Software News | Popular Photography https://www.popphoto.com/category/software-news/ Founded in 1937, Popular Photography is a magazine dedicated to all things photographic. Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:12:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 https://www.popphoto.com/uploads/2021/12/15/cropped-POPPHOTOFAVICON.png?auto=webp&width=32&height=32 Software News | Popular Photography https://www.popphoto.com/category/software-news/ 32 32 Save more than 60% on Adobe Creative Cloud right now if you’re a student or teacher https://www.popphoto.com/news/adobe-student-sale/ Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:12:49 +0000 https://www.popphoto.com/?p=193764
A screenshot of Adobe programs against a yellow and pink background
Abby Ferguson

You can get the full Adobe suite for the same price as the two-app Photography Plan for a year if you are a student or teacher.

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A screenshot of Adobe programs against a yellow and pink background
Abby Ferguson

Adobe programs are the go-to for most creatives. The company offers a wide variety of software for tackling just about anything you need to do, from photo and video editing to graphic design and illustration and more. Because of that, most students who are in some sort of creative program are required to have access to Adobe Creative Cloud. But that comes at a price. Adobe programs are subscription based, and they can be pricey, especially if you want access to more than one. Luckily, through September 4th, you can take advantage of 60 percent off Adobe programs plus a free month if you are a student or teacher and sign up for the annual Creative Cloud All Apps subscription.

Creative Cloud All Apps for teachers & students $19.99/month + a free month (was $54.99/month)

Adobe

SEE IT

Adobe Creative Cloud is the company’s name for its programs that live in its subscription-based model. This deal is only applicable if you opt for the All Apps plan, which includes Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, InDesign, and more. You also must be a student or teacher in order to take advantage of the $19.99 per month price. That price lasts for the first year and then will automatically increase to whatever the current student and teacher price is (it’s currently $29.99). The price for those not in school is $54.99 per month, and the Photography Plan alone is $19.99 for only two apps, so this deal really is pretty phenomenal. Plus, you get a free month, which sweetens the deal.

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Capture One is now available for editing photos on the iPhone https://www.popphoto.com/news/capture-one-iphone-details-specs/ Tue, 20 Jun 2023 22:00:00 +0000 https://www.popphoto.com/?p=192571
Capture One for iPhone
This is an image shot with the Fujifilm X-T5. Stan Horaczek

Capture One for iPhone allows you to shoot tethered straight to your mobile device.

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Capture One for iPhone
This is an image shot with the Fujifilm X-T5. Stan Horaczek

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There are tons of photo editing apps available for the iPhone and iPad, but Capture One’s offering is different than most. You’re probably already familiar with the desktop version of Capture One Pro. It’s a full-featured raw workflow program that many professional photographers use every day. It recently made its way to the iPad, and now it’s available on the iPhone as well.

What can Capture One for iPhone do?

Open the Capture One app by itself, and you’ll find a collection of fairly standard image editing tools. You can edit raw files, apply styles, adjust common variables like exposure, crop, white balance, and just about everything else you’d expect out of an advanced photo editing app.

Connect your camera to the Capture One iPhone app, however, and you’ll unlock some more advanced features that other software doesn’t offer. The app allows photographers to tether their cameras to the app with a hardline connection. Every time the shutter fires, the image immediately transfers to the device. Capture One can automatically apply styles to incoming images. Other users can watch those images load in real-time, but they’ll see the version with the style applied rather than the raw image they would see with most typical tethering setups.

Once the ingested images are edited, the app can export them to the device, to the cloud, or even to an SSD.

If you’re already using Capture One on the desktop, you can create styles on your home machine and then easily move them over to the mobile app. That’s important because you won’t find some editing features natively in the app, like curves, so styles are very crucial to your post-processing workflow if you’re going to use Capture One on the iPhone or iPad.

How much is Capture One Pro for iPhone?

A stand-alone subscription to Capture One for iPhone will cost you $5 per month. But subscribers who already have access to the iPad edition or the complete bundle ($30 monthly or $18.25 per month when paid annually) get access to the iPhone app for free.

I have used the app for just a few minutes so far, but look for a more in-depth review in the coming weeks.

