Camera
Behind the Scenes: the story behind new features in Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom
| Logos: Adobe |
This year, at Adobe’s Max conference, the company announced several new AI features coming to Photoshop, Lightroom, and Adobe Camera Raw. We talked to some of the managers and engineers behind these products to get an idea of how those features came about and to try to get a sense of what the future holds for Adobe’s photo editing suite.
Lightroom
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| The Quick Actions UI gives you easy access to a variety of subject-specific edits. |
One of the major new features for Lightroom Web and Mobile is called Quick Actions. It’s a panel that lets you easily adjust various parts of your image, giving you different sliders and suggestions based on what type of subject it detects.
“It really started with a multi-year investment into masking,” said Rob Christensen, director of product management for Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw. “We had to make sure that masking was amazing. And so for multiple years, our R&D teams and our design teams came up with an experience that was outstanding. So once we had masking in place, and you could identify a subject, hair, lips, teeth, all of that, we realized, well, let’s pair that up now with edits, and we’ll call them Adaptive Presets.”
Quick Actions essentially serve to make that work more visible and accessible. “With Quick Actions, what you’re selecting in many cases are just Adaptive Presets that are relevant to that specific photo,” Christensen said. “We’re building from masking, Adaptive Presets, now Quick Actions. And it’s all coming together now into a unified experience – that was our vision years ago, and now it’s coming to life.”
Christensen said that Adobe actually quietly launched the feature on the web a few months ago. “We didn’t make a lot of noise around it, but customers have been using it on the web. Part of the reason why we brought it to Web first is it’s just easier. We could get some additional feedback, we could do more experimentation; the web is very easy to iterate on.”
“Part of the reason we also brought it to mobile is it’s really designed for the mobile user, where they want to get to a quick result,” Christensen said. “They don’t necessarily want to go through all the different panels. In a mobile UI, a lot of things are hidden – but what if we could surface all of these advanced capabilities for mobile users to get to an edit? A bit of a goal over the last six months that’s connected with Quick Actions is how do we help users capture, import, and share an amazing photo in under 60 seconds?”
At the moment, it’s unclear if the feature will be coming to the dedicated desktop apps. “We’re definitely looking at and listening to customer feedback. And so far, I think there’s a lot of excitement, especially from desktop users. But we’re not making any official announcements at this time.”
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The selection tool for Generative Remove has also been improved.
Image: Adobe |
Generative Remove, which lets you use AI to erase objects from a scene using AI, is also now generally available across all versions of Lightroom. It’s the type of thing you could easily do if you opened an image in Photoshop, but now you don’t have to leave Lightroom.
“The way we think about what we’re building with Lightroom is it’s purpose-built for photographers,” said Christensen. “So if they have a specific use case that is important for photography, we will look at bringing that into Lightroom. Distraction removal is a great example of an area that makes sense for photography. That’s how a lot of customers are using generative remove today.”
Finally, for Lightroom Classic devotees worried about any plans to completely replace the older-school version of the app with the new cloud-based Lightroom, Christensen seemed to offer some reassurance. “As it stands right now, we’re continuing to innovate on both surfaces. We have a lot of customers on both that love the unique benefits.”
Adobe Camera Raw
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Left: Adobe Color. Right: Adobe Adaptive
Image: Adobe |
One of the most compelling photography-related features announced at Max is the new Adobe Adaptive profile for ACR. It’s meant to give you a better starting point for your own edits than older profiles like Adobe Color.
“One of the things that makes Adobe Adaptive unique is the fact that it’s a lot more image content aware,” said Eric Chan, a Senior Principal Scientist on the Adobe Camera Raw team. “In the past we would look at basic properties in the histogram and other attributes of the image. But with AI models now, we have a lot more semantic information about whether there’s a person in it, whether there’s a sky in it, etc.”
That awareness helps it make base-level adjustments, giving you a better starting point to put your own edits on top. “It can do things like fix skies, fix backlit portraits, it can do things nicely with faces, and it can control a lot more attributes of the image than our previous profiles,” Chan said.
