The Future of Photography

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When you travel, what do you want to remember? Is it the precise colour and structure of places and people and things? Is it the temperature, the light, the emotions? What would you like your future self and your audience to experience when they see your photos? This is our topic this week - and we go through all the feels 😀.

Picks of the week: Cameralabs Show Tinroof Studio

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A...

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Chris and Jeremiah have more thoughts on ArtCraft. Also: What if a single frame from a 10-second loop in a gallery suddenly reveals a wonderful photo and why don't we use video instead of stills? The tension between stillness and motion. Chris and Jeremiah take this apart and talk about intent, and the quiet power of a click.

Picks of the week:

C: Room Tone

This is an...

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Chris and Jeremiah kick things off with a look at Artcraft, which seems determined to politely, and maybe not so politely, clone half of Adobe at alarming speed. They poke at Photoshop-, Lightroom-, and Premiere-like replacements, wonder whether “feature complete” means anything anymore, and muse about AI agents becoming the real interface to creative software. Then things pivot from future-shock to photo nostalgia with a surprisingly serious detour into the View-Master’s past, before wrapping on a tiny e-ink picture gadget that feels equal parts charmi...

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This week, we went properly analog. Chris reports from a weekend of film experiments: pushing, pulling, Rodinal, Caffenol, and the occasional deliberate exposure mistake. What happens when you shoot ISO 400 film at ISO 50? Sometimes, surprisingly good things.

Also in the mix: the Massive Dev Chart, a closer look at Rodinal, and why breaking the “rules” can be useful.

PICKS OF THE WEEK

C: iPhone 18 Pro aperture blades

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We recently spoke about printing at larger scales. But what to do with those prints? How do you display them? How do you draw attention? As with composition at the start of a photo, framing can play a significant role at the culmination too!

Picks of the week: Affordable Photo Frame Lhouette Instax Pal 2

This is an episode of The Future of Photography podcast with

Adrian Stock https://adrianstock.com/ (Home)

Jeremiah Chechik https://linktr.ee/tinroof...

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Once upon a time... and then 9 years later... we get to celebrate our 400th TFOP show. Thank you hugely to all of you who have travelled with us on any part of that journey! We've indulged in a little reflection on how things have changed - but we don't forget to look forward because, after all, we are The Future of Photography 😀.

Picks of the week:

Cameras in High Speed

Madison Flower

iPhone

This is an...

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Long-term projects reveal changes we otherwise miss. Inspired by astronaut Don Pettit’s orbital before-and-after views of cities trading orange sodium glow for white LEDs, we explore what has changed in photography—from light, streets, and travel to cameras, sharing, privacy, and trust. Chris also reflects on returning to Nepal: when revisiting a place is a privilege.

Picks of the Week

C: Toothbrush Street Photography

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There have been a few announcements recently and a few decisions to take. So it's time to discuss new iphones, the OM System Pen, Adrian's annual choice of an editing tool subscription and more!

Picks of the week:

VLT MOONS instrument

Geoguessr

This is an episode of The Future of Photography podcast with

Adrian Stock @[email protected] (Mastodon) @Ade968 (Twitter) https://adrianstock.com/ (Home)

Jeremiah Chechik https://linktr.ee/tinroof_studios

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We all love a print. But something magical happens when you print big. Or BIG. Or BIIIIIGGGG!

Picks of the week: Polarpro Light Leak lens Trail camera

This is an episode of The Future of Photography podcast with

Adrian Stock https://adrianstock.com/ (Home)

Jeremiah Chechik https://linktr.ee/tinroof_studios (Card)

Chris Marquardt @[email protected] (Mastodon) @chrismarquardt (Twitter) https://chrismarquardt.com/ (Home)

All episodes at https://thefutureofphotography.com, All videos at...

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Chris and Jeremiah are back. This episode rummages through the photographic junk drawer to sort the genuinely useful from the embarrassingly optimistic, with detours through lens caps, hotshoe covers, tabletop tripods, ancient memory cards, dead drones, intervalometers, the gloriously ill-fated Lytro, impulse-bought thermal printers, and one very specific Olympus bird-tracking gadget that sounds cooler than it apparently is in real life. Along the way they poke at Kickstarter temptation, the romance of gear that promises to change everything, and why some gadgets earn permanent residence...