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Adobe announces a slew of video-centric updates https://www.popphoto.com/news/adobe-announces-a-slew-of-video-centric-updates/ Thu, 13 Apr 2023 18:26:43 +0000 https://www.popphoto.com/?p=191370
Screenshot of Adobe Premiere Pro text-based editing tool.
The newest features coming to Premiere Pro will make video editing easier and faster. Adobe

Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Frame.io will all see bit improvements this spring.

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Screenshot of Adobe Premiere Pro text-based editing tool.
The newest features coming to Premiere Pro will make video editing easier and faster. Adobe

Adobe has long been the primary editing program powerhouse, especially in the realm of video editing. Premiere Pro, it’s video editing platform, is typically the software of choice for pros and novices alike. In fact, in a recent press event, Adobe said that 61 percent of the films in last year’s Sundance Film Festival were edited in Adobe Premiere Pro. And now, Adobe has announced some pretty significant updates for creatives in three of its programs.

Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Frame.io will all see new features coming this year. Adobe specified that its theme this year is “Create your best work. All together now.” This highlights the fact that many of its updates revolve around collaborative work. It also said that after working with the pro-community, they zeroed in on three areas that are most important to users: Quality, stability, and performance. And indeed, the new features coming to those three programs all reflect those key aspects.

Adobe Premiere Pro updates

Adobe is bringing some truly exciting features and upgrades to Premiere Pro. These changes should make the program even easier and faster to use, no matter your skill or experience level. In fact, Adobe says that this is the most stable and fastest version of Premiere Pro yet. It is able to perform background autosaves, so you can access previous versions of your work if you need to, without manually saving and interrupting your workflow. There are new system reset options and new tools for managing plug-ins. And there’s more GPU acceleration, making just about all features faster.

Adobe Premiere Pro screenshot showing text-based editing
The Text-Based Editing feature will make editing videos with speaking much easier. Adobe

Text-Based Editing

Perhaps one of the most significant new features in Premiere Pro is Text-Based Editing. This new AI-based workflow is powered by Adobe Sensei. It is able to transcribe your videos in the background, giving you a full transcript with zero work on your end.

You’ll be able to search for words that are relevant to you, finding the desired without scrubbing through the video and trying to find it by listening to random sections. And Premiere Pro will automatically break speaking parts it into relevant segments. That means that by using one simple keyboard shortcut (comma by default), you can add a specific clip into the timeline based solely on the text transcript alone. You won’t need to watch the clip over and over just to get the timing of the start and end correct.

Another useful feature is that AI will automatically detect pauses, which is reflected by ellipses in the transcript. You can click on those and delete them, making the process of cleaning up speaking parts much more simple and faster. Test-Based Editing also allows you to rearrange sections as if you are editing written text. It should be much more intuitive to learn as a result. And it all runs right on the device, meaning it will work even if you don’t have an internet connection.

The Text-Based Editing feature is currently available in Beta but is expected to be fully available in May.

Automatic tone mapping

In another push to make editing easier, Premiere Pro will soon provide access to automatic tone mapping. This feature makes it much easier to get consistent-looking footage no matter what camera or device you use. You can mix and match LOG and HDR footage or different color spaces, including iPhone Dolby Vision HDR (HLG), Sony S-Log, Panasonic V-Log, and Canon C-Log. Then, Premiere Pro will automatically balance out the footage to make them look similar.

The new process means you don’t have to rely on LUTs for creating a seamless throughout your video even if you use multiple cameras. And, even if you don’t use LUTs currently, you won’t have to fuss with getting adjustments to each clip just right in order to have consistent-looking footage. The automatic tone mapping can be turned off, however, if you prefer to have that hands-on control. And you can still use LUT-based workflows as well.

Automatic tone mapping will be available in Premiere Pro come February.

Screenshot of Adobe Premiere Pro collaboration tools
The newest version of Premiere Pro will offer plenty of collaboration tools. Adobe

Additional features

Adobe has made a big push in recent years with collaborative features. That continues with even more collaboration tools coming to Premiere Pro. The sequence locking tool allows you to prevent others from making changes while you are working on a specific sequence. Version history is tracked, and all changes are automatically tracked both locally and in the cloud. Progressive project loading only loads specific parts of the project you need as you need them. And finally, you can work offline and sync your changes to the cloud later.