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| You can control how intense the Adobe Adaptive look using the ‘Amount’ slider. |
Unlike pressing the ‘Auto’ button on other profiles, Adobe Adaptive doesn’t change the sliders for parameters like exposure, contrast, highlights, etc.; those are still set to 0, allowing you room to do your own edits. ” I think the other unique aspect that there’s an amount slider that’s underneath the profile itself,” said Chan. “You can do a quick edit. Like, I like what it’s doing, but maybe it’s too much, let’s go to 80%, or maybe you want to go beyond, like 150%. But then there’s the finer-granularity control, things like color panels that you can combine with that.”
The company’s also bringing its Generative AI features to ACR, including Generative Remove and Generative Expand, which lets you “go beyond the boundaries of your photo using the power of AI.” In other words, you ask it to make your picture wider or taller, and it will try to fill in the space in a reasonable way. Any changes you make in ACR will also apply to the AI-generated portion of your picture, and the program will add a Content Credentials tag to the image, marking it as containing AI-generated content.
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| Generative Expand essentially lets you ‘crop out’ with AI imagery. |
Those are interesting features to see in Adobe Camera Raw since, as the name implies, the program has previously been dedicated to adjusting the data your camera captured. Editing content using AI or other tools has been the domain of Photoshop and, to a lesser extent, Lightroom, which has had the Generative Remove feature for a while.
We asked what the thinking was behind adding Generative AI to ACR and Christensen said: “With Lightroom and ACR we’re trying to ensure that photographers can observe that moment as best they can. When we talk to customers, they feel it’s unfortunate if they have 90% of an amazing photo, but it’s just that 10% that is not how they remember the scene. Maybe because they couldn’t get the camera at the right spot at the right time.” He also reiterated that using the generative AI features was completely optional.
The line about making images according to people’s memories isn’t new; in fact, it’s very similar to how phone manufacturers like Samsung and Google are talking about their generative AI features – it’s just a bit odd to hear it in reference to an app dedicated to Raw photography. However, Christensen says there’s a line between what you can do in ACR, and what you can do in Photoshop. “We are not introducing capabilities like Generative Fill, where you can say ‘add an elephant flying from the sky with an umbrella.’ That doesn’t capture the moment; that’s creativity.”
Photoshop
This year, Adobe made several of its generative AI tools in Photoshop generally available and added a new “Distraction Removal” tool that can automatically remove wires, cables, and people from images. Removing wires can be done with a single click, while the people mode gives you the chance to refine the selection in case it selected people you still want in the picture, or didn’t select people you want to get rid of.
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| The ‘People’ mode of the Find Distractions feature lets you decide which subjects you want to keep or to add more subjects to remove. |
According to Stephen Nielson, Senior Product Manager for Photoshop, Adobe plans to add an additional mode for the Distraction Removal tool to handle non-human or cable distractions. “The way we’ve approached this is, first, the most popular thing that people want to remove from a photo is people. So tourists or people in the background or whatever,” he said. “And so the categories that we’re working on are first: people. Second: cables and wires because they’re a pretty specific thing. And then there’s a category of basically everything else.”
Nielson says the everything else category will be like the people one, where Photoshop will select what it thinks are distractions but let you add to or remove from the selection before hitting the remove button.
It’s quite challenging to come up with a single model that can detect all sorts of distractons
Adobe’s not currently announcing when that feature will roll out, as it’s still in the process of building the model. “It’s quite challenging to come up with a single model that can detect all sorts of distractions, whether it’s somebody’s shoulder that’s in the image, or a garbage can, or a pile of leaves, or a random bicycle. It could be anything, right?”
According to Nielson, the training process involved a lot of human work. “We actually give pictures to people and say which objects are distracting?’ You do that enough times, and you can train a model to say, ‘Hey, this is what people usually say is distracting,'” he said. “That’s not the only kind of data that’s included in our training data set, but a lot of it is, like, hey, somebody’s gone through and annotated data to suggest which objects are distracting.”
