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Haha! Thanks for the encouragement. It's always nice to see your comments.

Yeah, unfortunately not! Panorama with sensible alignment would be AWESOME. I have to use a separate program and export a TIFF now. Would be GREAT for darktable to get such a feature.

Thank you so much. I hate wasting viewers' time with ramblings.

Should come soon! Camera support is a little slow sometimes but it's worth the wait...

In many cases, it CAN, and is superior. But it doesn't have any AI subject recognition, thank god.

@@JasonPolakPhotography well for some of us, that's a very helpful tool. As a bird photographer, it's really nice to be able to select the bird quickly and easily, and then make minor adjustments to the AI mask selection.

If you learn parametric masks, a lot of the time you can make a similar selection in a couple seconds. Not as fast as one click AI though. But then again, the parametric selection process is somewhat informative itself, as it can teach you about the relative colors and shades in your photo. And if you like Lightroom so much, just wondering why you even made your comment in the first place? Just to dismiss darktable?

Darktable is free tho

You are welcome! Hope you like 5.0!

There is also a skin tone LUT that could be useful. I'd say with 2-3 jpegs you could probably get pretty close in making a custom preset for Sony.

@@JasonPolakPhotographyI’ll have to check it out. Tonight, I’m using the camera presets with my old fujifilm X30 and the results are close to the in camera jpegs, but a better starting point since I have more to work with.

yeah! May they suffer in the fires of bankruptcy!

Basically what im saying is we as a society will need to get our meaning and purpose from elsewhere other than work

(1) Relationships are more meaningful when we actually need each other. (2) The people that are balanced enough to find their own meaning in life is a minority compared to the majority that need to feel useful from a traditional pathway. (3) In a society with UBI, what sort of pursuit (whether work or otherwise) will be meaningful if the entire world must keep AI functioning in order to keep such a society functioning? That's a world with highly restricted freedom and one that is unsustainable because all that technology still requires mining and habitat destruction to expand. And it WILL expand because it won't be a static system. Technophiles and the rich will want to expand the capabilities of AI continually to be even more immersive and extractive.

To your other comment: yes, but for the majority, that will not be possible because human beings are intuitive and instinctive creatures that cannot arbitrary modify their source of meaning when it is not about providing for themselves (in general, there are freak exceptions).

@@JasonPolakPhotography Thanks for your response, thats an interesting take. Not totally sure what you mean by restricted freedom, I guess it depends on how things are after UBI. Im guessing by then we'll figure out better energy practices and the cost will go down, not too sure about the environment problem.

Restricted freedom here means that we can only move within the narrow confines of technology. Chances are with UBI you will need to be registered with some kind of program, lots of nature will be eradicated so you will need to move within artificial environments, the government will severely restrict people's movements as they do today, etc. We will figure out better energy practices but that will be balanced by energy use going UP, AI will be analyzing all your data and movements all the time, etc. Technology restricts freedom because we can only move within its confines -- even the car does that. Now pedestrians have to watch carefully where they walk, etc...

Yes it's a very nice camera!

You are welcome.

You are right, but the thing is, I wasn't just referring to traditional work. I was referring to tasks that give people a purpose in some way, such as community contributions, which will be hard to do because people will just take the path of least resistance and use AI instead. Less work is GOOD. But less ways to contribute to a community and good causes is bad.

Most people have dreams because they are unrealizable or extremely difficult to achieve. That is why they are dreams. The moment those dreams become extremely easy to achieve, as will eventually happen with AGI/ASI, they will disappear and we will see millions of people with extreme existential crises, that is, probably more than 80% of humanity, being optimistic. In fact, who says that AGI/ASI should allow humans to live in peace and harmony? All I know is that in nature there is nothing signed, and people will be out of work, permanently controlled by a higher entity and fearing every day that someone or something will press the red button and end all humanity. I do not know who has claimed that an artificial intelligence will be subservient to humans. I do not see the sense in that. An AI is nature itself. Nature was never moral. Rather amoral towards all its "children." Humanity will lose all its remaining ethics. Today, that already exists. I don't see why it should improve in the future.

