The Future of Photography
Ricardo J. MottaPalo Alto, CA
1
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
View from the Window at Le GrasNiépce 1826
Original
2
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
View from the Window at Le GrasNiépce 1826
Original
Kodak Research Laboratory 1952
3
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
View from the Window at Le GrasNiépce 1826
Helmut Gernsheim Version
Original
Kodak Research Laboratory 1952
4
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
View from the Window at Le GrasNiépce 1826
Helmut Gernsheim Version
Original
Kodak Research Laboratory 1952
5
Helmut Gernsheim Version
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
View from the Window at Le GrasNiépce 1826
Helmut Gernsheim Version
Paul Marillier Model
Original
Kodak Research Laboratory 1952
6
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
View from the Window at Le GrasNiépce 1826
Helmut Gernsheim Version
Paul Marillier Model
Original
Kodak Research Laboratory 1952
7
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Outline
• The Last 15 Years
• The State of Digital Photography
Mature Functions
Emerging Functions
• Post-Digital Photography
8
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
US Camera Sales
SLR6%
Point and Shoot74%
Instant7%
11013%
1994
9
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
US Camera Sales
SLR6%
Point and Shoot74%
Instant7%
11013%
1994
Film PS6%
SLR10%
Point and Shoot84%
2007
10PMAI 2009 Data
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Transition Film to Digital
PMAI 2009 DataExcludes Camera Phones and Single Use Cameras
0
7.5
15.0
22.5
30.0
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
US Camera Sales
Mill
ions
Film Digital
11
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
0
250
500
750
1000
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
US Film Sales
Mill
ions
Transition Film to Digital
PMAI 2009 Data
Film Rolls Single-Use Cameras
12
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Transition Film to Digital
PMAI 2009 Data
0
7.5
15.0
22.5
30.0
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
US Camera Sales
Mill
ions
Film Digital
13
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Why Digital Photo Won
• Instantaneous Feedback
• Automatic Operation
• Non-sequential Operation
• Sharing and Distribution
• Compact cameras
• Low Cost
• Good quality
• Printing and Display
14
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2009
Now What?
15
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Why do we Photograph?
• To document and preserve
• To share and communicate
• To understand, analyze
• To enjoy the craft and technology
• For social motivations
• To create
16
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2009
My Thesis
Many of the motivations that leads us to photograph will be better served by new and
different technology
In the long term, photography as we know today will continue to exist just as a visual art
Some of the first steps in that direction are observable now
17
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
The End of the Existing Roadmap Mature Technologies
• Printing
• Resolution
• Compression
• Camera DSP
• Auto-Exposure
• Storage
18
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Mature Technologies
• Printing
• Resolution
• Compression
• Camera DSP
• Auto-Exposure
• Storage
19
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Photo Printing is Decreasing
0
7.5
15.0
22.5
30.0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
US Consumer Photo Printing
Bill
ions
of P
rints
AgX Photo Prints Digital Home Digital Retail
PMAI 2009 Data
20
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Photo Printing is Decreasing
0
7.5
15.0
22.5
30.0
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
US Consumer Photo Printing
Bill
ions
of P
rints
AgX Photo Prints Digital Home Digital Retail
PMAI 2009 Data
“When you print, the information leaksout of the computer eco-system ...”
Esther Dysontalking at HPLabs in 1993
21
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Mature Technologies
• Printing
• Resolution
• Compression
• Camera DSP
• Auto-Exposure
• Storage
22
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Ever Increasing Pixel Density
Feb 18, 2009
0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
1999 2000 2001 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2007 2008 2009
Canon PowerShot/IXUS Line
Pix
el D
ensi
ty (M
P/c
m2)
Date Announced
Source data: dpreview.com
23
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Limits to Resolution
• Diffraction Limit
• Lens Cost
• Motion and Blur
• SNR
• Manufacturing Precision
• Operating Precision (AF)
• Array Size
• Dynamic Range
• Flare
• Artifacts
24
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Evolution of Canon G Line
0
10
20
30
40
2000 2001 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2007 2008 2009
Canon G Series Pixel Density
MP
/cm
2
Year
Source data: dpreview.com
25
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Mature Technologies
• Printing
• Resolution
• Compression
• Camera DSP
• Image Pipeline/AE
• Storage
26
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
The Age of the Camera Phone
27
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Why Camera Phones?