Beyond those big changes, Adobe will be implementing dozens of requested features. Perhaps one of the most notable is the ability to batch edit titles and graphics. If you need to adjust the font across the entire project, you will no longer need to go slide by slide, making that change. Overall, all the new features coming to Premiere Pro should greatly speed up and simplify the video editing process.

Adobe After Effects updates

Adobe After Effects is celebrating 30 years this year, so it’s also getting some important upgrades. The new Properties Panel, which will be familiar to anyone who has used Adobe Photoshop, provides instant access to the settings you need the most without clicking through multiple menu options. It’s a dynamic panel, changing depending on what is in the layer you are working on. Selectable track mattes will be easier and faster to use thanks to the ability to reuse mattes on different layers. And New ACES and OpenColorIO assist in getting consistent colors even when sharing content with other post-production apps.

Overall, all of the After Effects changes coming make the program easier and more intuitive to use, which we always like to see. These features will be rolling out in May.

Screenshot of Adobe Frame.io annotations
Frame.io will make collaboration easier in part thanks to the All Annotations button. Adobe

Adobe Frame.io updates

The last Adobe program getting updates is Frame.io. The collaboration platform will soon be able to generate Forensic Watermark Codes. These codes are invisible and yet can survive live streams, screen recordings, and transcodes. Native aspect ratios will be visible in thumbnails, so you won’t need to click into a file to see if it’s vertical or horizontal. And there’s a new button that allows you to see all annotations at once instead of needing to filter through them one by one.

Adobe also worked on a few different important collaborations. The first will expand access to Frame.io’s Camera to Cloud feature. This workflow was previously only available for video users, but Adobe partnered with Fujifilm in order to provide native support for photographers who use Fujifilm’s X-H2S or X-H2 cameras. Those photographers can now instantly share files to Frame.io while still in the field. It will support raw files, as well as .pds, .ai, .pdf, and .indd files.

Adobe also collaborated with Capture One, creating an industry-first collaboration. This will allow you to upload directly to Capture One through Frame.io and then publish back to Frame.io from Capture One as well.

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Zoner Photo Studio X update adds better raw processing and drastically expanded lens support https://www.popphoto.com/news/zoner-photo-studio-x-update/ Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:52:33 +0000 https://www.popphoto.com/?p=191022
Zoner Photo Studio X screenshot of lens profile
The native support of 1,200 lens profiles is a welcome addition. Zoner

This update to Windows-based editing software Zoner Photo Studio X is a massive one.

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Zoner Photo Studio X screenshot of lens profile
The native support of 1,200 lens profiles is a welcome addition. Zoner

If you’re a Windows user and you have hopped off the Adobe software train, you may already be familiar with Zoner Photo Studio X. It’s a raw workflow software similar to Lightroom or Capture One, and it just got a big update with some significant improvements over the previous iteration. 

Zoner Photo Studio X costs $5.99 per month or just $59 per year, which is cheaper than most other advanced options on the market at the moment. The new update offers a heap of new improvements, the most notable of which is a drastic uptick in terms of speed. 

According to Zoner, Photo Studio X now processes raw files in roughly half the time of its predecessor. That improvement stems largely from a new method for demosaicing. This speed boost applies across the board when working on raw files. So, they’re faster to open, but they’re also faster to export and edit.

The other big update comes in the form of support for more than 1,200 new lenses. Lens profiles allow the software to quickly and automatically remedy common lens issues like vignetting and some types of distortion. Applying a lens profile makes quick work of issues that persist when using a single lens. It comes in very handy if you’re editing large batches of photos. 

Zoner Photo Studio X video editing screenshot
The update significantly improves video editing as well. Zoner

Zoner has improved its editing tools across the board, including more natural-looking grain and better noise management for high-ISO images. The software also now allows for more flexible usage across two monitors. And there are significant upgrades to the program’s video editing abilities, so hybrid shooters can stick within a single platform.

Overall, this is a fairly huge update for Zoner Photo Studio X. It was already one of our go-to choices for editing on a Windows machine, but these improvements are very welcome. If you’re using Windows 10 or 11, give it a shot and see how it fits your workflow. 