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| If you want to use the Remove tool without generative AI, you can. |
Like many features in Photoshop, Distraction Removal can take advantage of Adobe’s generative AI, though it’s not 100% reliant on it. “It actually can either use Content-Aware fill or generative fill technology,” said Nielson. “We’ve built an automatic selector that will, based on what you’ve selected and you’re trying to remove, automatically choose either Content-Aware fill or generative fill, depending on which one’s best.”
Adobe has also added a drop-down menu that lets you manually select whether you want any part of the Remove tool, including the Distraction Removal feature, to use Generative AI or Content-Aware Fill. Nielson, however, recommended leaving it on auto. “Content-Aware Fill is better for areas with similar textures, areas where there’s lots of noise, or higher resolution images. Whereas Generative Fill is really good at details, which Content-Aware Fill just isn’t good at. So there’s a good use case for both, and the auto selector we have allows the algorithm to choose which one’s going to be best.”
We think generative technology is huge, but it’s not the answer for everything
Nielson thinks Generative AI will play a big part in future Photoshop features, but it won’t be the only way the company improves the program. “There’s still a lot of areas where we think generative technology is going to dramatically simplify things that were previously tedious and time-consuming inside Photoshop and give you more time to be creative.”
The company showed off one such example at its Sneaks presentation, which showcases tech demos that may or may not actually make it into Adobe products in the future. The demo, nicknamed ‘Perfect Blend,’ automatically matches lighting and color between objects you’re photoshopping in to a background.
“But there’s also going to be a lot of other non-gen AI improvements that we want to put into Photoshop,” Nielson said. “Just making the application run smoother, faster, be more efficient, speed up workflows with non-genitive technology. We think generative technology is huge, but it’s not the answer for everything. So, there’s a lot of other things that we are planning just to make the app better.”
The year is coming to a close, so we thought it would be a good time to go back through the archives and pick out some of the most important stories we covered and reviews we published throughout 2024. This list will be far from exhaustive – we have one of those if you’re interested – as we’re just looking at the highlights.
January
Canon EOS R100 Review
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On January 22nd, we published our in-depth review of Canon’s EOS R100, the company’s entry-level mirrorless camera. We found that it compromises perhaps a bit too much to reach its $479 body-only price point but can produce some lovely-looking pictures nonetheless.
Sony ZV-1 Mark II Review
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Hot on the heels of the EOS R100 review was our deep-dive on the Sony ZV-1 Mark II, a compact vlogging camera based around a Type 1 Stacked CMOS sensor. It has its strengths – though it’s absolutely not the enthusiast stills compact we’ve all been hoping for – but we found that it doesn’t quite do enough to earn a recommendation compared to a modern-day smartphone.
Also in January, we published our initial review of the Sony a9 III, the first full-frame photography camera from a major manufacturer to feature a ‘global’ shutter. We’ll talk about it more in a bit when we get to the full review. We also published our initial review of the OM System OM 1 Mark II, a mild update to the company’s Micro Four Thirds flagship. And who can forget CES?
February
February is usually a busy month here at DPReview thanks to the CP+ industry expo that takes place in Japan. That means we have to cover a lot of news, but we were also able to release our initial review of the Fujifilm X100VI, a camera that would go on to become one of the most difficult pieces of tech to get in 2024. We also published a sample gallery for the OM 1 Mk. II, and added the Panasonic S5 II to our studio scene.
Finishing the Nikon Zf review
While we published the bulk of our Nikon Zf review in early January, in February, we added a sample video and video experience section, rounding out the review. The Zf may look like a vintage film camera, but we found it was surprisingly capable of filming as well.
March
Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 II Review
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In March we published our full review of the Panasonic G9 II, a high-end Micro Four Thirds camera aimed at stills photographers. We found that it accomplished that task well, and was a worthy successor to its predecessor… while also packing a surprisingly capable suite of video features as well.
Leica SL3 Initial Review
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We also took a look at the Leica SL3, a camera that takes the sensor used in the company’s flagship M11 rangefinder and put it into a more traditional mirrorless body with an L-mount and autofocus capabilities.
