What Does the Future of Photography Hold?

Technology advances rapidly, and photography is a prime example. Cameras themselves are only about 200 years old. In that time, we have come from capturing tiny grainy black and white negatives to enormous gigapixel landscape photos capturing a wide dynamic range. This technology continues to move forward, and every year we see something new. Here's a list of a few things we could very well see within the next few years.

Light-Field Cameras

With the introduction of the Lytro consumer camera, we a saw a glimpse of the future: light-field photography. Without going into a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo, these cameras basically let you alter the focusing point of the photo after it's been taken. Say you accidentally focused on some photobomber in the background. No problem, just touch the person's face who you meant to focus on and, boom, that person is in focus and the photobomber is out of focus. The current problems plaguing the light-field camera include their low resolution and their incompatibility to be viewed on most websites. But who knows? Perhaps in the future we will all have light-field cameras.

Photo and Video Convergence

This one's been a long time coming. Since the release of the Nikon D90, the first DSLR with HD video capabilities, we have only progressed in our ability to take high definition videos with our still cameras. Slowly, but surely, the two seem to be converging. Filmmakers are now using DSLRs to record movies and TV shows. We now have 4K video capability which is essentially capturing videos at 8 megapixels per frame meaning you could pull a decent photo out of the video. Soon we may not have to worry about capturing that perfect moment as all we'll need to do is flick through the frames in our video and pick the right one.

Smart Cameras

With all the advancements in smart phones, how long do you think it will take before these abilities are incorporated into cameras? What if you had a camera that could take a photo when you said, “shoot”? This would eliminate the use of shutter release cables and remotes. Or imagine if your camera had active wi-fi, allowing you to post photos instantly from your LCD screen. We've already seen something like this with the Eye-fi SD cards. How far of stretch is it to add this into the camera itself? Come to think of it, if a camera had an internet connection, the could be a lot of potential. A camera already has a screen, just like a cell phone. With wi-fi, you could access photography guides, forums, photo sharing sites, or even download apps to help you with your photography needs. And think about GPS capabilities. What if a smart camera could tell you when the sun was setting, the angle of the light, the best place to shoot, how much time you had left for magic hour? The possibilities are endless.

Written by Spencer Seastrom

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