The result is reminiscent of lenticular printing, a technique sometimes used on collectible cups, Cracker Jack prizes, and theater teaser poster to give a static image the appearance of motion. Unfortunately, like lenticular designs Lytro's perspective shift wears out its novelty quickly. Lenticular images are primarily used as visual piques; an apparently static image seeming to move as a viewer passes by a poster or turns a cup or a card in her hands. They are often used in advertisement or cover images because they help set an image in visual relief against the background noise of a world full of images.bench grinder But as a general photographic application, perspective shift feels precious, like multiple-exposure and high dynamic range (HDR) imaging. Lytro's living filters follow suit. they aren't much more than the most rudimentary Photoshop filters applied to the light field data,ipad case with keyboard although the ability to blend different filters at different focal points offers some novelty (try the shot below for an example). The company may have felt a need to compete with Instagram and its ilk in the filterwars,iphone battery case but the addition feels like a mismatch; a serious technological and critical intervention in the history of photography covered in me-too hipster sprinkles.
While the Lytro software isn't currently capable of greater feats, Ng's dissertation discusses at least two other uses of light field photography proven in the research lab. The first is just an implication of the already-released perspective shift feature.Tablet accessories manufacturers Given that the microlens array can see the same scene from different perspectives, light field data can be used to create a 3D stereogram from a single exposure.The second use, adjustable depth of field, is more complex. Given that the microlens array is capable of capturing all possible planes of focus within the dark chamber light field, computational blending can allow a virtual darkroom program to combine different depths of fields at different points in an image, for example, increasing the depth of field in the background while also retaining a high depth of field in the foreground for an image entirely in focus even if exposed at a large aperture.
The computational effort and custom input required to accomplish this feat probably relegates it to a the farther future,aluminum profile perhaps as a kind of Photoshop depth of field "brush" capable of increasing and decreasing focus depth like the dodge and burn tools can do with exposure.Lytro's ability to update its software has pros and cons for the budding light field photographer. For one part, it's refreshing to find a Silicon Valley company devoted to a truly novel hardware and software solution that suggests actual improvements over time, rather than just another me-too social network app with photo filters. But for another part, Lytro's software puts a lot of control in the hands of Lytro, Inc., and a lot less control in the hands of the photographer.