December 13, 2023

Lead ImageSelf-Portrait with pink shorts and balloons, Paris, 2017© Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved

Recently, a client approached me with the idea of doing a photoshoot, but editing the final images in the style of a graphic novel or computer game. Growing up, I loved drawing comic-book images, and spent many years on DeviantArt. But those days are behind me, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to deliver. That’s when I decided to turn to AI image generation.

AI image generation uses machine-learning algorithms to generate new images based on text prompts and existing images. It has been around for a couple of years, but now it’s sophisticated enough to be a genuinely useful tool for photographers. With AI image generation, you can apply a style that’s completely different from the original image. Looking over the images we’d captured together, I realized I could build an AI model of my client, using the photos as a training data set, then find prompts to hone in on a style that fitted our vision.

There was a slight learning curve to install the tools on my PC, which involved watching a few tutorials on YouTube. However, all of the tools were free and open-source. Best of all, there’s a growing community of people who are happy to share their processes and discoveries, making the barrier to entry fairly low. Once it was set up, I was generating digital art portraits of my client that were far more interesting than I would have been able to produce alone in a fraction of the time. 

It takes some trial and error to get the AI to recognize your subject and produce a consistent look, which is part of the fun. I had to work with the AI, learn how to speak to it and describe what I wanted as accurately as I could, as well as experimenting with different seeds, which sample tens of thousands of art styles.

Introducing AI image generation into my photography workflow opens up a whole new world of possibilities. With these tools, you’re not restricted by access to expensive editing software or your own artistic skill level. If you can develop a strong visual vocabulary and learn to work with AI collaboratively, you can produce striking content that’s beyond your imagination. One of the biggest impacts of AI image generation is the time saving. With this technology, you can apply a new style to an image in a matter of seconds or minutes.

Check out the best AI image generators

But there are also some drawbacks. First, your images could end up looking generic and unoriginal. AI image generation samples the styles of other creators, and is still a relatively new technology, so it’s not always easy to get the look you’re going for. If your approach is lazy, your images could look like they were created using a template or rip-off. Also, if you rely too heavily on AI image generation, you might start to lose your own creative vision. This could be especially true if you’re using AI as a crutch to avoid learning new techniques or styles.

Ultimately, the decision to use AI image generation is one that should be made thoughtfully and with an eye towards how it can best serve your individual artistic vision.

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Bokeh is a beautiful effect that can add depth and dimension to your photos. It is created by out-of-focus areas of the image, resulting in a soft, dreamy background that makes your subject stand out. While you can create bokeh with artificial light sources, natural light can create magic. Here are five tips for capturing the magic of bokeh with natural light.

Choose the right lens

To create bokeh, you need a lens with a wide maximum aperture (low f-number). A lens with a focal length of 70mm or more is generally recommended for capturing bokeh. A wide aperture will provide a shallow depth of field, which is key for creating bokeh. The wider the aperture, the shallower the depth of field, and the more blur you’ll get in the background.

Find the right light source

The quality of light can make a big difference in the quality of your bokeh. Look for soft, diffused light to create a gentle glow in the background. You want a light source that is not too bright or dim. Avoid harsh, direct sunlight, which can create harsh shadows and detract from the beauty of the bokeh.

One great source of natural light for bokeh is wet foliage after it rains, especially in the early morning. The water droplets on the leaves can create a beautiful, sparkling background that adds a magical quality to your photos.

Other natural light sources for bokeh can include reflections in water or shiny surfaces, such as glass or metal. Experiment with different light sources to find the one that works best for your subject and composition.

Use a wide aperture

To create a shallow depth of field and blur the background, use a wide aperture setting on your camera. Start with an aperture of f/2.8 or wider, and adjust as needed based on the amount of bokeh you want to create. Remember that smaller apertures (higher f-numbers) will result in a deeper depth of field and less blur.

Position your subject carefully

The position of your subject to the background can significantly impact the quality of the bokeh. Try to place your subject as far away from the background as possible to create more separation and blur. The farther your subject is from the background, the more blurred the background will be. You can also experiment with different angles to find the best position for your subject.

Experiment with composition

Bokeh can add a beautiful, dreamy quality to your photos. Feel free to get creative with your compositions. Try placing your subject off-center or using leading lines to draw the viewer’s eye toward the bokeh in the background. You can also experiment with different depths of field to create different effects.

Ultimately, capturing the magic of bokeh with natural light can be a beautiful and rewarding experience. You can capture stunning photos showcasing bokeh’s beauty by choosing the right lens, finding the right light source, using a wide aperture, positioning your subject carefully, and experimenting with composition. So grab your camera, head outside, and start capturing the magic of bokeh with natural light.

