and a conducting baton. For both the land and its stewards, it projects a powerful image of hope.

The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans

National Gallery of Art, East Building, Fourth Street and Constitution Avenue NW. 202-737-4215. nga.gov.

Dates: Through Jan. 15.

Prices: Free.

LISTEN: Bend Don’t Break: Christian Heeb, Cascade Center of Photography 🎧

By in Photography

LISTEN: Bend Don’t Break: Christian Heeb, Cascade Center of Photography 🎧 
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In the episode of the Bend Don’t Break podcast, Source Weekly publisher Aaron Switzer converses with photographer Christian Heeb, owner of Cascade Center of Photography (with his wife Regula Heeb).

  
Source” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”> click to enlarge LISTEN: Bend Don't Break: Christian Heeb, Cascade Center of Photography 🎧

The Swiss/American photographers have been widely published. They have worked and photographed in more than 90 countries. Their exclusive Photo Tours are legendary worldwide.

Christian is the author of more than 200 coffee table books. Listen to find out what the Heeb’s are up to these days and to learn more about their artistic endeavors.

Listen now: 

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