How Much Technology Are You Willing To Accept When You Photograph?

Portion of a screenshot promo from the Arsenal homepage

This product showed up as am advertisement in my Instagram feed.  The product is called Arsenal.  Arsenal is a piece of software that you add to your phone and is accompanied by a piece of hardware that you attach to your camera's hotshoe then plug into your Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm or Sony camera.  Together they can control your camera and pretty much automate the entire photographic "taking" process.  Below, I've listed a number of its features and what it can do for you.  I find this software/hardware combination very impressive and quite amazing.  But is that what you want?

Exactly what does Arsenal do?  Here is what the company writes.

"Arsenal’s smart assistant AI suggests settings based on your subject and environment. It uses an advanced neural network to pick the optimal settings for any scene (using similar algorithms to those in self driving cars). Like any good assistant, it then lets you control the final shot.

Arsenal quickly examines the scene. It uses image recognition to identify environment and subject-specific needs (e.g. fast shutter for birds or camera vibration)

Arsenal then finds great settings by comparing the current scene with thousands of professional photos using a convolutional deep neural network.

Lastly, Arsenal optimizes settings based on 18 different factors, like hyperfocal distance, sensor dynamic range and lens transmission."

Wow!  Pretty sophisticated if it works as they say.  I've listed many of the product's features below.

I started thinking about all that Arsenal can potentially do for my photography.  I started thinking if products such as these are what I, or other photographers, really want?  I'm sure some do but others won't.  I think that whether or not you want to incorporate a product that can pretty much fully think for you and automate your photography is dependent upon what it is about your photography that brings you satisfaction.

Do you derive satisfaction from the entire image making process or is it only the final image that you desire and the way it is made makes no difference?  Or are you somewhere in between?  As for me, the process itself is as important and satisfying as is looking at my final images.  Finding, composing, thinking about the best way to capture a subject then editing my image file to reflect my vision is just as important as looking at the final image.  For others, I suspect they don't care much about how the image was made and only value the final photograph.  Others, predictably, will fall in between.

We now have a tremendous amount of technology and automation built into our digital cameras—even basic cameras and cameras in mobile phones.  In the future, there surely will be more features, more technology and more automation available in firmware and hardware.  Currently, I use some of the technology in my cameras but don't use other features available to me.  For example, I've reverted to mainly setting my camera in the "Manual" mode, use Auto ISO and then employ Exposure Compensation to fine tune my exposures.  Manual mode gives me better control.  That is a decision I made, not the camera.  I'm not a purist or Luddite and will use a feature if I deem it necessary to make a certain image, but that decision is based upon my thinking about what it will take to make the image and not just setting everything in the camera on automatic.  In other words, I don't mind using technology in a conscious manner as part of the problem solving process.

If this product interests you and you want to get more, direct information, and better understand Arsenal you can find the Arsenal site here.  Also, I need to mention that I have no connection to, nor financial interest in, this company, money raising campaign nor this product.  I am not endorsing this technology and am only using it as reference when trying better to understand how much technology is too much when we photograph.

Here are some of the marketing statements directly from the website:

"CAPTURE AMAZING PHOTOS 

Unlock the full potential of your DSLR or mirrorless camera. Arsenal’s ultralight hardware uses state of the art AI to take better photos in any condition. 

TAKE FULL WIRELESS CONTROL 

Arsenal lets you control your camera from up to 100 feet away. Use the smart assistant AI, set the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, see a live preview, or trigger the shutter from your smartphone.

NEVER MISS THE PERFECT SHOT

With a single tap, you can activate Arsenal’s smart assistant AI. The smart assistant is trained on thousands of great photos. It will determine and fine tune the optimal settings for the scene you're shooting.

KEEP EVERYTHING SHARP 

Enable focus stacking to get your entire scene in sharp focus. 

MASTER TRICKY LIGHT 

Arsenal automates advanced photo stacking techniques to help you capture scenes with High Dynamic Range. 

CAPTURE LOOOONG EXPOSURE 

With one setting, Arsenal can combine multiple photos, averaging the pixel values to generate sharp long exposures.

TAKE SHARPER PHOTOS 

Smart Assistant customizes settings based on the lens and camera you're using, along with how they perform in different situations. Is your lens weaker at certain apertures? Arsenal will move settings to avoid those weaknesses. Sitting atop your camera, Arsenal’s accelerometer can judge exactly how stable your camera is. It can then choose the perfect shutter speed to get sharp photos without noise."

Here are some additional specific capabilities.

STACKING MADE EASY 

If there’s one secret of the pros in landscape and real-estate photography, it’s stacking. Stacking simply is taking multiple photos and merging them together to capture detail that is lost in a single exposure. Arsenal makes stacking easy. It can take the optimal number of photos at the right settings, then merge the photos to a new RAW or JPG file.*
* Merged RAW files are saved as 16 bit DNG's

ALWAYS SHOOT THE SWEET SPOT 

Getting sharp photos isn’t easy. Arsenal can automatically take and merge multiple photos at different focus positions (at the lenses sharpest aperture) to create incredibly sharp shots.

GREAT SHOTS IN TRICKY LIGHT 

Even with today's high dynamic range cameras, it’s very common to lose details in the highlights or shadows. Arsenal can automatically detect when detail is being lost and take multiple photos at different shutter speeds to capture all of the missed detail, then merges the photos for you.

CAPTURE LOOOOONG EXPOSURE 

Soft clouds and smooth water can really isolate a subject and simplify an otherwise complex scene. Normally you need expensive ND filters to capture long exposures. Arsenal can combine multiple photos, averaging the pixel values to generate long exposures without the need for ND filters. 

THE BEST PHOTO REVIEW 

Let’s face it, reviewing images on your camera’s tiny screen is never fun. With Arsenal, you can review them wirelessly on your phone. Flip through photos instantly, zoom in to see details at full-resolution, then share favorites right from your phone. 

NIGHT EXPOSURES 

When taking photos in the dark, Arsenal will use test shots to automatically set the exposure and other settings. This means smart mode will now work when it is too dark for your camera to meter. Depending on how dark it is and your camera's noise performance, it can usually calculate the exposure in about 15 seconds.

 CAPTURE STUNNING TIME LAPSES 

We love time lapses, so we designed the best time lapse interface on the planet. Set your parameters, then ask Arsenal to adjust the exposure in changing light for a smooth day-to-night transition. You can even preview your time lapse while it’s being recorded.

...and all of this done on your phone with a live view in real time!  Pretty amazing, if you ask me!  It seems to me this combination of software on your phone plus the small hardware component that fits into your hotshoe and plugs into your camera can do just about anything for you from setting exposure, to HDR, to time lapse, to focus stacking, to analyzing best aperture and shutter speed to...what can't it do?

I'll ask again.  Is this what you really want?  Do you really want to turn over almost the entire creativity process to technology?  Do you want to your photography to be fully automated so you only have to walk up, point your camera and push the button?  Its not what I really want.  The nice thing about all of this is everybody gets to choose for themselves.  No one dictates to you what you can and cannot use.  

With the state of technology and how technology is invading photography, whether through computational photography, amazing lenses, advanced cameras as well as the ability to go anywhere in the world easily, things are in flux.  If you think photography has changed in the past 10 years, hold on to your hats.  The changes coming in the next 10 years will be even greater.  Your job will be to figure out exactly how much of this technology you want to incorporate and how much of your photography you want to come from your brain.

Join me over at Instagram @dennisamook or my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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