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We are all familiar with how focal lengths change angle of view. And the relative size of objects from front to back. But now we have lots of choices around how to achieve a "focal length". There are 60MP sensors that we can crop into, vlogging cameras with 2 sensors and lenses like our phones, AI that expands your image, other AI that can resize it... the list goes on.

So what do we think about today when we choose which camera and lens...

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Chris and Jeremiah hold the fort while Adrian is still away, and things get only mildly apocalyptic: a surprise Google Earth feature briefly let people generate fake satellite imagery, prompting a lively chat about whether photography’s last “trust me, I was there” refuge has now joined the AI slop era. Along the way they poke at truth, metadata, satellites, politics, and why maybe the unexamined photo is the one truly in trouble—before lightening the mood with a slick Obsbot camera and a camera battery...

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394 State of the Industry

Jeremiah joins Chris while Adrian is away, and the conversation starts with the 2026 State of the Photography Industry report. They dig into how photographers are actually using AI right now: less as a replacement for creative vision, and more as a partner for administration, organization, writing, and workflow. From commercial pressure and tightening budgets to the enduring value of real photographic experience, they explore where AI fits, where it threatens, and where human intent still matters most. Chris also...

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394 State of the Industry

Jeremiah joins Chris while Adrian is away, and the conversation starts with the 2026 State of the Photography Industry report. They dig into how photographers are actually using AI right now: less as a replacement for creative vision, and more as a partner for administration, organization, writing, and workflow. From commercial pressure and tightening budgets to the enduring value of real photographic experience, they explore where AI fits, where it threatens, and where human intent still matters most. Chris also...

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Chris and Jeremiah roam through a lively, imaging-focused news episode packed with big ideas, surprising tech, and a few delightfully odd turns. From the awe-inspiring to the playful, this conversation teases how pictures, motion, and storytelling keep evolving in unexpected ways.

Cosmic Cinema: Vera C. Rubin Observatory Officially Begins Capturing AI and Imaging: Vesuvius Challenge Success Kickstarter: Beni: Camera Robot or Pet?

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Adrian Stock @[email protected] (Mastodon) ...

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At 105°F, photography gets weird in the best possible way. We talk museums, heat-wave film development, the lure of shooting wide open, why your archive might know you better than you do, and how AI is helping read ancient scrolls that nobody has opened in 2,000 years.

Picks of the week:

This is an episode of The Future of Photography podcast with

Adrian Stock @[email protected] (Mastodon) @Ade968 (T...

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This week we learn that Chris' favourite map projection is Winkel Tripel and that Ade prefers an actual globe. How did we get to that? Well, we started with WWDC 2026 announcements about features for photographers - so we promise there is definitely photography content in this weeks' show!

Picks of the week: 2 billion FPS Terrible Maps

This is an episode of The Future of Photography podcast with

Adrian Stock @[email protected] (Mastodon) @Ade968 (Twitter) https://adrianstock.com/ (Home)<...

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Want a new photo superpower? How about something with a low barrier to entry, zero cost, quick to inspire and create and a whole lot of fun? Enter Dirty Little Zine by Rick Vega.

Picks of the week: Dirty Little Zine Plane against the sun by Andrew McCarthy Pam Connolly

This is an episode of The Future of Photography podcast with

Adrian Stock @[email protected] (Mastodon) @Ade968 (Twitter) https://adrianstock.com/ (Home)

Jeremiah Chechik https://linktr...

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shownotes

This is an episode of The Future of Photography podcast with

Adrian Stock @[email protected] (Mastodon) @Ade968 (Twitter) https://adrianstock.com/ (Home)

Jeremiah Chechik https://linktr.ee/tinroof_studios

Chris Marquardt @[email protected] (Mastodon) @chrismarquardt (Twitter) https://chrismarquardt.com/ (Home)

All episodes at https://thefutureofphotography.com, All videos at https://tfttf.com/tfopvideo

Find us at Discord: https://tfttf.com/jointfop, Web: https://thefutureofphotography.com, Twitter: https://twitter.com/tfopnow...