March was also a busy month for sample galleries; we published pictures shot with four different lenses and a selection of images from our trip to Japan in February, shot with the Panasonic S5 IIX. We also covered Nikon’s acquisition of cinema camera maker Red, and interviewed the Divisional Manager of Fujifilm’s Professional Imaging Group about the company’s future.
April
Panasonic S5 II Review
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Our review of the S5 II was definitely late to the game, as the camera was unfortunately announced right as we were learning that DPReview’s parent company intended to shut it down. This year, however, we were finally able to put some time in with it, using the new v3 firmware that added several features and enhancements.
We also looked at pixel-shift high-resolution modes and explained why we’ve had such bad luck with them in the past. Spoiler: some of it comes down to patents and the real world’s inability to hold still for too long. Also in April: we asked manufacturers what they thought some of the most influential camera gear from the past 25 years was, checked in on Ricoh’s development of a new film camera, and Sigma’s CEO gave us an update on full-frame Foveon.
May
Fujifilm X100VI Review
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In May, we published our full review of the Fujifilm X100VI, a fixed-lens camera that paired AI-derived autofocus and a stabilized sensor with an already-popular hybrid rangefinder / EVF. We found using it to be an extremely compelling experience, which is what makes it such a shame that it’s still only available on backorder or at extremely inflated prices all these months later.
Sony a9 III Review
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We also finished our in-depth look at the Sony a9 III, and found that it was an incredibly capable sports camera. Its ‘global’ shutter makes different types of photography possible, especially when it comes to shooting with high-powered flashes. The tech does come with a small downside in image quality, but if you need to shoot some of the fastest subjects on earth, it’s likely worth the tradeoff.
We also took our first look at the Fujifilm X-T50 and its new kit lens, the XF16-50mm F2.8-4.8 R LM WR. May was apparently Fujifilm month here at DPReview, though we also published an interview with Sigma’s CEO, and a celebration of physical controls on cameras. Be sure not to miss our stunning sample gallery from the Sigma 15mm F1.4 either, or the first episode of our Stories Behind the Photo podcast.
June
Pentax 17 Review
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It’s not often that we review film cameras. For one, our expertise is largely in digital photography – go figure – but more importantly, there just aren’t that many that come out. This year, though, Pentax released its first camera in 20 years that shoots to celluloid instead of a sensor. It’s definitely not cheap, despite the fact that it keeps film costs down by shooting half frames instead of full ones, but using it is a unique experience in this day and age.
We also took our first look at Panasonic’s video-focused Micro Four Thirds GH7 in June. It’s not the biggest upgrade ever, but it includes some very interesting technologies, such as 32-bit float audio.
Two more summer successes: we published an interview with Nikon, and a sample gallery for Sigma’s cutting-edge F1.8 zoom lens.
July
Leica D-Lux 8 Preview
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The D-Lux 8 is a bit of an odd camera, as it’s essentially a refresh of a years-old camera with a substantial price tag. Still, we find it compelling – not only is it one of the only enthusiast compacts to be released in years, but its interface focuses purely on the basics of photography.
Canon EOS R1 Preview
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We also got to look at Canon’s first true mirrorless sports flagship, the EOS R1. It brings a lot to the table, especially with its Action Priority AF system, which ended up being crowned with our Innovation of the Year award.
Another accomplishment in July was writing up interviews with several manufacturers, including Panasonic, Tamron, Sony and Canon, and published the final chapter in a series about a nature photography tour of Madagascar.
August
Fujifilm X-T50 Review
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In August, we published an in-depth review of Fujifilm’s then-entry-level camera – the X-M5 hadn’t been announced yet. We found that, if you can put the price aside, it’s a nice entry point into the X-mount system for someone looking to get into photography and who wants to play around with the company’s famous Film Simulation modes.