AI will solve some problems, but they aren't truly our problems. They are problems of the machine and integrating humans within it.

You are right, but also in a sense, the industrial revolution paved the way for AI and so did the internet. To paraphrase Jacques Ellul, the industrial revolution not only refined "technique" but was a key to the deep absorption of technique in the collective human psyche.

This argument supports technological determinism, which is yet another reason why we need to go beyond the normal channels to stop AI.

I don't think people are happy, in general about the rise of the global elite concentrating all the wealth into their pockets. Look at the recent SEO shooting, for example. But what is equally important is the destruction of the biosphere caused by this advancing technology.

@@JasonPolakPhotography I'm sorry, I was attempting to be funny, but you may not have seen those movies. Worth watching, though you may need an adult beverage to truly appreciate Idiocracy. Both movies paint rather horrible futures through humorous lenses.

Sorry about that. I live under a rock when it comes to mass media :)

No. We don't have the wisdom for that level of intelligence. Look at today's society. We don't even have the wisdom for our current level of intelligence.

@JasonPolakPhotography I was talking to level up our wisdom. Emotional intelligence, cooperation, critical thinking etc etc.

Well, AI is useless there. Computers will not level up our wisdom, only our greed.

@@JasonPolakPhotography search for organoid

Should find ways to augment our brains and AI might help to do that. But yes could be also quite bad. I have a feeling that in 6 years society will change a lot. Maybe in a good sence. Hopefully we will have a switch off button. AI needs enormous energy and phisical computing power so I suppose wont be easy to just escape. @@JasonPolakPhotography

I am not concerned with just the next quarter, unlike investors and CEOs.

> The near term potential benefits of AI are undeniable: revolutionary advances in healthcare, unlimited clean energy, and the elimination of poverty. Yet equally real are the dangers: the possibility of rogue AI systems causing catastrophic damage, deepening economic inequality, or the emergence of a misaligned superintelligence that could lead to human extinction. They are very deniable. Healthcare advances will probably result in extended lifespans, a disaster for our planet. Unlimited clean energy is a myth because those sources still require mining and the mining will explode exponentially because AI/people will want to expand their capabilities. Poverty may be eliminated but so may people, and even if it is eliminated and people survive, they won't have much to look forward to except a technological dystopia.

Problems exist but the problems are now largely those of improving the machine rather than improving our lives. Of course, it depends what you mean by "improvement". But I mean preserving life on the biosphere, not encouraging innovation and technology that is fundamentally unsustainable. Society isn't required to give us meaning, true. But it should have a wide enough range of options for us to find our own meaning and most of the normal pathways in modern society are contemptible.

(1) I can find my own destinations just fine and I like self-guided exploration. I don't want to be handed everything on a platter, and travel is fun but not an objective to be mechanized in my opinion. (2) I'd rather not involve AI in my photography. Insight is best obtained with less technology, not more. (3) I don't want to "free up my time"; I'd prefer to actually use my time on my hobby, and the mechanical aspects of a hobby are integral to connecting with it. I don't see AI as competition. I see it as a horrific invention that threatens more than just photography and I believe it should be destroyed at all costs.

@@JasonPolakPhotography if you care about your photography being authentic why don't you get one of the first iterations of cameras? Also photography is being improved by AI, I know this for a fact. If you don't use it you can keep doing photography as a hobby and have a few competitive photos, however, youll get left behind in an competitive environment. I will start calling you mr. subjective

I already know photography is subjective. I am not searching for authenticity, but for authentic subjectivity. But that's another argument in itself. I'm against AI for more general reasons. I'm glad to be left behind, btw, if that is what will happen. You can call me whatever you like as your opinion is rather irrelevant to me.

huh what is this take? "It can streamline finding clients" Ai can also streamline taking your clients

That is likely. But it could be eventually stifled by revolutionary action.

Good advice for those that want a personal improvement in life. But AI and technology still threaten the biosphere so I think Turning off AI is not enough. We must delete it completely.