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The powerful, free DaVinci Resolve video editor for iPad is now available https://www.popphoto.com/news/davinci-resolve-available-ipad/ Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:40:43 +0000 https://www.popphoto.com/?p=189248
DaVinci Resolve for iPad
The new ipad Pro now supports DaVinci Resolve. Blackmagic

Get one of the most powerful video editing tools for free on modern iPads.

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DaVinci Resolve for iPad
The new ipad Pro now supports DaVinci Resolve. Blackmagic

Apple announced a new M2-powered version of its iPads earlier this year. As part of that announcement, the company also included news regarding Blackmagic Design bringing its powerful (and mostly free) DaVinci video editing software to Apple tablets before the years is out. Now, just a few days before the dawn of 2023, you can download the iPad version of Davinci Resolve from the App Store.

What is Davinci Resolve?

Despite its free price tag (you can pay extra for more functionality and utilities), Davinci Resolve is one of the most powerful video editing programs available. It combines both color grading and clip editing into the same piece of software. While it certainly has a learning curve—as most video editing programs do—Resolve has a very high ceiling when it comes to overall performance. In fact, it has been responsible for the color grading in big-budget Hollywood films.

The iPad version integrates just about all of the same tools that you’ll find in the desktop version. It’s compatible with both M1 and M2 iPads, but won’t work with older models running Apple’s A-series chips.

While this program will work for basic photo editing, it’s worth noting that it’s capable of handling truly high-quality footage. It can export 4K video at 60fps and edit advanced formats including Apple ProRes and Blackmagic raw. Because the newer iPads come toting USB-C ports, it’s simple to add fast additional storage and edit from a portable SSD without worrying about the iPad’s limited internal storage.

If you want the more advanced features that come with the Studio version of Davinci Resolve, you can pay a one-time $95 fee to upgrade. The Studio version typically includes some performance upgrades due to GPU acceleration, but it’s unclear until we’ve done some testing whether that’s the case with the iPad version.

I’m looking forward to spending some time with the new Resolve iPad release over the holidays. It’s a truly powerful program and I hope the iPad port lives up to the high standard set by the desktop version.

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DxO has released PhotoLab 6 for even better raw processing https://www.popphoto.com/news/dxo-photolab-6-update/ Thu, 06 Oct 2022 23:01:01 +0000 https://www.popphoto.com/?p=187540
The new DxO PhotoLab 6 is more powerful than ever.
The new DxO PhotoLab 6 is more powerful than ever. Abby Ferguson

The latest versions of two of DxO's image processing software are even more powerful for getting the most out of your images.

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The new DxO PhotoLab 6 is more powerful than ever.
The new DxO PhotoLab 6 is more powerful than ever. Abby Ferguson

French software company DxO has announced a major update to its already class-leading raw processing software, PhotoLab 6. The update brings numerous exciting changes, including a new DeepPrime XD, an expanded color space, and library management tools. It is now more powerful than ever, making your editing easier, faster, and better. 

PhotoLab 6 DeepPrimeXD

PhotoLab 6 has even better noise reduction thanks to its DeepPRIME XD.
PhotoLab 6 has even better noise reduction thanks to its DeepPRIME XD. DxO, Kelvin Chan

At the heart of the PhotoLab 6 updates is a new version of DxO’s DeepPRIME technology, an industry-leading noise reduction and detail-enhancing tool. The new DeepPRIME XD (eXtreme Details) mode can bring out even more detail from raw files. It is especially perfect for high-ISO images, as it removes noise, brings out unseen details, and improves colors. 

Like the previous version, DeepPRIME XD relies on a neural network developed from billions of sample images. It is capable of providing improvements by up to 2.5 stops. DxO says an image taken at ISO 4000 will look more like an image captured at ISO 500, which is a drastic and potentially game-changing difference. It should give you a lot more flexibility when caught in low-light or high-contrast situations.