August is typically a glacial month for camera news, but we were able to spend some of it shooting sample galleries; we tested the Google Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL and Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II and published our gallery from the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 II. We also told the oft-overlooked story of how Kodak’s film business ended up in the hands of the UK Government’s Pension Protection Fund, begged manufacturers for an enthusiast compact, and got to hear about the state of the camera industry from the people who actually make those cameras.
September
Canon EOS R5 II
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In September, things kicked back into gear, starting with our review of Canon’s EOS R5 II, a wildly impressive camera that we found was up to almost any task. For those that occasionally shoot sports, it also includes the Action Priority AF system that impressed us so much with the larger, more expensive EOS R1.
Leica Q3 43
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We also got to fully review Leica’s latest fixed-lens camera, a variant of its Q3 with a 43mm F2 lens instead of a 28mm lens. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of shooting with it, and getting to use Leica’s photo-focused controls… though, obviously, it’s tough to ignore the hefty price tag, especially when you’re out and about on the streets.
September was also a big month for phones. As is tradition, Apple announced the iPhone 16 which included a dedicated camera button – we broke down exactly what changes it made to the cameras compared to previous versions here – and we got to shoot a sample gallery with Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
October
Sony ZV-E10 II Review
We started October with our review of the Sony ZV-E10 II. Appropriately for a vlogging camera, the bulk of our review was published as a video, which you can see above. Of course, there is still plenty to dig into in the written review.
Nikon Z6III Review
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Just a day after publishing the ZV-E10 II review, we were back with our in-depth look at the Nikon Z6III, a camera that impressed us with its all-around capabilities. Its ‘partially-stacked’ sensor comes with a minor hit to dynamic range, but in most circumstances, the speed improvements it brings will more than make up for that.
During October, we also published sample galleries for the Fujifilm XF16-55mm F2.8 II and Panasonic 18-40mm F4.5-6.3, as well as a review of a Lowepro backpack over a decade in the making. It was also the month we went to Adobe’s Max conference to get a sneak peak at some of what the future holds for products like Photoshop, Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, and Content Credentials.
A few more can’t-miss pieces: we looked back at the Fujifilm X-E series to get an idea of what a potential X-E5 might be like, saw a DIY camera, and covered why so many cameras seem to be aimed at people other than photographers these days.
November
Panasonic S9 Review
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In November, we published our review of Panasonic’s S9, an entry-level full-frame camera focused on making it fast and easy for creators to shoot and share videos and photos. We appreciated its size and Real-Time LUT system, but found that it gave up quite a lot, such as ergonomics, a mechanical shutter, a viewfinder and hot shoe, to achieve that size and price point.
We also published initial reviews of the entry-level Nikon Z50II and professional flagship Sony a1 II. While writing the latter, we also got to film our experience of using it to shoot part of a US football game, which ended up making for a great video.
We also, as part of our 25th anniversary content, wrote about the first camera DPReivew ever reviewed: the Canon PowerShot Pro70, and got the opportunity to interview a photographer who took over 100,000 portraits in a single year.
December
Fujifilm X-M5 review
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Hopefully, you’re not tired of creator-focused cameras because our last review rounding out 2024 was of the Fujifilm X-M5. We found that it packs a lot of photo and video features into a compact body that’s priced within reach of beginners, but comes with a few tradeoffs that are worth noting.
We also published an article comparing Nikon’s modern 50mm F1.4 lens, which is a budget model that trades clinical sharpness for character, and its DSLR-era 50mm F1.4 lens, which was its professional offering for a few years. It’s an interesting look at how far lenses have come over the past decade.
Of course, December was also when we put out our annual DPReview Awards, recognizing the best gear released throughout the year.
That brings us to today. The X-M5 review was our last one for the year, but we’ll be back with more in January. Be sure to check out the rest of our end-of-year articles, and let us know in the comments: what were your favorite moments of 2024?
Season’s greetings! We’ve almost reached the end of 2024, and as is our custom, the DPReview team would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Boxing Day, Happy Kwanzaa, Joyous Festivus, and Happy Holiday to all. We’re incredibly grateful you’ve stuck with us for yet another orbit around the sun.