Documentary photographer Sean Sutton tells Bryony Cottam what he has learned from 30 years on the road

Travel, says Sean Sutton, can help you find your purpose in life. Although, he adds, that very much depends on you. ‘There are lots of ways of travelling. You could go to Thailand and spend the whole time on the beach, maybe try some Thai food. But if you’re inquisitive, if you realise that the world is a lot bigger than what you see around you, it can be revelatory.’

For Sutton, it was travelling through Southeast Asia in 1988 that inspired his 30-year career as a documentary photographer. He’d been taking ‘pretty pictures’, as he calls them, of the countries’ vibrant culture and traditions. ‘In hindsight, I could sense that I was struggling to understand the point of what I was doing,’ he says. ‘It just didn’t seem meaningful.’ 

When he stumbled across a situation on the Thailand–Burma border (a wave of protests and riots had been sweeping across Burma, reaching a peak that August in what’s now known as the 8888 Uprising), he realised he had an opportunity to make a difference. ‘It was a moment where everything sort of came together.’

Sutton would go on to spend two years working in the jungle with Burmese refugees and resistance groups. ‘That was my foundation course in photojournalism,’ he says. 

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Since then, his work has taken him to more than 40 countries, where he has focused on amplifying marginalised voices, particularly in areas of conflict and humanitarian crisis, often working directly with aid organisations. ‘Photography is a really powerful tool for telling stories,’ he says. ‘Collaborating with NGOs and using images to tell the story of crises and injustices is one of the most effective ways to support the organisations working on the ground.’ 

Sutton maintains that, even today, documentary photography can reveal the truth of a moment in time. ‘It’s all about how honest you are as a photographer,’ he says. ‘I’ve certainly seen scenes that have been orchestrated, and that’s fine, as long as it’s been disclosed. Photographers who are not honest really do a disservice to all of us who are out there trying to show the truth.’

To the experienced eye, it can be easy to spot a manipulated image, but sometimes it can be difficult to know what to believe when different media are sharing different views, and some issues never make the news at all. But Sutton thinks that travel can help us to fill in the gaps in our knowledge and better understand the wider world.

 ‘Take Laos,’ he says. Between 1967 and 1973, the USA dropped 260 million bombs on Laos – a covert mission that the US government tried to keep secret for years – making it the most heavily bombed country in history. ‘A lot of people travel to Laos,’ says Sutton, ‘and they inevitably find out about its recent history and are quite horrified by it. Many often feel mobilised to do something to help the organisations that are trying to solve the ongoing problems there.’ 

Sutton cautions that while tourism can benefit regions that have been affected by disasters and conflict, especially if communities have been reliant on tourists for income, visitors should think carefully about why they want to visit. There’s a lot that a traveller might not know about a new country they visit, even if they do their research before they go. 

For that reason, Sutton says it’s important to pay attention while you’re there. ‘It’s not just about written rules and often it’s not about religion – it’s about how people feel, their culture and their way of living. In a lot of places, people are very tolerant, even when tourists are behaving very badly, so you need to be sensitive to how they – and you – behave, partially because people are likely to be more accepting and that can make the whole experience more rewarding.’

Although it would be an impossible task to define the entire year in just a handful of images, we thought we’d still take a crack at it by asking Cameron Spencer, Award-winning Chief Photographer at Getty Images Australia, to share some of the photography highlights from 2023. Here are his picks from the best of Getty.

“With the person in the foreground walking toward the destruction in the background, it’s an incredibly powerful image, using layers and scale to show the impact of the earthquake,” says Spencer.

The logistics behind capturing the world’s news events as they are and as they happen is very complicated. Photojournalists have a responsibility to capture honest, and often confronting photos and videos from disaster zones and other difficult locations.”

“This photo captured the Matildas’ heartbreak after their 1-3 defeat to England so eloquently. The photographer captured the match from the catwalk in the roof high above the stadium and cemented the Matildas’ heart-shaped huddle in the middle of Stadium Australia in the history books, reflecting the love and support they felt from Australian fans during the World Cup.

The photo is a complete juxtaposition of the iconic victory over France just days prior.”

“This is an interesting photo as it reveals a behind-the-scenes perspective of King Charles’ coronation ceremony, singling out King Charles III and Queen Camilla against the backdrop of the masses. For most, this could feel isolating or overwhelming, but Getty Images Royal photographer Chris Jackson captures the contrast so well.

It also points to a trust that the Royal Family has with this photographer, as it’s incredibly rare to gain access and capture such unique perspectives first-hand. Using a wide lens and being close to the royals gives the viewer or audience a feeling of being there on the balcony with the royals as they acknowledge the English public as King and Queen.”

