View a small sample of 16K video shot in Ultra Panavision 70 by filmmaker and StormStock founder Martin Lisius.
Martin told PAN: “Cropping, zooming, and panning is no problem with this enormous amount of resolution depth.”
• How did he do it? He shot with two 50-megapixel cameras and stitched the left and right frames to make one wide screen 16K image.
• Is it easy to do? No, it requires almost a day to stitch and render one shot, and a powerful external cooling fan to keep the computer processors from melting. It’s not run-and-gun filmmaking. It’s an art form that requires the dedication and patience of a Jedi knight.
Dreamstime announced this week the addition of new AI-powered language versions to the website —Czech, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Turkish, Indonesian, Danish, and Norwegian. These new additions bring them to 23 languages which should help increase their global reach and accessibility. – next up, Hebrew and Arabic.
They say: ‘With a stock photography collection of over 350 million files and millions of new items added monthly, Dreamstime manages a constantly growing dataset that requires fast, reliable daily metadata translation. The company upgraded its AI-powered language technologies to accelerate translation and improve accuracy, while a team of human translators continues to refine all static content to ensure linguistic and cultural precision.’
‘In addition to the new languages, Dreamstime already uses proprietary technology to deliver culturally tailored results based on a user’s location, so the same search can produce different visuals in North America and India. The new language versions further enhance search results through AI-driven tools that capture cultural nuance. For instance, the Romanian word “dor,” which conveys a deep sense of longing, yields relevant results despite its seeming untranslatability.’
Search and find here
Great to hear the ‘The Moment of Truth’ – directed by @davidbaksh and featuring Topfoto – was selected for the magnificent @britishshorts film festival in Berlin! – film was screened with several other excellent British short documentaries on Jan 27th at the legendary Sputnik Kino cinema.
….Also – Topfoto Boss Flora Smith was invited to speak at the National Portrait Gallery’s first staff Research Seminar, on the subject of their collective visual history in a time of Generative AI.
Flora spoke about Topfoto’s approach and concerns around authenticity/trust, and presented ideas on the current socio-technical challenges faced by the creative industries.
Around 35 people attended from a wide range of roles all over the museum – there was a lively discussion at the end and a sense that everyone had many more questions and insights they would have loved to have spent time wrestling with!
Flora also showed the group The Moment of Truth, with David Baksh and Executive Producer Anna Thomson joining the event, making it extra special.
Here’s a great cheer up away from the February skies – Photo library Robert Harding have put together a very colourful edit from the collection:
‘Jazz-filled streets, historic neighbourhoods and vibrant celebrations — New Orleans is a city like no other. This stock photography collection captures its culture, character and unmistakable atmosphere.’
Bridgeman Images are now representing Roy Export S.A.S. and the Chaplin Office for the global licensing of images of the cinema icon Charlie Chaplin and his films – and they’ve started uploading them here.
Also – the have library announced the winners of this year’s Book Cover Awards .. ‘and they’ve set a new standard for what a book can be before you even open the first page.’ View the winners here.