Computational Photography: How our Smartphones are Beating the Big Cameras
We are entering a new era in photography, one in which “lowly” smartphones are taking pictures that look as good as if you had shot in Raw and post-processed. Sure, nothing beats a big camera for image quality, resolution, and control, but for everyday use normal people are getting great results without any knowledge and without spending time at the computer. What tricks are the smartphone manufacturers using that the big camera companies aren’t? How do they get great results in Night View mode without needing a tripod? Why do they create a 3D map of the image in the phone? And how quickly might your traditional big camera become obsolete? In this talk, Gary explains the clever secrets being employed behind the scenes and offers impressive examples demonstrating that the quality gap between smartphones and traditional cameras continues to shrink.
(This talk was originally commissioned by the Royal Photographic Society in London.)
Gary’s best-known works are the 1988 “Peace Child in Latvia,” a photojournalistic documentary about a historic exchange between Soviet and American high-school student back in the days of the cold war, his 2003 China Blog about his adventures teaching English in China, and his 2018 tour in Vietnam where he documented the humanitarian work of Hearts for Hue, helping the poorest neglected citizens of this former capital care for themselves. Gary keeps busy now with photo assignments, image licensing, writing books, and acting as a distributor for a most unique musical instrument called a Xaphoon. In his spare time, (Ha!) he is traveling the world offering highly-acclaimed photography seminars to any photo club that is interested. Gary@FriedmanArchives.com
