The Future of Photography?

[Mike Farley]

Two articles published the same day on DPReview about where technology is taking photography have caught my eye. The first is a lengthy exposition about the current status of mobile phones, which are starting to become extremely capable. It used to be that a good technical understanding as well as aesthetic appreciation was necessary to create a worthwhile image. While that still holds true, the manufacturers are creating devices which allow the user to concentrate on the image with little regard to the technicalities.

https://www.dpreview.com/articles/80379 ... -our-minds

The question, surely, is what does this mean for "proper" cameras which rely on the traditional paradigm of the user having at least some measure of control over the taking process? To an extent, that has always been the case. Manufacturers have long sought to simply the act of taking a photograph. As far back as 1888, Kodak had the advertising slogan "You Press the Button, We Do the Rest". The success of that campaign formed the basis of Kodak's domination of the photographic industry for many years. Successive generations of cameras have long sought to remove the complexities inherent within photography.

The other article relates to evaluating the aesthetic appeal of images. The BBC's Tomorrow's World team has developed a chatbot which evaluates the appeal of images posted on Instagram. True, this is not the first example of artificial intelligence being used for image assessment, but it is starting to become more commonplace. Given the subjectivity involved, it is a more complex task but not one which is beyond the bounds of possibility to achieve with a high degree of success.

https://www.dpreview.com/news/247931032 ... n-and-more