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What is a pure photograph? Yes, we have asked this question before and maybe it's a matter of language as much as anything else. But we now have the ability to generate images so photo-realistic that maybe the only distinction left is the linguistic one.

Picks of the week: DANGER: Hermes Agent Paul Nicklen

This is an episode of The Future of Photography podcast with

Adrian Stock https://adrianstock.com/ (Home)

Jeremiah Chechik https://linktr.ee/tinroof...

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When you are working on a series of images, how you present them is a crucial element of the process. What order? How published? How set out? Is there a text narrative? And if you want to allow your viewers to dive deeper where their interest is sparked, how is that achieved? Well, Chris has built a novel way to do this, which we explore today!

Picks of the week: Dazz Cam Casio A168 Over Journal

This is an episode of...

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There are a bunch of new opportunities to distribute photos emerging. Well, maybe they have been there before but new ways of working with images and software are bringing them into view. For a few years now, Adrian has shared work on a paid Squarespace website. But here is a free option on GitHub that can be whatever you want it to be! What other options exist out there for us to publish our work?

Picks of the week: You have never seen...

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August 2, 2026 is when the EU AI Act transparency obligations kick in. The C2PA standard is spreading fast across camera bodies and some software. This week sees the launch of two major product upgrades for photographers: Adobe Firefly AI Assistant and Nik Collection 9. One of these ships with the ability to sign exports, the other does not.

So we have new types and increasing numbers of assistants in our workflows and new attempts to help us authenticate our work. How will it all...

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Occasionally it's fun to "react" to some click bait. We wouldn't want to do that all the time of course - we respect you all far too much for that! But this little piece from fstoppers caught our eye and yielded some thoughtful discussion.

Picks of the week: GoPro MISSION 1 The City Unseen by Daniel Sackheim

This is an episode of The Future of Photography podcast with

Adrian Stock https://adrianstock.com/ (Home)

Jeremiah Chechik https://linktr...

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A possible step change this week in how we think of the economics of editing photos. Blackmagic Design launched Davinci Resolve 21 with a big new addition - editing of photos including raw files. And it's free! Or at least free for exports up to 10-12MP.

So what happens when you have some really powerful free tools and then personal software you build through agentic development? What does this do to the economics of photo editing? And this agentic stuff is real. Adrian...

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Have we reached the tipping point? The point where AI for photographers and our workflows is now more the norm than the exception? VSCO recently published an article and full report with some interesting and insightful statistics about how photographers use AI. Let's dive in 🤿.

Picks of the week: Project Hail Mary Artemis II photos: Colossal | NASA

This is an episode of The Future of Photography podcast with

Adrian Stock https://adrianstock.com/ (Home)

Jeremiah Chechik https://lin...

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Hands up who's rugged, ready for anything, an explorer and adventurer. What are your top tips for tools and packing and photography gear on your travels? With the TFOP team having traveled recently, especially Jeremiah, we're here to share our hard-earned experience. Make sure you take a shower cap and electric gloves. But don't ever take a hiking pole that doubles as a monopod.

Picks of the week:

DNG is now an ISO standard - https://www.cined.com/dng-is-now-an-international-iso-standard-what-it-means-for-filmmakers-and-raw-workflows/

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How good is your kit? Well, probably it's excellent. Even if it is not the current generation and not top of the range. This week we discuss the pros and cons of having top of the range kit for cameras, lenses, computers and more.

Picks of the week: Cleaning Shoes - Video editing before AI Irwin Workshop Simple 90

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What's your range? 5 stops? 12 stops? 25 stops? In a follow up to our conversation a few weeks ago about LOFIC sensors, it's time to consider the creative opportunities that very high dynamic range in our cameras might bring. What doors does this technology open for photography? Are there any unintended consequences? Are there stars in London at night?