Should you have an image that doesn’t require much recovery, you can still take advantage of the original DeepPrime for faster edits. And if you want to learn how to use this powerful tool to your advantage, check out our explainer on how to preprocess raw files

Extended color space

With an expanded color space, you'll get more accurate and vibrant colors with PhotoLab 6.
With an expanded color space, you’ll get more accurate and vibrant colors with PhotoLab 6. DxO, Ryuichi Aoki

PhotoLab 6 has new color processing algorithms, resulting in an extended working color space dubbed DxO Pro. The Soft Proofing mode compliments this nicely, as you can verify that colors are accurate throughout the entire process, whether the final display is an HD screen or fine-art print. You’ll have more control over the color of your images and will be able to get more vibrant results, taking advantage of the newest technology in monitors and printers.  

PhotoLab 6 ReTouch tool

Also new to PhotoLab 6 are retouching tools. These tools bring some of the functionality of Photoshop into this all-in-one raw processing program. That means you won’t need to bounce around between different software platforms nearly as much. 

The retouching tools allow you to clone and heal through mirroring, rotating, and scaling. Or you can use brushes for fine-tuning your edits for more natural results. These edits are nondestructive, so you don’t need to worry about messing up the original file should you go too far. 

Library management

The new library management tools in PhotoLab 6 will help you stay organized.
The new library management tools in PhotoLab 6 will help you stay organized. DxO

Another tool to help keep your work all in PhotoLab 6 is an improved library management system. DxO has expanded Exif and IPTC tags, added nesting for Projects, and introduced color labels for better organization. It should make it much easier to keep your files well-organized without dedicating loads of time to the process. 

Expanded lens library in PhotoLab 6

Lastly, PhotoLab 6 has support for nine more lenses. This brings the total camera and lens combinations supported by DxO to 77,000, more than any other program. Essentially any combination of gear you use will be recognized, ensuring the most accurate and high-quality results when processing raw files. 

The new lenses that have been added are: 

  • Canon RF 24mm F1.8 Macro IS STM
  • Nikkor Z 28-75mm F2.8
  • HD Pentax-D FA 21mm F2.4 ED Limited DC WR
  • HD Pentax-FA 31mm F1.8 Limited
  • HD Pentax-FA 43mm F1.9 Limited
  • HD Pentax-FA 77mm F1.8 Limited
  • Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN | C
  • Sigma 35mm F2 DG DN | C
  • Sony E 11mm F1.8

Pricing & availability

DxO’s PhotoLab 6 is available as either the Essential (for two computers) or Elite (for three computers) edition. The Essential Edition is priced at $139, while the Elite Edition is $219. If you already have a previous version of PhotoLab, you can upgrade to either version for $75 and $99, respectively. You can also try PhotoLab 6 for free for 30 days.

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The new Adobe Elements use powerful AI tools to make editing easier https://www.popphoto.com/news/new-adobe-elements/ Wed, 05 Oct 2022 20:12:20 +0000 https://www.popphoto.com/?p=187475
The new Adobe Elements 2023 uses powerful AI tools.
The new Adobe Elements 2023 uses powerful AI tools. Abby Ferguson

The updated Adobe Elements boast new AI-driven features, additional artistic effects and audio, and more beginner-friendly tools.

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The new Adobe Elements 2023 uses powerful AI tools.
The new Adobe Elements 2023 uses powerful AI tools. Abby Ferguson

Ahead of Adobe MAX–Adobe’s annual creative conference–later this month, the company has released a new version of its Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements programs. Photoshop Elements is a stripped-down version of Photoshop, Adobe’s popular and robust editing software. Premiere Elements is a more basic version of Premiere, its video editing software. Photoshop and Premiere Elements 2023 bring impressive AI features that let you add motion to still photos and incorporate one-click filters, making them powerful tools for those wanting a more user-friendly way to edit their photos or videos. 

New AI & photo editing features in Photoshop Elements

AI has been increasingly creeping into editing software, and this update to Elements continues that trend. Powered by Adobe’s Sensei AI, the new tools make creating dramatic and unique images easier. 

Bring motion into your still photos with Adobe's new Moving Elements feature.
You can easily bring motion into your still photos with Adobe’s new Moving Elements feature. Adobe

The most noteworthy feature of Photoshop Elements is Moving Elements. This tool allows you to easily add motion to still photos. You simply select the part of the image you want to move and choose the direction of travel, and the AI handles the rest. It works with water, clouds, fabric, and various other background subjects. You can then save the image in social media-ready formats, such as MP4 or GIF.