2024 was an important year for DPReview symbolically. One year ago today, on December 25, 2023, we celebrated the site’s 25th anniversary. For the past 12 months, we’ve been looking back at some of the moments and milestones from that past quarter century. We couldn’t have reached this point without your support.
2024 has also been an important chapter for DPReview as a business. Many of you know we’ve been going through a period of rebuilding. Every person at DPReview, including many folks behind the scenes, has poured their heart and soul into this effort. Why? Because at a fundamental level, we believe that an internet with DPReview is better than one without it.
The hard work is paying off. You might recall that a couple of months ago, we advertised some new editorial roles on the site, and I’m thrilled to report that we’ll have a couple of new faces joining the team early next year.
“At a fundamental level, we believe that an internet with DPReview is better than one without it.”
A huge factor in that success has been our community. Whether you’re a regular in the forums or just pop in to comment under the occasional article, we’re grateful for your contributions. Our forums are a goldmine of information, crowd-sourced from knowledgeable people for over 25 years. Our homepage may get a lot of attention, but the forums are where the magic happens: exchanging ideas, forming communities, and forging personal connections.
In fact, we’re planning to ramp up support for our online community in 2025. Remember those new staff members I mentioned? One of them will be focused on supporting our forums, including our team of volunteer moderators. This will be the first time we’ve had a person on our team dedicated to this task, and to be candid, it’s overdue.
Before you leave today, we’d love it if you’d take a moment to leave a comment and let us know what made 2024 at DPReview memorable for you. Or, if you’re feeling prophetic, please tell us what you’d like to see in the coming year.
From all of us at DPReview – the editors who craft the stories, the tech wizards who keep the lights on, and the business team who keep us on solid footing – we wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season. We’re genuinely excited about what the future holds and look forward to having you by our side as we embark on the next 25 years.
2024 In Review
2024 is just about over, so we thought it’d be a good time to look back and identify some trends that started emerging or kept going strong throughout the year. This isn’t a recap of all the news that happened – we’ll be releasing one of those soon enough – but rather a broad look at the direction the industry is going, which may give us an idea of what to expect throughout 2025.
Global Shutter
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Photo: Richard Butler
It’s hard to say that global shutter was a trend in 2024; in terms of consumer mirrorless cameras, there was only one with the tech, the Sony a9 III. Given the benefits it brings, though – the ability to sync with full-power flash at almost any speed, the ability to shoot stills at 120fps, and to use shutter speeds up to 1/80,000 sec to capture the fastest subjects without any blur – we fully expect to see it come to more high-end sports / action cameras.
That’s not to say that the a9 III’s sensor is perfect. Compared to its rolling shutter counterparts, it takes a hit to absolute image quality with its 250 base ISO, which means it has about a stop more noise than most of its competitors.
However, if you need the performance a global shutter offers, it’s likely none of those caveats will be deal breakers. We just mention them to say that we don’t expect to see global shutters in cameras that are focused on image quality above all else, such as the Sony a7R series or a follow-up to the Nikon Z8 – at least not in 2025 or even 2026.
Physical color mode controls
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Photo: Mitchell Clark
This year, it felt like every other camera had a physical control for color modes. Fujifilm’s Film Simulation dial, included on the X-T50 and X-M5, feels like the obvious example, but it was far from the only one: Panasonic put a LUT button on the creator-focused S9 – and then gave its users the option to backport one onto other cameras – and Nikon included a button to bring up its Picture Control menu on the Z50II.
Physical color mode controls aren’t a brand-new thing. We saw one on the Olympus Pen-F in 2016. But this is the year they definitively became a trend.
Only time will tell if they stick around. Camera manufacturers will likely be paying very close attention to whether consumers actually value being able to easily change the look of their photos and videos using a physical button or dial. If it turns out they do, this year’s crop of cameras likely won’t be the last we see with a color mode control.