Picks of the week: DIY: Digital Aperture Albert Watson

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Every time has it's aesthetic, its 'look' - and every 'classic look' was once a technical limitation that people learned to love or hate. Today we can create pristine imagery and yet, for some of us, that lacks something. Which is worth discussing!

Picks of the week: 10 Stops IBIS Now Possible Simple Asset Manager with 1970s slide viewer Hans P. Kraus Jr. gallery

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What if you could fix that little niggly tool you didn't like in your photo editor? Or maybe there is a tool you would love to have but don't? Hang on though, you pay money for those tools - what if they were free? And fully customised to your workflow. And only had the things you need and none of the things you didn't. And the UI was Goldilocks "juuusst right."

These sorts of things might be possible if you spend just a...

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What if your smartphone sensor could capture a genuine 20 stops? This is the promise of LOFIC (Lateral Overflow Integration Capacitor) technology which made the press last year but could come to market in 2026.

Could we see phones at the back end of the year released with 200MP 16-stop sensors? And what do we do with all that extra light?

Picks of the week: Smartphone cameras. Example: Aurora. WUBEN G5 flashlight

This is an episode of The Future of Photography...

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Our creative endeavours are intensely personal. Luckily then, we have access to a vast array of tools, many of which are themselves almost infinitely configurable. So how do we manage that? How do we get the best out of our tools to support our creative vision without being blown away by the choices? Which options allow our creative experimentation to flourish and which should we set and forget?

Picks of the week: Why Tech Needs Personalization by Om Malik Apple Creator Studio

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Hands up who experiences some friction in getting going on a photo project? 🙋🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️ Yep, thought so. So consider today’s episode a little grease in the machinery, helping us all to reduce the friction, get going on stuff, and not be too precious about where it takes us!

Picks of the week: Example Glue Roller A3 Sketchbook Canon Selphy printers Fujifilm Instax Mini Evo Cinema

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Happy New Year! Do you have plans? Goals? Expectations? Or are you perhaps easing in gently, enjoying the seasonal break and hoping the feeling lasts long into the new year? What does you photography future look like for 2026? Time for the TFOP team to share some thoughts and ideas.

Picks of the week: Drawing Camera Project Don’t Burn Anyone At The Stake Today by Naomi Alderman OVER Journal

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...

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The Wikipedia definition of a portrait is 125 words long. As you read it, it weirdly seems to get narrower rather than explaining multiple aspects of what portraiture means. So we take some time this week to share our thoughts and ideas on portraiture, what it means to us, to the subjects and to the viewer.

We share some of our own portraits which you can see here in our TFOP album.

We also answer the critical question of whether or not...

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When was the last time a child really said "are we nearly there yet" on a long car journey? It's a cliche of course but it's got to be happening way less often now we have screens and streaming with instant access to the whole internet. But being bored is actually quite important. It helps us relax, it makes room for new thoughts and it can lead to big jumps in understanding, fantastic new ideas and spikes in creativity. Let's work this through!

...

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This week we fearlessly take on one of the toughest subjects in photography - style! Do you craft your style? Can you chase it? Piece it together from emulating your heroes? And does it take 10 years or 10,000 hours? Or was it there all along if you only knew where to look?

Picks of the week: Mouse Camera Racing Unfiltered by Jamey Price Northwest Passage by Jeremiah Chechik

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This week, Chris shared a report on a company outputting 3,000 podcasts a week with no human in the loop at all apart from sample-based QA. So we ask what is the acceptable use policy for AI at each stage of a photo/video production?

Picks of the week: Fragments by Tomazs Trzebiatowski Paris Photo

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Jeremiah Chechik https://linktr.ee/tinroof...

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We often think of photo editing as that bit we do on computers - or phones or in the darkroom - at a point in time after we capture a photo. But actually the whole process of making photographic images includes editing. From what camera we pick up, what we choose to look for and how we compose, right through to printing, publishing and sharing, there are editing decisions everywhere.

So, inspired by this fstoppers article, it's time to talk about all the...