You’ll also get access to 87 step-by-step Guided Edits, which are ideal for beginners or those who don’t want to spend time on in-depth editing. One such Guided Edit is the Peek-through Overlay, which allows you to add objects to the foreground to create more depth in your photos. You can also take advantage of the AI to remove backgrounds or even move and scale subjects quickly and easily. These Guided Edits are also easily searchable now, using familiar terms and keywords.

Create more depth with Adobe's Peek Through Guided Edit.
Create more depth in your photos using Adobe’s Peek-through Guided Edit tool. Adobe

Should you want to combine photos, Elements 2023 also has new collage and slideshow templates. These make it easy to add multiple photos into a collage with graphic elements and even text. 

New video editing tools in Premiere Elements

The most significant update on the Elements Premiere side is also based around Adobe’s Sensei AI. The Artistic Effects tool lets you apply effects based on the styles of popular artists, such as Monet or Van Gogh. You can adjust the level of the result, and it seamlessly applies to the entire video clip. 

Easily add painterly effects to your videos with a single click.
Easily add painterly effects to your videos with a single click. Adobe

Finally, you get 100 new audio tracks as part of the new Premiere Elements. These should make it easier to add the perfect soundtrack to your video. The tracks are all free, so you don’t need to worry about paying extra when adding music.

Mobile app & performance

With the latest update, Adobe improved the performance and stability of both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements. The company claims you’ll get “35 percent faster installation, 50 percent faster launch times, a 48 percent reduction in app size” on most machines. Adobe also added full support for Apple’s M1-based devices. Those devices should see “up to 70 percent faster launch times on Apple M1-powered Mac computers,” according to Adobe. 

Beyond performance, Photoshop Elements 2023 comes with a new mobile companion app. It allows you to upload photos and videos to the cloud to streamline your editing process. (It’s also available with the purchase of Premiere Elements 2023.) There’s also a web companion app where you can share and view photos and videos as well as create collages and slideshows. Unfortunately, the mobile app is Android only for now, and both the mobile and web app are English-only beta for the time being. 

Availability & pricing

Both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements are available now. You can purchase a digital code as a bundle deal for $149.99 for either PC or Mac. You can also buy a physical code. If you want Premiere Elements only, it’s available for $99.99 with a digital code compatible with MacPC, or a physical code. The standalone version of Photoshop Elements is also $99.99 for a digital code for Mac and PC or a physical code. If you already have one or both of Adobe Elements, you can choose to upgrade each for $79.99 or both for $119.99 via Adobe’s website.

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Peer ‘behind-the-scenes’ of famous paintings with the help of AI https://www.popphoto.com/news/dall-e-image-extender/ Wed, 07 Sep 2022 04:38:53 +0000 https://www.popphoto.com/?p=184802
The famous painting, "Girl with a pearl earring" with its borders extended
The famous painting, "Girl with a pearl earring" with its borders extended. August Kamp / OpenAI / Johannes Vermeer

The AI image generator DALL-E 2 can now be used to extend the backgrounds of existing images with impressive results.

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The famous painting, "Girl with a pearl earring" with its borders extended
The famous painting, "Girl with a pearl earring" with its borders extended. August Kamp / OpenAI / Johannes Vermeer

This article originally appeared on Popular Science.

Open AI, developers of the AI text-to-image generator DALL-E 2, have just announced a new feature for the app called “outpainting”. It allows users to extend existing images and works of art with AI-generated content. It’s pretty exciting, and hugely expands the capabilities of the tool. 

Related: AI-generated image wins art contest, ‘actual’ artists irate

What are text-to-image generators? And how do they work?

DALL-E 2 is one of the most popular text-to-image generators available at the moment. With more than a million users, it’s no wonder that content created by it seems to be everywhere. (A lot of other text-to-image generators are either in a closed beta, like Stable Diffusion, are not available to the public, like Google’s Imagen, or are much more limited in scope, like Craiyon.) 

