bwuphoto.com

Adobe has updated Photoshop to incorporate its Firefly creative generative AI technology via a new Generative Fill tool, allowing users to add, extend or remove content from their images with simple text prompts.

The integration of the Firefly-powered Generative Fill tool will automatically match the perspective, lighting and style of your images, promising to speed up your workflow. What’s more, Generative Fill edits in a non-destructive way, creating new content in ‘generative layers’ that allow you to reverse the edits without damaging your original image.

Adobe says the new generative AI tool in Photoshop will enable users to explore more creative possibilities and test concepts.

Firefly is trained on Adobe Stock’s hundreds of millions of high-res licensed images, which are safe for commercial use and won’t infringe on other people’s intellectual property.

Photoshop’s new AI Generative Fill tool is available in the desktop beta app today and will be generally available in the second half of 2023. Generative Fill is also available today as a module within the Firefly beta app.

The last 12 months were again difficult for the camera industry as it contended with the various fallout effects of the Covid-19 pandemic – particularly parts and staff shortages that resulted in serious supply chain issues for most manufacturers. In many ways then, the winners in this year’s TIPA World Awards – especially those who collected multiple accolades – are an indication of who coped best with the circumstances and were still able to come up with worthy products.

As we’ve noted on a number of occasions recently, the supply chain issues saw a shift more towards higher-end cameras which are not only important flag bearers for a brand, but also deliver greater profits. The list of heavy-hitter mirrorless cameras that arrived during the period of eligibility for this year’s TIPA World Awards is a long one – Canon EOS R7 and EOS R6 Mark II, Fujifilm X-H2 and X-H2S, plus the X-T5, Sony A7R V and Panasonic Lumix S5II. It wasn’t until Canon unveiled the EOS R50 and EOS R8 in early February that we saw a return to more affordability. 

Weddings are about precious, intimate moments, making memories, and creating laughter. A photo booth will involve guests and couples in a fun activity together. Having one doesn’t take much effort, but the photos and memories are for life. Here’s how to include a photo booth in the wedding.

Find a Quality Photo Booth

First, couples should start by obtaining a quality photo booth, one that is reliable with good quality photos. A booth should be easy to locate at the wedding and look inviting for guests; it can be made fun with a quirky theme, an amusing backdrop, and some stylish props.
Some booths provide a state of the art portrait studio lighting. The photos can be immediate polaroid or digital images available for download in high quality and watermark-free. Moreover, the photos can be put into a collage, a short video, or a social media post.

Consider Your Guests’ Preferences

One effective way to keep guests engaged is by actively involving them. Couples can create a poll or survey online to gather input from their guests, which will help to generate a range of exciting ideas to ease the decision-making process. The theme that receives the highest number of votes will be selected as the overall theme.

The possibilities for themes are limitless, such as a vintage glam theme with champagne glasses that provides numerous props for fun photo opportunities. Alternatively, a rustic country theme with cowboy hats, boots, a barrel, and hay in the background could be an excellent choice. Another option is to have guests and the newlyweds dress up as their favorite characters from an anime or manga series.

Make Sure to Accessorize Your Look

Once the couple has their theme picked out, creating a custom-like environment is a fun idea. Let’s say the poll landed on a seventies theme; guests can bring or pick between available hats—or perhaps frayed jeans for the gentlemen and a maxi dress for the ladies. Another fun idea is to include simple accessories like headbands and scarves, which are simple but stylish.

Do not forget about the symbolic significance of your rings. Your engagement ring represents the love and commitment that led to this special day, while the wedding band symbolizes your vows and the eternal bond you share. Remember to show your engagement ring and wedding band in a creative way.

The fan is a timeless accessory that evokes a sense of glamour and sophistication. Pairing it with a top hat and a masquerade mask is recommended for the ultimate presentation. Alternatively, drawing inspiration from celebrity styles and the Met Gala can create a stunning look.

Make Your Eyeglasses a Statement Piece

The choice of eyeglasses can significantly impact one’s appearance, for better or worse. However, eyeglasses can also be an attractive accessory. If a bride wears eyeglasses, she should embrace them and make them a main feature of her wedding look.

Choosing stylish eyeglasses that compliment her style and personality can create a unique and personal theme. By trying on different eyeglasses and coordinating makeup and attire, they can be accentuated and enhance the overall bridal look.

Instead of focusing on the lenses, embracing the frame of the glasses is recommended. Couples can even pick a single model for the photo booth session, which all guests could wear that differs from the reception look.

Arrange a Custom Photo Booth Backdrop

While many photo booths feature a simple background, like a solid light-colored hue or a scenic landscape, sticking with the norm is unnecessary. Couples can add creativity to their photo booth experience by designing a custom backdrop.

For example, a beach-themed backdrop featuring snorkeling masks can complement the props and create the illusion of guests and couples diving underwater. Alternatively, a backdrop that reflects a special occasion or a significant color palette can add a personal touch to the wedding festivities.

Make it Simple & Unique

Simple is elegant, and a few things can go a long way. After all, a photo booth is about capturing a moment in time that holds meaning—a memory for everyone who was there to look upon as time passed.

A simple distinct item can be a part of each photo, or if couples are pet owners, their furry friends can be the focal point of the photo session with a great photo bomb. A new trend is using a hashtag prop, for example, #alice’s-wedding, and carrying it during the photo, and then guests can go on Instagram to find the filter of Alice’s wedding and use it for their photos.

Lastly, a photo booth is about fun and memories to look back upon. Make sure it provides a high-quality photo with the right lighting and a fun guest-picked theme with some fashionable props, and start snapping those photos.