But dying is not easy my friend. I'd Rather be poor in Scandinavia, central Europe or east Asia than being rich, age and die

One of the reasons why dying is not so easy is because we don't have small communities that make it easier. Technology is isolating and that implies dying alone, or relatively alone compared to societies like the Amish. Dying is a lot easier when you are surrounded by community members that appreciate you deeply.

> The only thing we could do about it is to ensure every AI development company has an ethics and moral safeguards that make sure AI is not ill-intended I sincerely doubt that will do anything.

A. I. Is not feeling anything. It is programmed to react in such a manner. I don't like how so many believe that A.I. Will become self aware as we are. I don't see it. Maybe thru a quantum neuronet. Our self awareness seems to have a quantum component. A. I. Will have to be able to tap into that.

@@JasonPolakPhotography some creepy insider here, yes it does. just wait o3 even only testing model

It doesn't need to feel OR be aware. It just has to be good at pretending it does to already be dangerous. And according to some philosophical theories such as panpsychism, it could be aware. Regardless, I never argued that it IS aware; such questions are rather irrelevant for me because they are not so practical.

Absolutely right!

@@Bruno_fyi disease is self imposed human condition or chronic lifestyle based. Technology can not solve it. It can only help you cope with it which is just a band aid.

Not sure why my comment didn't show up but I'll say it again: solving biological death would be a huge mistake. We don't need more people accumulating wealth and living forever.

Wealthy people will not die and commoners will not have life

@@JasonPolakPhotography wouldnt solving aging be the solution to the coming demographic collapse? i expect it to get worse and worse.

​@@JasonPolakPhotography wow circular reasonig indeed you think the aim of the human experience to simply gain more wealth and power no thats the current state of things and i dont know if you realize but things change with time i know it is hard for alot of people to understand this but believe me when i say that THIS IS THE BEST TIME TO POSSIBLY BE ALIVE AS A HUMAN BEING WHEN COMPARED TO ANY OTHER MOMENT IN ALL OF RECORDED HISTORY the i know that we live in a soceity were people are afriad and the media is constantly pushing bad news cuz it sells but when yoh actually look at the state of things even just when comaperd to previos generations you start to understand how luck ly you are to be born in an era of technology. And Ai is no different it has PROS AND CONS like every other tech ever created in the history of mankind it has the potential to make life incomprehensably better for all humans both the rich and the poor but at the same time has the capacity to bring destruction on levels we are yet to fully understand , but does this mean we should stop the tech HELL NO imagine going back in time and stopping the cave men from discovering fire would this have some short term postive effects ya cuz they wouldnt be able to make weapons but in the grand scheme of things is this a wise move fuck no we would have gone extinct centuries ago without fire and all the technological advancements that has led to the progress of the human species would be gone and all the lives that the single discovery would have saved in the long run would be gone . So dont say lets stop Ai cuz you might be saying lets stop fire and then both deny future generations from even having the posibility of living in a world that is bettet than the shit show we have today and be damning alk the people that Ai has the potential to help the disease it could cure discorvies it could make things we cant imagine yet Ya sorry for the yao fest tho just got tired of all this fear mongering circuler model of thought tha has no evidence to go off of its been spreading rapidly and its just tiring people complaining without understanding waht they might be complainig about 😂😂😂

Well, I think it's a matter of approach. A quick edit can certainly be made in darktable, especially if you turn on presents for some of the modules like sharpening, color balance RGB, etc. but you may be using the wrong approach.

Of course! Every good joke needs a hint of truth. Haha!

@JasonPolakPhotography a topic for a future video, perhaps?

Perhaps! If you have any specific suggestions, I'm also open to any!

@JasonPolakPhotography I don't know anything about DT. If you were a Darktable Witness missionary knocking on my door: what would you say to convert an RT user? (Or are you content to see me burn in everlasting hell fire)

You must be using an old version. This is in stock Audacity.

I've used it but it's mainly my wife's camera. I bought it for her for birding, but I can also make a video of best settings / editing guide! I'll put it on the list.