DALL-E 2 takes a text prompt, like “an astronaut riding a horse in the style of Andy Warhol,” and generates nine 1,024-pixel by 1,024-pixel images that illustrate it. It uses a process called “diffusion” where it starts with randomly generated noise and then edits it to match the salient features of the prompt as closely as possible. 

Until now, users were limited with the size and aspect ratio of what they could create with DALL-E 2. The AI program could only generate 1,024-pixel by 1,024-pixel squares—anything larger or a different shape was out of the question.

DALL-E 2 does offer a feature called “inpainting” to modify details in existing artworks, but to actually create a bigger canvas involved manually stitching different sections together using an app like Photoshop. (For different aspect ratios, you could crop your image, but that reduced the overall resolution.)

DALL-E image extender

Now with “outpainting,” the only limit users face—other than the content filters—are the number of credits they have. (Everyone gets 50 free generation credits during their first month and 15 to use every month after that. Blocks of 115 additional credits can be purchased for $15.) Generating an initial image takes one credit, as does every additional outpainted section. 

Outpainting works as an extension to DALL-E 2. Users select a 1,024-pixel by 1,024-pixel square area where they want to extend the image to and can specify any additional prompts to guide the AI. For example, to add more of a background to the astronaut on a horse, you could change the prompt to “an astronaut riding a horse on the moon with stars in the background in the style of Andy Warhol.” 

For each outpainted section, DALL-E 2 will offer up four possibilities for users to select. If none of them work for the image, you can get it to try again. 

Most impressively, outpainting “takes into account the image’s existing visual elements—including shadows, reflections, and textures.” This means that any details added “maintain the context” of the image and can really look like part of a coherent whole. 

Extending Girl with a Pearl Earring

In DALL-E 2’s announcement of outpainting, there’s a timelapse showing Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer being extended to around 20 times its original size. Instead of a simple portrait, it shows a young woman standing in a cluttered house. It’s fascinating to see because so long as you don’t look too closely, it really does look like an extension of the original painting. The overall style and mood are spot on. It’s almost like an imaginary behind-the-scenes shot.

If you want to try outpainting, you will need to sign up to DALL-E 2. Open AI is currently operating a rolling waitlist. If you want to sign up, you can do so here

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Sony unveils a new way to protect images from theft, manipulation https://www.popphoto.com/news/sony-anti-forgery-crypto-signature/ Tue, 09 Aug 2022 21:13:56 +0000 https://www.popphoto.com/?p=181832
The Sony a7 IV
Sony

The feature, coming to the Sony a7 IV, adds an in-camera crypto signature to images. At launch, however, it will only be available to licensed 'corporate' customers.

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The Sony a7 IV
Sony

Sony has a new anti-forgery feature coming to the a7 IV mirrorless camera that adds a crypto signature to images—as soon as they’re shot—to help prevent duplication or manipulation. It’s designed for corporate customers, so don’t expect your holiday snaps to be getting digitally signed any time soon. Still, it’s an interesting idea with a wide variety of potential uses. 

Cryptography not crypto

Related: Meta launches NFTs on Instagram… and they ‘shimmer’

Unfortunately, with any topic involving cryptography, it’s important to clarify that this has nothing to do with cryptocurrencies, NFTs, or any other Web3 thing. This is about cryptographically signing images at the point of capture so that their authenticity can be verified (not putting anything on the blockchain).

How it works is the camera’s processor cryptographically signs the image as it’s taken. While Sony hasn’t announced any specifics, this is something that has been talked about since at least the 1990s. The details might vary a little, but basically, some secret code gets embedded into the image that will break badly if something is changed. 

So, if anyone modifies, tampers with, or edits the image, whether by shifting a few pixels or creating a total forgery, it will be obvious to anyone who knows how to check. Since it’s a cryptographic signature, this will involve some complex math similar to how passwords and passkeys work.

What’s the Sony anti-forgery feature for?

Not every photo needs to be verifiably authentic. If it’s just a selfie you shot on holiday, who cares if you put a filter on it? But in some fields, it is useful for an image’s authenticity to be quickly and easily verified. 

