Supriyo

Visiting these forums after a very long time... Nice to see all the familiar faces still here.

I feel, there's a (sometimes big) difference in wading in one's own negative emotions vs experiencing them in a picture. It's somewhat like enjoying a dark rainy day vs being outside in one.

One reason, negative emotion in a photo is more appealing than lighter or happier themes is, we tend to perceive negative emotions as more authentic. Sadness or anger or frustration feels like more unfiltered compared to happy scenes (e.g everyone smiling for the shutter). These are my own thoughts though, so perhaps a bit subjective in their scope.

Honestly, as someone who is getting somewhat familiar with AI, especially generative AI, I would agree with all the concerns that have been presented here or elsewhere. It’s a powerful technology, certainly not a hype any longer, and used maliciously can cause a lot of damage. However, if we look beyond all the petty, fraudulent applications of AI in art, I cannot imagine, a powerful tool like AI would not pave a legitimate path for creative artists.

Many of our concerns relate to the hijacking by AI of the craft of human artists, like brushstrokes or post-processing. What if someone can come up with a new genre of AI driven art, where the act of manipulating the machine becomes the craft. How the machine perceives the daily cacophony of human content and responds to an artist’s manipulation can become the content of such art and provide new food for thought. It is like viewing the human civilization through a convoluted mirror. These are of course my early imaginations, but I feel eventually, we will get there.

One potentially interesting route towards AI driven art could be to push the machine towards the edge of what it was trained to do, give it inputs that are perhaps conflicting and see what it comes up with. Can one compose poetry in collaboration with AI, or create a dialog (chat transcript) that could be insightful. Who knows, only future can tell, but it’s surely interesting to see how a sophisticated AI machine with its ‘steely eyes’ would perceive human world and make (non)sense of it.

I like that PN over the years has had a balance of discussions on what to shoot (i.e. philosophy of shooting or the art of seeing) vs. how to shoot (the techniques), although the philosophy part is highly dependent on available members. Also, I like that even though PN has many veteran members, they don't always mingle among themselves and newcomers are not ignored. Any question asked in a forum will usually be answered, even though some times the OP is never to be seen again. And, not to say the least that this site is nearly like a phoenix. How many times in the past we all thought that this is it, the end of PN, and then it came back again :-). I seems to me, that minus a nuclear armageddon, we are safe!

Not "some", i think, but "all".

 

Sorry, I meant to say "openly admit".

Whenever apps like this emerge, there is a lot of buzz regarding AI and it’s negative effects, however there are talented people working relentlessly towards solving important problems in medicine, astrophysics using AI. Their efforts are rarely highlighted.

 

Also, a lot of AI is silently injected everyday into the information that we gather from google searches, social media etc, that can implicitly bias us in certain directions. There are AI engines that constantly analyze human behavior/bias through online posts and ad clicking and tailor information towards those biases. These under-the-hood activities are equally, if not more dangerous than the eye-catching photo apps. Lastly, AI technology at its current state is certainly over-hyped to some extent, even some AI specialists admit that.

Skillful painters have generated false images and distorted the 'truth' ever since humans could create a mark on a surface. And it wasn't long after the invention of photography that the likes of Oscar Rejlander were creating fantasy montages, spirit photographs and countless other fakery.

 

The problem is in the volume of it and the degree of efficiency of production. It still took skills and most importantly time to pull off something that fools everybody. Not like today, where thousands of algorithmically generated fake imagery can flood the internet within seconds.

 

And a quick saunter into any library or bookshop will reveal that fiction is far more popular (and commercial) than anything factual.

 

Most people enjoy fictional novels knowing what it is, but fiction under the disguise of truth is the most dangerous thing.

There is also virtue in not having to look anything up at all.

 

That's an impossible standard to meet, in the context of the current discussion. Art can also start a dialogue, make the viewer interested or aware of a certain topic, so that he/she can pursue it further. Art doesn't always have to be an end-all destination for information.

Some photos benefit from background knowledge, but I feel the onus is on the viewer to look it up. In this case, the clue is the phrase “survivor tree”, which refers to an elm tree in the parking lot of the Oklahoma Federal building that nearly died from the 1995 terrorist bombing, but came back an year later. So, on an anniversary of 9/11, this is quite a relevant topic for a picture.

 

I think, the shadows of the tree branches and leaves juxtaposed over the plaque make us feel the presence of a living breathing entity, remind us of the terrible tragedy that once unfolded, and the exceptional resilience of this elm tree.

I love the photo, especially the semi-out of focus vegetation that resemble brushstrokes. The background is also non-distracting and the color shades harmonize with the foreground. Overall, the image has a painterly feel to it (I can easily imagine rendering this in pastel, which is the medium I mainly work on). The softness of the colors and lines probably add to the tenderness of the subject that others have commented on. I do agree with Robin's comment about the lack of light on the deer, but considering the whole, I don't feel its a dealbreaker.

That's true JDM. After I posted it, I was wondering how many of these scanners rely on SCSI, which is extinct now. Others may use USB 1.1 which is slow, or Firewire which can still work on Apple but using expensive adapters. I have a Cannon Canoscan FS4000 which still works on modern computers using USB 1.1.