“Skilled photographers must be able to master light, and use it creatively to capture photos using manual exposures to decide the tonal range of a frame that stands out from average smartphone photos.

This photo from a recent fashion week displays the skill required in capturing this moment. The pink dress was made to pop against the background, producing an image which exemplifies the amazing use of colours and lighting and the photographer’s composition against the muted dark tones of the guests.”

Most smartphone brands nowadays invest much of their R&D into professional smartphone photography. TECNO isn’t an exception in this list.

Not only are they bringing the best smartphone hardware they could provide for their wallet-friendly handsets, they’re also getting serious in delivering new camera technologies to the masses.

These will open doors to a new world of imaging. It will also provide exceptional results that were not possible before due to hardware and/or software limitations.

Xiaohan Huang, TECNO’s Director for Image R&D Center, presented three main pain-points when it comes to shooting photos in a smartphone. Those could be addressed with TECNO’s latest innovations in mobile imaging.

Liquid Telephoto Macro Lens

The problem most brands encounter when producing smartphones is that telephoto zoom lens takes too much space. TECNO solves this with their headlining “liquid” telephoto macro lens.

This new type of telephoto shooter incorporates a liquid-filled lens into the actual telephoto module. It adapts a lens curvature depending on how close or far you are from a subject.

This unique liquid lens also ensures better macro shots. It can get to as close as 5cm that traditional periscope telephoto lens fail to provide. Those lenses rely on increasing the overall motor drive — which is also inefficient and expensive to make.

TECNO’s approach relies on adjusting and utilizing the voltage to adjust the lens curvature. This not only gives the best details in a shot possible, but also maintains the thinness and the compact form factor of the smartphone.

W-Shaped Adjustable Physical Aperture

Unlike usual flagship smartphone cameras with the traditional aperture opening, TECNO steps it up a notch with their very-own W-Shaped aperture. This was inspired from the eyes of a cuttlefish.

Much like a standard smartphone lens with dual variable aperture system, TECNO’s patented technology allows users to manually adjust the camera’s aperture. It also precisely manages light while eliminates that annoying glare. This is one of the biggest pain-points in smartphone cameras.

This new type of aperture also ensures better photographs even when challenged by scenarios with harsh backlight. No need to compromise between having poor/dark subjects or overexposed skies.

Universal Tone (UT) Technology

TECNO is among the few phone brands that connect its partners to its users. And ICYMI, TECNO is the leading phone brand in Africa as well as being a rising brand among Southeast Asian nations.

They say most AI algorithms that phone brands have do not deliver the true color of people in color.

But with TECNO’s plethora of R&D centers across the globe alongside leading global universities such as Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), they have more than enough sample sets to make Universal Tone (UT) technology a reality when taking picture-perfect and accurately-colored portraits.

With this, people of color will also feel they are respected and accepted. Something many smartphone manufacturers fail to deliver.

Sony x TECNO

While Computational Photography is becoming more prevalent, it would still not be possible to achieve a desirable image output without having a great image sensor. Phones still need hardware components in order to make smartphone photography even better. These are: image sensor, lens, back-end processor, camera module, and other necessary components.

Jun Zhang, the Director of Sony’s Semiconductor Mobile Engineering in China, told us that they constantly improve to make their sensors even better. And with TECNO stepping into the scene, they are teaming up with Sony in bringing the best camera tech possible. This results in a more seamless collaboration with one another.

And with the debut of Sony’s dual-layer stacked sensor “LYTIA”, Sony’s director also told us that they’re moving forward with that direction to ensure excellence in imaging quality without sacrificing the overall heft of a smartphone. Something we’ve encountered with 1-inch mobile sensors. No definite word though if TECNO plans on bringing us a smartphone with the latest LYTIA sensor just yet.

The Future of Lens

Nigel Atherton, the Editor in Chief of UK’s leading photography magazine Amateur Photographer is very thrilled with how the smartphone photography scene will look like in the next one to two years thanks to TECNO’s imaging innovation. As someone who has a culturally-diverse family, he told us that the UT technology would be further utilized when taking portraits and photos with family and friends.

For him, the two other camera technologies by TECNO together with Sony’s promised improvements in sensor also meant better dynamic range, reduced noise, and improved signal processing for faster imaging output.

We never witnessed how any of these new imaging technologies by TECNO work in real life. However, the ever-growing Chinese smartphone brand proudly says these three new technologies are compatible with one another and might be in a future (flagship) device soon (Clue: three letters?)

More so, TECNO has also kept video shooting in mind while they are working with these new camera innovations. As Universal Tone (UT) is software-based, it’s been continuously observed by TECNO. Meanwhile, the two other imaging innovations are hardware-based so TECNO said they could definitely be used for dynamic shooting as well.