Sony suggests that it’s “particularly applicable for passports and ID verification,” but also says that it could be used for tackling image manipulation in the media (a big concern with photojournalism). The other potential use cases it flags are in medicine, law enforcement, insurance assessment, and construction. These are all areas where being able to verify that an image was taken when and where its metadata implies and hasn’t been manipulated in any way, is useful. 

Yasuo Baba, Director of Digital Imaging and European Product Marketing at Sony, said in the press release, “It is Sony’s mission to strengthen business solutions with cutting-edge imagery technology and our in-camera digital signing is a real gamechanger for combatting image manipulation and forgery across multiple industries.”

When will we see this?

Sony says that, for now, the anti-forgery feature is limited to the Sony a7 IV though it will potentially be expanded to other models if it is warranted. 

The signing mode is only available to business users and they have to apply to Sony for a license to enable it. Presumably, it’s this license that will also allow these customers to configure their servers to automatically verify an image was shot with a specific camera. 

Other than that, we don’t have a lot of details. Still, when so many stories are about how easy it is to fake photos, it’s nice to see another new method for securing them. 

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1 million lucky creators will beta test AI image generator DALL-E https://www.popphoto.com/news/text-to-image-synthesizer-dall-e-in-testing/ Thu, 21 Jul 2022 22:32:58 +0000 https://www.popphoto.com/?p=179655
astronaut plays basketball with cats in space dall-e
Using DALL-E, the prompt "An astronaut playing basketball with cats in space in a watercolor style" will return an image like this. DALL-E

It's a portal to a Surrealist world—but can its creators address potential ethical and moral concerns?

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astronaut plays basketball with cats in space dall-e
Using DALL-E, the prompt "An astronaut playing basketball with cats in space in a watercolor style" will return an image like this. DALL-E

Text-to-image synthesizers have the power to make anyone into an artist, no art skills required. All you need is a little imagination and the power of artificial intelligence to create something spectacular (or truly bizarre). Now, the folks behind the much-hyped, text-to-image synthesizer DALL-E (pronounced: Dalí, like Salvador) have invited one million beta testers, pulled from DALL-E waitlist, to start creating on the platform. Here are the details. 

Related: How to use AI to tag and organize your photo library

bowl of soup dall-e
“A bowl of soup as a planet in the universe as a 1960s poster.” DALL-E

How it works

Over the coming months, DALL-E will invite up to a million people to beta test its platform. Testers will receive free monthly credits to create as they please and, should their enthusiasm take over, they’ll have the option to purchase additional credits at $15 for 115. 

Each credit allows for one prompt and the choice between a generation, which returns four images, and an edit/variation, which returns three images. The edit/variation prompt will either modify an existing image created by or uploaded to DALL-E, or it will create a new piece of artwork based on the inspiration. The company has stated that it will be collecting user feedback to make improvements.

Additionally, artists and creators will have the ability to commercialize their work, including reprinting, selling, and merchandising. The company reports that some creators already have children’s book illustrations, newsletters, games, and movie storyboards in the works. 

teddy bear mad scientists dall-e
“Teddy bears mixing sparkling chemicals as mad scientists in a steampunk style.” DALL-E

Is it really safe?

Of course, all the buzz about AI image synthesizers has come with plenty of concerns about safety and ethics. This is one of the reasons why Google’s Imagen synthesizer is not available to the public. The opportunity for misinformation, bias, and abuse abounds, with no clear solutions and mitigation policies in place. However, DALL-E claims that it has implemented the following measures to combat any misuse. 

First, the platform will reject image uploads of realistic faces, so users won’t be able to recreate the likeness of public figures, such as celebrities and politicians. DALL-E will also not produce photorealistic images of real people. 

The content filters will also guard against violent, adult, political, and other subjects that violate its content policy. When developing the system, the team also removed explicit content from the training data to limit the AI’s exposure. DALL-E’s creators also claim they have implemented a system-level technique to fight bias, allowing it to generate “images of people that more accurately reflect the diversity of the world’s population.” There is also automated and human monitoring in place to evaluate content. 

While the concept is novel and fun, it remains to be seen if DALL-E will successfully surmount the moral and ethical risks the technology poses. We’re keen to see the beta testers’ creations and how the platform will navigate the balance of freedom of expression with the possible repercussions.

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