Exciting new trends in digital photography

In recent years more and more consumers choose to shoot photos and videos with their smartphones instead of buying a digital camera. The reasons are that smartphones offer more intelligent tools while taking pictures or filming videos, they allow the user to edit the photos on the same device straight away, and they enable the user to share their photos and videos instantly via the web. In short: the convenience of shooting with smartphones outweighs the image quality achieved by larger digital cameras. However, this year – in 2022 – we finally see major leaps in camera technology that seem to close this convenience gap. Digital cameras are getting smarter and gaining popularity again. In this article, we will outline some of the most striking new features.

Subject-aware Autofocus

Large-sensor digital cameras have finally caught up with smartphones in terms of identifying and tracking subjects in front of the lens. All major camera brands now offer models which are able to track human eyeballs (even when moving about), animals, birds, and vehicles. With the autofocus feature enabled it is now difficult to get a photo that is not in focus. Focus-critical photography applications such as corporate headshot photography benefit the most from this new feature. Gone are the days in which a certain amount of shots from a shoot would be unusable due to soft inadequate focus.

Face and smile detection

Imagine having a little helper inside your camera who intelligently understands what’s happening in front of the lens. The latest generation of cameras is now able to identify people and even rank them if needed. At weddings, the photographer can ‘tell’ the camera who the bride and groom are and the camera will prioritise them when during the wedding day. This is a feature for which the best wedding photographers have been waiting. Having such a reliable autofocus system working alongside the photographers is very liberating and inspiring. 

Intelligent photo culling

Selecting the best images can be a long and tiring process. Business headshot photographers for example can shoot more than a thousand portraits in a single day. Selecting the best ones takes a lot of time, often as much as several hours. However, recently, different image-culling software solutions have entered the market. All of them use AI to compare images and select the ones with the best posture, smile, and facial expression. With the help of such software, image culling has been shortened to just a few clicks. This means photographers can spend more time shooting and less time in post-production.

Coming up: AI video editing

With so many great and intelligent features added to still photography, it is only a matter of time until AI algorithms will be implemented in video editing as well. Event Live Streamers for example often have to deliver a highlight video shortly after the event. If automated video editing software will be as good as automated image software, we will see highlight videos being published very shortly after the event has finished.