Been tons of chatter online about the Lytro camera the last few weeks. In case you’ve been living under a rock or too busy to notice, then you’ll be happy to know that the new Lytro camera allows you to select focus AFTER you shoot the photograph. AMAZING technology developed at Stanford by Ren Ng. Just like you can change the white balance after capture when shooting RAW, well now you can put those striking blue eyes of your model in focus later.
Consider that with the technology of a camera like the RED Epic – shooting a 5,000 pixel wide image at 96 frames per second. You can aim that sucker at a scene and shoot 1000 14 megapixel still images in 10 seconds. No more need to catch ‘the decisive moment’!
Combine these two technologies? Whew! Now you’ve really got something.
Unless… your pictures have no focus. If you think that you’re photos are going to be better in the future because you don’t have to pick the moment or focus on your subject, you’re entirely wrong. These technologies are truly amazing, revolutionary and will continue to change the face of photography as we know it.
But mark my words, if you’re goal is to get your work to stand out from the crowd (as good art does), then you’ll need to focus all the more.
Focus on subject.
Focus on content.
Focus on meaning.
Focus on artistic vision…
…because these are all the tools that computers can’t help you with and these are the only ways from here on out that you’re going to be able to make a mark.
Focus on that.
[and don’t hate it, celebrate it, cause it’s all you’ve got.]
Chase, I would encourage you to proofread your posts for grammatical errors.
To all others, consider this camera in its current state no more than a novelty. It won’t have supreme image quality, nor with it be anything close to what digital SLRs have managed to come up with. Yes it will have the ability to focus on different points after-the-fact, but like this and every other technology that has cropped up, they are just tools. This isn’t a game-changer at all. Serious photographers needn’t feel threatened, amateur photographers needn’t be excited.
Just as Steve Jobs said people will choose with their wallets what works and what doesn’t, if ‘art’ is what you are after in your photography, then continue to do what you are doing to the best of your ability, and enjoy the subtle perks of technology along the way.
I see the opportunity to use this technology to help you get what you want in focus, but if you don’t already know what to put in focus when you take the picture, I don’t think the picture is worth taking. Or maybe it will allow for more creative post production!?
The camera looks kind of simple and cool, would be nice to get away from the square shape for ones though. I agree Scott, soo not orangutangish, more of an Apple product.
Chase, so true. Actually when you think about it, you could just point a camera towards where you think something interesting could happen, and then afterwards pick the shots you like. However, the problem is, this will be an incredibly time consuming task. You’ll need to go over every single frame to see if something interesting is in the picture, then also determine where you want the focus to be. In the end, it’s less work and, most importantly, way more fun to just be out and looking for interesting scenes to capture the way you envision them at the moment.
Actually, Bram, that’s exactly what I thought right away. Some of the most amazing work is still being done on film. Why? Because it actually takes thought and care.
More is not better. More is just more. And usually it’s worse, because it devalues the real art, skill and craft of making something important and lasting.
In the end you have to embrace change for what it is, and when an art inevitably becomes a commodity to be manufactured basically for free, you look for things in life that still cannot be replicated by a monkey pressing a button. You look for scarcity.
I like the Lytro cam and hope it will be soon available in europe. It’s no replacement for professional cam but as a gimmick i think the lightfieldcam will be great! greets Florian
Auto focus is nothing new. This just gives the user the power to have control in post production. I don’t think anyone is saying that you should not think.