• Quality approaching DSC
Low res OK - printing not required
Sensitivity high enough for most situations
• Large display for review and sharing
• Well integrated with metadata (GPS, date time, voice anotations)
• Well integrated with communications
• Small, low cost, always available
28
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Current Image Quality Limitations for Camera Phones
• Low SNR and Dynamic Range
Small well capacity makes exposure critical
• Low quality Optics and limited AF
High F#, aberrations, vignetting, cross talk, flare
• Rolling exposure
Motion and lighting artifacts, no regular flash
• Poor IR filtering
Hot mirror causes IR contamination and purple spot
29
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Poor IR Filtering
http://pocketnow.com/thought/clarification-the-pink-spot-syndrome
30
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Emerging Functionality
• Metadata
• Smart Light
• Raw/Post Workflow
• Augmented Reality
• High Speed
• Advanced CMOS Sensors
• Photo/Video Convergence
• Robotic Capture
• Total Recall
• Motion Flow Computing
• Browsing and Searching
• DIY Cameras
• HDR
• 3D Capture
• Stereo and range
• Reflectance Field Capture
• Plenoptic Capture
• Biometrics
• Machine Vision
• Segmentation and matting
• Compositing
• Image Based Rendering
• Photo-Sharing
• Computational Photography
• Compressive Sensing
31
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Emerging Functionality
• Capture all of reality - decide what to see and how to render it later
HDR
Smart Light
Photo/Video Convergence
Reflectance Field Capture
Plenoptic Capture
Total Recall
Robotic Capture
32
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
HDR Video Capture
• Pixim built the first video rate HDR capture CMOS sensor and DSP
• Per pixel ADC allows multiple reads with a single reset
• On-board memory allows very high frame rate
• Image is read hundreds of times during each video frame exposure
• Only the highest SNR data is saved to memory
33
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Smart Light• Spatial and/or temporal modulation
of the light enables many new modes of capture, some examples:
Flashes from multiple angles allow better image segmentation and picture enhancement (Raskar, et al, SIGGRAPH 2004)
Combining micro-projectors with structured light enables 3D capture
Pulsing LED illumination on-off with fast capture allows subtraction of the ambient light illumination
Pulsing the LED illumination at random intervals allows motion deblurring (Raskar, et al, SIGGRAPH 2006)
……
34
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
• Key factors driving the convergence:
CMOS sensors do not require mechanical shutter
Solid state storage instead of tape
Increases in bandwidth for RAM, DSP and flash memory
• Choice between stream low res and high res stills disappears with semiconductor progress
• Difference may remain on the industrial design and usage
Convergence Video-Photo
looked like he was keyed.Shooting with still lenses, I was
seeing about 5! stops below key andabout 3! stops over. When we went tothe Primos, the latitude increased byabout 1! stops in both directions. Afterseeing the Primo glass combined with the5D’s sensor, we’ve decided to shoot theremainder of Easy Day — even thesequences we’d planned to shoot with35mm — with a combination of the 5Dand 7D.
Bandito Brothers is the Los Ange-les-based production company I’veworked with on all of these 5D projects. Ilike to think of the company as a one-stopshop from prep through post, and itsmodus operandi is in keeping with thesmall-footprint mentality the 5D encour-ages. Everyone wears multiple hats on aBandito production, and the company’sfacility gathers everything you need tomake a movie under one roof: three edit-ing bays, an Inferno bay, a screeningtheater, a full color-timing suite, a cafete-ria, a conference room, and “productionoffices” set up in army tents.
We’ve recently been working onwhat we call the “sizzle reel” for The OnlyEasy Day Was Yesterday, an extendedtrailer that the producers can show topotential distributors. Honestly, every timeI watch it, I well up because of what we’vebeen through to get to this point. The 5Dand 7D are at the cutting edge, andthey’ve thrown me plenty of curveballs,but I’m convinced that riding this wavewill take us into whatever the future para-digm of moviemaking might be. Fallingoff the board is part of the ride. We getback up and keep going. We embrace thecameras’ quirks, and we push the camerasto be better, even as they push us.
To see footage shot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, visit www.hurlbutvisuals.com. !
Top andmiddle:
Working withPanavision
Hollywood,Hurlbut has
taken tomounting
Primo primesand zooms on
the camera.“I’m sure this
is a glimpseof the
future ofmoviemaking,
when we’llliterally
mount a chipon the back
of a high-quality
motion-picture lens,”
he writes.Bottom:
Hurlbut andcamera
assistant MikeSvitak (left)
set up a shotfor a U.S.
Navyrecruitment
video.
92 January 2010 American Cinematographer
35
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Light Field Capture
• Array of cameras can do much more than any element
Stereo or 3D from parallax
HDR from multiple exposures across sensors
High speed from exposure phase
Better color and multispectral by having different channel per sensor
Higher resolution by stitching or super-resolution methods
Selective focus and FOV
Higher resolution by overcoming diffraction limit of single lens
• Several different configurations have been proposed
Behind the in blocks (Keith Fife at Stanford)
Behind the lens with microlenses (Ren Ng, Stanford), or apertures (Adelson and Wang, MIT)
In parallel (Levoy et al, Stanford)
36
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Reflectance Field Capture• For a given scene, the
hemisphere of ambient illumination is captured in HDR
• Real objects are captured with multiple lights at high speed so that any complex illumination can be synthesized by a combination of base images
• Real and artificial geometry can be inserted into any scene by this method
http://www.debevec.org/
37
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2009
Photo Events
• Weddings
• Birthdays
• Yearbooks
• Family Reunions
• Performing Arts
• Sports/Team
• Cruise Ships
• High School Proms
• Nursery/Day Care
• Graduations
• Church Events
• Tourism
• Nature
38
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Total Recall
• Sense-Cam
Work at Microsoft Research originated by Gordon Bell
Capture 100% of ones daily life
Use to aid memory or as a form of note taking
• Alternative camera from Johan Frossen
39
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Robotic Capture
• Most elements are already in place
Sony Party-shot - Automatic Photographer
GigaPan Epic imager
Tessera FotoNation face recognition for cameras and cell phones
Existing CCTV equipment combined with existing tracking software
• Visit London and ask for the tapes where you appear as a trip memento
40
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2010
Why do we Photograph?
• To document and preserve
• To share and communicate
• To understand, analyze
• To enjoy the craft and technology
• For social motivations
• To create
41
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ricardo J. Motta - The Future of Photography - EI 2009
Plenoptic Capture
(Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
42
Thursday, February 25, 2010