@JasonPolakPhotography Thank you. Like you I've noticed the skin tones can be a bit off straight out of camera. Jpgs of people don't look great and my raw editing skills are not very good to put it mildly :-D

That is an incredible deal! Wow.

The normal Raw should work, at least for the Z8 and the Z9. Not sure about the Z6 III and I'm guessing the Z50 II is not supported at all, yet, but should be soon. As for sharpening, darktable needs some special treatment to get good results but the secret weapon is the diffuse and sharpen module.

@@JasonPolakPhotography The lossless raw works for the Z6III, too. The lossy HE raw would require a codec, which isn't free and whose algorithm is patented, so it may never come to a free open-source tool like Darktable, but it's available in Photolab 8. The Z6III - as other recent cameras - still needs to be integrated into Darktable, but it's already possible to use it to some extent by modifying the camera.xml file manually (GitHub issue #17075, for reference).

Makes sense. I'm just going to shoot lossless anyway with my Z8 when I get it in 2025 (would get it now but I'll only be back in North America then). I've never liked lossy anyway even though it probably won't make a difference, except psychologically. Hah.

@@JasonPolakPhotography So true, we never know what's going to be dropped. HE star is very good and about half the size, though, so it's tempting. But that depends how much you shoot, and those memory cards have a lot of space anyway. If you ever want to try, one easy bridge to Darkroom is converting them to .dng with Adobe's dng converter (a bit of a hassle, I know). Have fun with your Z8 when you get it (lucky you)!

Nope. No declicker plugin that exists today will be as effective as this method. However, if you practice, eventually you can get fast at it. But it took me at least a year to become proficient in it.

You're welcome. Thank you for the encouragement through the comment!

Thanks for the question! But, that is not quite correct. In fact, I do use quite a few scene-referred modules such as color balance RGB, RGB primaries, diffuse or sharpen, and color equalizer. Probably most of the modules I use are scene-referred. However, the exception is the tone curve mainly. Why is that? My philosophy is that I use what works most easily and intuitively to get the results I want. Often, that means using the tone curve even though it is display-referred. The tone-equalizer is another option that can often work as a replacement for the tone curve, but not as easily if you want to really separate two tones that are very close together. Moreover, the tone curve, in my opinion, is much more intuitive that the tone equalizer because it is a smooth graphical curve that can even display tonal ranges with the eyedropper. Frankly, I really have not heard one convincing argument against use of the tone curve, even if the rest of the modules used are scene-referred. Some people speak of artifacts, but I have rarely seen them. The Color lookup table is another module I use frequently even though it is not scene-referred. If used gently, it can accomplish some very interesting effects that are hard to do with other modules. In other words, while I try to stick mostly with scene-referred modules, I still have not perceived a reason to avoid other modules completely. Some have abstract arguments but so far, I haven't seen or heard anything that negatively impacts the final result. I'm open to hearing new ideas about it of course, but basically my approach is to choose what works, rather than be religious to some mathematical approach...and I am a mathematician.

It was pretty decent at a distance. But it's strange that it would make you leave micro four thirds...I mean, if the cheapest, junkiest kit lens makes you not like a system, there's something wrong with how you evaluate systems..haha.

Very glad it helped!

Thanks for the comment. Yes, darktable's masking is great. Has circle, elliptical, drawn, gradient, and parametric masks too. Much more powerful than lightroom.

True. Art is a great idea but tricky to use for its lack of "support" like no MacOS official build.

That is true. The main magnification that M4/3 supplies is through pixel density. Field of view crop factor isn't important since you can just crop a larger sensor anyway.

Thank you very much for the comment. The problem is that proto-capitalism, which is trade, works on a small scale. But even trade gives rise to advancing technology if there are no constraints put in place on a global societal level, which in turn causes the mutation of trade into the sort of capitalism that we see today. Therefore, the only long-term solution is to really restrict technological development not via laws but via natural tendencies that would arise if we had more respect for a finite number of resources.

Not a bad lens. Mine recently malfunctioned, however.

Thanks so much! I haven't tried it but that's because there's no official MacOS built and the unofficial one looks sketchy to me. But I would LOVE to try it, especially the masking.