There are quite a few used film scanners on sale at Ebay. For example:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255693394274?epid=66779005&hash=item3b88839162:g:vVgAAOSwbGli-cDs&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoOiQupRvHPEjOzqbuoBjQXx2WmkrA2rNL1nML6dLX08yEF8sEXt0VmBvDK2eJZ4qWFHNpGZe%2BvdNW%2Fqe9QO6Jt0jAwRcYmhL7nus4gahEwzgRlLR0WIyyhfQBH5czI5b5rn%2FlTmSm9ArPBoYqYYu1TIofZL4ChZodwOCowSUHnIcc8K%2BN6oB0wm7BYLGmyOUYC0kwrJFV%2F4TmETkQd6j%2Btw%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6Dey4DeYA

 

or this:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165640121770?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D241587%26meid%3D5b553c97dcdf45ecabaa590e6f53e8ff%26pid%3D101195%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D144696965607%26itm%3D165640121770%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv11WebTrimmedV3MskuAspectsV202110NoVariantSeedKnnRecallV1&_trksid=p2047675.c101195.m1851&amdata=cksum%3A1656401217705b553c97dcdf45ecabaa590e6f53e8ff%7Cenc%3AAQAHAAABIMFr2e4EmAnM%252ByHZkULYKDIJ4L66fOjNL0iupgt%252BzO1%252F3AE1t3mNirUYB96NktMCicMagiS6mbeTl0xquGODv9n2Ixo%252BEtRuNovDOHoGZWXIjaVwh1cTPATM1Rd8iR3BxV90jluqell0myzr0GHze2jpxNY%252BGbkB%252BVxcczXtyuj65TjtESfyxX4gpOy%252BT%252F9I%252F7XAgg2v34ck%252FdwYMtC2W9nyG9Lj0q7bKHY%252BicAbv3b%252FIlAfDaNiHReNkPw8C%252FPp5VQr4TJwVLPErGQXQ0WiwieA4OgK4K9IhT%252FLa6mJgk9%252BbFrzmSyH5yKwujs7YtM5HqIIUBU%252FHhMcUjTP7INd054qfvJa5xaO5XUVGM%252B%252BEQIWkw0s5RdMUaapvAqH5lA%252Fqw%253D%253D%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2047675

It’s quirky, with dense vegetation and mysterious mask-like face superimposed with a foreground of urban character, a complete opposite. I love it.

 

As for the imaginative part, it appears that a bunch of cars (with occupants inside) are being guided into a new and unknown realm or Sphere of indoctrination, while the all-pervasive face looms over. Nothing escapes it’s eyes. It’s a one-way ticket … to nirvana or hell, you tell me.

Thank you for all your comments. Thanks to those, who brought up the aspects of the leading lines made by the stalls on the left and motorcycles on the right. This indeed was the basis of the composition and I am glad that it was conveyed effectively.

 

Glenn is absolutely right. This was shot in a tiny roadside town in India in the Himalayan foothills (really in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest). I was surprised to see so many motorcycles there, many of them being Royal Enfields. I used my mirror less Sony to shoot it sometime in June this year.

 

I agree this isn’t a killer shot. I just wanted to show how ordinary people look and dress in a small remote town like this. The demeanor of this person also reflects how average people in India react to cameras focused on them, curious, but not overly aggressive or annoyed. We have a single person and a part of the environment. I also feel, in a shot like this, it’s challenging to maintain focus on a subject, alongside showing a part of the street environment without introducing too much distraction. We just stopped there for a couple of minutes. If we had more time, i wished to document the location in more detail.

 

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts.

I don't think, there are any 'secret' tolerances for achieving optimal (optical) performance, nothing that cannot be independently measured and calibrated. The only secrets are the computer codes required to talk between body and lens, for autofocus and aperture info, but these are unrelated to optical performance.

 

Some of my portraits are taken using a Nikon 50/1.8 lens mounted on a Sony NEX-3 using adapter and operated under manual focus. That lens came out in early 2000 when Sony was not even into mirrorless business. I was blown away by the sharpness and color contrast of that lens compare to the Sony lens that came with my camera.

Some Sony lenses designed for Sony APC cameras are pretty subpar, compared to equivalent ones from Sigma or Tamron. In fact, Sony made some really subpar lenses until it introduced it's G and GM lineups and now charge a premium for them. So much so that I decided to go for a Tamron as primary lens for my Sony mirrorless. I don't know what has synergy between camera and lens to do with optical performance. I thought, it's solely a lens property.

Becher's work always intrigues me, because I love architectural photography. Thanks for sharing.

Paying for burgers at restaurants seem to be a waste when you can get far better results in your backyard, using simple but high quality ingredients. I don't really care for their "secret sauce" and stuff. YMMV.

I feel a sense of calm and serenity, but also feel a sense of restlessness and dynamism beneath the ripples of the mountain peaks. Its as if, they are ocean waves that are frozen by strange forces of nature.

 

Love the fact that BW processing has brought out the different shades of grey fading over distance.

It says, incorrect password. I am sure that the credentials entered were correct.

The harsh contrast and skewed lines have a big impact, giving the viewer a sense of unease. The color tone of the woman's face feels ominous, and somewhat android like. Also, the quiet street corner, combined with the staring face give the feeling that someone is watching... Overall, I would say this scene has a lot of drama and interesting aspects to draw attention and hold it there.

 

Tea estate in India

More troubling is this - one of the news articles said that even many scientists believed the image, only because it was coming from someone renowned in the field. No-one questioned that, given the current technology and size of the object, its highly unlikely to achieve this level of details from this far. Even if its a new telescope, the leap in technology is just too good to be true. Going purely by someone's credentials without looking at the validity of the presented facts has always landed us in trouble.