APS-C shooters have more options than ever
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Image: Sigma
2024 was the year that Canon and Nikon started allowing more and more third-party APS-C lenses onto their systems. At the beginning of the year, you only had a handful of options if you wanted a third-party autofocus lens for RF or Z-mount. Now, you have significantly more.
The change came from some of the usual suspects, as well as some smaller companies. Sigma and Tamron were the first to announce they’d be bringing their lenses to RF mount, but Samyang slid in under the wire with an announcement that it, too, would start producing lenses for the system.
Most of Sigma’s DC DN primes have been available on Z-mount since early 2023, but this year, we’ve seen a slew of autofocus primes become available for the system from brands like Siuri and Viltrox.
There are still holes in the lineup for each brand, though – neither has a great telephoto option, and there aren’t any fast zoom Z-mount lenses – which is why we’d like to see this trend continue into 2025. If we’re really dreaming, maybe Canon and Nikon will allow more third-party full-frame glass, but we’ll save our fantasies for a different article.
The rise of smaller full-frame lenses
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Image: Sony
Speaking of full-frame glass, this year we’ve also seen a trend of smaller, lighter full-frame lenses. Panasonic’s 18-40mm F4.5-6.3 for L-mount is the most obvious example – the company says it’s the “smallest and lightest interchangeable zoom with autofocus for full-frame mirrorless cameras” – but Sony’s FE 24-50mm F2.8 is also a great, compact new lens that makes a ton of sense on smaller bodies like the a7CR.
Even the big lenses have been getting smaller – Sigma’s second-gen 24-70 F2.8 is 10% lighter than its predecessor, a difference that’ll definitely be noticeable in hour eight of shooting a wedding. Sony’s 85mm F1.4 GM II also boasts a 20% weight reduction compared to the original.
Again, this trend isn’t exactly new. We’ve seen a few lenses that have been largely defined by their size; Canon’s original RF 70-200mm F2.8 from 2019 and Sony’s 70-200mm F2.8 GM II from 2022 come to mind. But with further advances in optics and manufacturing techniques, we hope to see even more full-frame lenses come out that are smaller and lighter than the ones that came before… even if they still won’t be able to out-compact Fujifilm’s XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR II.
The AI age
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Logos: Open AI, Midjourney, Meta, Stability.ai, Google
Pretty much every industry has had its own deluge of AI-related news in 2024, and photography is no exception. The continued proliferation of AI-generated images and text has sparked near-endless debates about what place, if any, the technology has in photography, with some people even taking the extreme position that the ubiquitous ability to generate images will destroy the art form altogether (assuming those comments too, aren’t AI-generated).
It’s not all existential doom and gloom, though, as some companies have used AI to try and improve the experience of photography rather than replace it. For instance, the new Canon EOS R1 and R5 II have Action Priority AF modes, which use machine learning-based algorithms to determine which subject to focus on during key moments in certain sports. It could be thought of as context recognition, rather than the subject recognition that’s become table stakes for most cameras. The EOS R1 and R5 II also have built-in AI-derived noise-reduction and upscaling functions, should you choose to use them.
AI-powered denoising and upscaling are also making their way into photo editing software, such as Lightroom or the apps from companies like Topaz Labs. And while Adobe has added plenty of generative AI features to Photoshop, we’ve also seen other AI-powered improvements, such as its distraction removal mode and Adobe Camera Raw’s new Adaptive profile and reflection removal feature.
However you feel about the technology, it’s almost certainly here to stay. The good news is that another facet of the AI trend this year has been companies working on improving transparency around AI, creating tools to prove a photo’s authenticity or show exactly how it’s been manipulated, either by AI or through more conventional means. The tech is far from ubiquitous, but it seems likely that we’ll see it spread to more and more platforms as AI becomes even more prevalent.
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world news1 year ago
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Camera4 years agoCharles ‘Chuck’ Geschke, co-founder of Adobe and inventor of the PDF, dies at 81
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Solar Energy1 year agoGlencore eyes options on battery recycling project
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Indian Defense3 years ago
Israeli Radar Company Signs MoU To Cooperate With India’s Alpha Design Technologies