---

Related Articles:

I wouldn’t quite describe the V&A’s photography holdings as a hidden gem in our national collections, but they’re still surprisingly little known to many of us. Part of the problem is the museum’s eclecticism. But also it has never provided space equivalent to that given to sculpture, design, decorative arts, the Raphael Cartoons, and its other world-leading collections. Until now.

The Photography Centre expands the V&A’s photographic galleries from three to seven rooms – adding grand spaces that finally do justice to the riches it’s built up over 170 years. The necessity for the spaces is brought into sharp focus by the fact that even in these expanded displays, it includes just 600 of the – wait for it – 800,000 items in the museum’s photography collection.

The title of the selection in the first two rooms we encounter (which opened in the first phase of the project in 2018), is Energy: Sparks from the Collection – suitably dynamic yet vague enough to allow the curators to encompass a partial history of photography. Some of its big hitters are here, from Henry Fox Talbot and Roger Fenton, through Julia Margaret Cameron, to Eugéne Atget, on to Bernd and Hilla Becher.

© Provided by Evening Standard
Installation view of the completed Photography Centre at the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

There are some all-time-great photographs, like Cameron’s portrait of the scientist John Herschel, perhaps the finest example of her aim to record “the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man”, that she said was “almost the embodiment of a prayer”. I’ve seen this image probably hundreds of times but it never ceases to be tremendously moving, thanks to the intensity and fragility of Hershel’s gaze.

Then there’s Henri Cartier-Bresson’s Palermo, Sicily (1972), in which two children giddily push a wheel down the pavement as a hearse lurks in the road behind them. Again, this never doesn’t take one’s breath away. Sunil Janah, the great documenter of Indian independence, is represented by the extraordinary fusion of two negatives reflecting incendiary demonstrations in Calcutta in 1942.

But perhaps the most striking element of Energy is not the greatest hits, but the surprises. As Tate has built (very belatedly) its own impressive photography holdings, one tends to think we go there to find “art photography” in our national collections. But the V&A here confounds that view. I was delighted to see Jo Spence, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Gabriel Orozco and Lorna Simpson – artists among the photographic auteurs and photojournalists.

© Provided by Evening Standard
Big Bang by Brian Griffin, 1986 (© Victoria and Albert Museum)

And that emphasis on the bold and the creative, indeed on the explosion of the very meaning of photography, spills over into the new spaces. First, we’re hit by Jake Elwes’s video works using deepfake and artificial intelligence to create drag performances to tunes by Beyoncé and Bowie among others. Elwest alludes to the social and political biases inherent in AI technology in relation to non-normative identities. AI and photography is a hot topic; Elwes’s project will not be the last work to reflect on it here, I suspect.

Beyond that is a space dedicated to photography and books – unfinished when I saw it, but potentially an important spotlight on this crucial aspect of photographic art. Then, a truly global selection of new V&A acquisitions by contemporary artists, who push photography’s boundaries, while often unpacking its histories.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya connects photography and performance while Noemie Goudal expands its presence beyond the wall into sculptural space. Sammy Baloji explores the colonial and extractive practices inherent in historic anthropological photographs by Hans Himmelheber. And Gauri Gill’s remarkable sequence of images of dwellings made by farmers in Delhi protesting laws threatening their livelihoods, and Vasantha Yogananthan’s contemporary revisiting of the epic Sanskrit text the Rāmāyaṇa reflect their medium’s poetic potential, even when deriving from wildly distinct strategies.

© Provided by Evening Standard
Installation view (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

The argument is clear: photography has huge significance aesthetically and socially. It has never been more universal and diverse. And it needs these handsome new galleries to reflect that.

V&A, from May 25; vam.ac.uk

Register now for one of the Evening Standard’s newsletters. From a daily news briefing to Homes & Property insights, plus lifestyle, going out, offers and more. For the best stories in your inbox, click here.

Serif, has unveiled Affinity 2.1, a major update to its award-winning creative suite. This update introduces a range of new features and enhancements, promising an unparalleled workflow and user experience for photographers and designers.

Affinity 2.1 arrives as a major update six months after the launch of version 2, which included updated versions of Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher for Mac, Windows PC, and iPad.

With the arrival of version 2.1, Serif has added exciting new features and implemented hundreds of incremental improvements to enhance the usability of Affinity’s tools.

One of the standout features of Affinity 2.1 is its simultaneous application across all three products and platforms. Whether you’re using Mac, Windows PC, or iPad, the updated features are available seamlessly, ensuring you have access to the latest software version across all devices.

The enhancements found in Affinity 2.1 touch on various aspects of the creative process. These feature updates include improved guides, layers, assets, warping, strokes, text, brushes, and more. Additionally, Affinity Designer introduces a new Vector Flood Fill tool, while Affinity Publisher showcases the addition of Running Headers.

Ashley Hewson, CEO of Serif, emphasises the customer-centric approach that drives Affinity’s development. The updates in Affinity 2.1 were based on extensive feedback from the user community. Hewson acknowledges the invaluable contributions of Affinity users during the beta testing phase and expresses gratitude for their ongoing support.

Affinity offers three standalone products:

Affinity Photo for powerful photo editing,
Affinity Designer for intuitive vector graphic design
Affinity Publisher for efficient page layout.

The products can be purchased separately or as part of this cost-effective package.

Existing customers of Affinity V2 will receive the 2.1 updates for free. For new customers, the Mac or Windows PC versions of Affinity V2 can be purchased for a one-time payment of £67.99 each, while the iPad versions are available for £17.99 each. The Affinity Universal License, offering all three products on all platforms, is available for £159.99.

To learn more about the latest Affinity 2.1 update and explore the powerful features of Affinity’s creative suite, visit the official website at https://affinity.serif.com/.