Regular readers to this site or its sister, and bigger site, Parlington Hall, will realize that I have a great fascination with taking photographs of the location. Sadly other things conflict with my ability to get out and record the landscape with a digital camera, so the opportunities are limited. However, and as other keen photographers will know, you may catch a scene, that once in a lifetime shot, takes your eye and quickly you capture the moment. Looking at the result on the camera LCD may well appear to show that all is well, however when you pop the memory card into your computer and view the image full screen, your dismay is immediate… Oh No! It’s FUZZY, or just out of focus.
No amount of clever filters or retouching will improve the original to a pin sharp view, regardless of the hype you read! So you have to wait until the opportunity arrises again, but of course it will never be, “that moment”, you had before. Well in this techno world we live in, there is always something round the corner… imagine being able to retro adjust the focus! Yes, after the event you can play around with the sweet spot in your picture. Imagine taking shots and focusing after; yes I know Fox Talbot will be turning in his grave, and yes, it may seem to be dumbing down the creative genius of our intrepid photographer. But hey, this is something really clever and the genius behind the innovation, Ren Ng is from Stamford University has set up a new company “Lytro” to produce cameras which will perhaps change photography for ever!
If you visit the Lytro site you can play around with pictures in the gallery, changing the focus to your hearts content, it really is incredible. Without sounding too technical, the science behind the invention is to incorporate the directional “vector” of the photon which is captured by the CMOS in the camera, and also to map the photons into a grid of smaller micro images on the sensor, so the resultant sub-images contain additional information which through complex algorithms can be post manipulated to produce the focal point wherever you like it!
I really recommend having a look at theLytro site and you can also pre-order a “Light Field” camera!
Here are two screen grabs from the same image, one with the focus in the initial position, on the point of the spear; the second with the focus on the face of the man holding the spear.
The photograph in both phases is Lytro©