Jason Bradley, light field photographer

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Eric Cheng

One of the great things about being at Lytro is getting the opportunity to work with amazing photographers. Jason Bradley is a nature photographer based in Monterey, California. Bradley joined the Lytro Professional Shooter Program (PSP) early on, and was responsible for capturing many of the incredible pictures featured in our living picture gallery. Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at how he captured some of our most iconic images.
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EC: Tell us about your first good light field picture.

JB: The first good light field picture I created was a picture I wouldn’t normally like. It was also a picture I honestly wasn’t excited about taking, but I felt compelled to take it as a means of testing and familiarizing myself with the refocus technology. And frankly, without the refocus dynamic, the picture wouldn’t be very compelling. The image was of a group of purple wildflowers at Point Lobos State Reserve. The flowers were the photos foreground and set the stage for an ocean cove and cypress forest backdrop. The cove is a famous spot for photography, countless frames have been taken there, and it’s even named Weston Cove after the famous black and white artist Edward Weston.

Being named after such an esteemed photographer, any images I take there must be worthy. But, my Lytro shot was taken with the sun high in the sky, a simple foreground, a boring background, and a cloudless sky. I didn’t expect much from the results, but I still go back and look at that photo time and time again. I really like looking at it. The way the technology brings my focus in and out and back again, is incredible. And regardless of how many photographers have photographed this cove, and regardless of how lackluster I may have felt while shooting it, I have captured it in a totally new way and with a new technology. That’s very exciting!

Wildflowers over Weston Cove, by Jason Bradley

EC: What are some things you would recommend to someone taking their first light field photo?

JB: I would suggest thinking about light field photography in 3D. Light field photography seems to be most captivating keeping the compositional elements simple and at different places in space.

In 2D photography, we use depth of field in two ways: 1) to separate a subject from it’s background or foreground, and 2) by keeping DOF broad, to connect compositional elements that are separated by distance. With light field photography, the spacial relationships are dynamic, and therefore stories can be told by moving through space. Instead of purposefully separating or combining compositional elements, we can glide though the frame with focus—after the fact.

Think 3D!

EC: How has light field photography changed the way you view photography in general?

JB: Light field is forcing me to keep things a bit simpler than I’m used to. That’s a good thing!
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Want to see how Jason took this living picture of protea flowers in Santa Cruz?

Here is Jason, at work:

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Our living picture gallery features the work of photographers in the Lytro Professional Shooter Program (PSP), a small group of forward-thinking artists who lept at the chance to be the first to use Lytro prototype cameras in the field.

http://twitter.com/canvas_photo canvas prints

loving the pics here. wow. awesome work.
Richard Dix

how does it work on far away land sceap? like monument valley new mexico?
- Lytro
  
  Here’s and example http://www.lytro.com/living-pictures/284
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boon

Couple of questions:
a. how do we shoot a fast moving object, e.g. a moving car? In traditional photography, we have to “track” the car’s movement. Will the camera works by taking a stationary shot? And what is the result if we shoot by tracking the moving object?

b. how do we take low light object, e.g. fireworks, candles? Traditionally we manipulate the shuttle speed.
- Lytro
  
  More FAQs, including this one about action shots and this one about manual controls, is on our Support site.
http://www.iecology.net/ Kurt

I suspect that with the correct interpretation of this camera’s data, scientists may have an improved tool for ground based estimates of plant biomass which when lucky have 70-80% accuracies because they attempt to interpret a complex 3D subject from a 2D image.

Ideally, we want to estimate “green” pixels and translate this into grams of green biomass per area. The typical problem are the 3D to 2D conversion and inability to weight pixels. For example, two green leaves of identical size/wgt will be represented by different numbers of pixels depending on their distance to the front lens element. I don’t know of anyone correcting for this…

It seems this camera might allow multiple focal planes coupled with some edge detection to allow users to weight the biomass of pixels from different focal planes to better translate how some number of green pixels corresponds with biomass depending on which focal plane it corresponds. Then we just need to account for overlap (i.e. what is behind a green leaf nothing or another green leaf), litter, etc. If the right people start thinking about this product then it may turn into a new way to estimate plant biomass per area, account for biomass production daily with time-lapse images to reveal seasonal patterns and effects of envir., etc. This could be an amazing tool!
Foxfire

Have you got a distributor for the United Kingdom yet? Let me know I would be interested in marketing it in the UK
Foxfire

There are many good comment made here from DOF, shutter speed controls, but what about grain. I noticed that there is quite some grain in the image, even in a sunny location.

Very important, especially for some of the Pro’s here.
http://www.lovely-photography.com Tracy Yohe

I have two businesses and two web sites — http://www.lovely-photography.com and http://www.therock247.com (an internet-based radio station). I would love to also be one of the test volunteers. I teach classes, have a photography business and own an internet radio station, reaching people worldwide. I shoot everything from nature and architecture to weddings, families and babies. My main goal is to have wedding photos that I can later change the focus on AND to be able to capture those special moments quickly when time is of the essence during the ceremony. Thanks so much! I look forward to testing out this camera, spreading the word and using it in business and personal applications.
John Larson

A few somewhat technical questions:
Are there plans for a feature to allow a choice of effective f/stops (for different depths of field)?
What will be the maximum number of images captured per second (will I be able to follow action)?
Is the shutter speed variable? Will it be able to stop movement, either fast or slow?
With a fixed f/stop, will the shutter speed be slaved to the brightness of the light?
- Lytro
  
  We have more Q&A on our Support site, including, Is the Lytro right for me?
  - John Larson
    
    The referenced page answers none of my questions ……….
Maury Gollob

I hope that your company will make a model that can be used with a tripod, as some of the photos seem a bit out of focus, even with the aid of your software. I am concerned about camera shake and its tendency to ruin what could have been wonderful photographs. Also, is there a way to make more than one center of interest focused?
http://www.metric.org Bruce Arkwright, Jr.

I have yet to see a photo indoors or in the shaded woods, please post some photos of ‘mushrooms’ or squirels. Can someone print a photo? Or take two cameras to do 3D pics?
http://www.geoffreybellphotography.com Geoffrey Bell

I would like to join the Lytro Professional Shooter Program. How can this be accomplished?
- http://www.reflectionsphotography.com Conrad Smith
  
  I would love to field test the camera. Now that you’ve introduced the camera, is this too late?
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http://prodry.tumblr.com/ Ritchie

Thank you: I’ll have to have one of these!
Gary

I’m really looking forward to seeing just what this camera can do. I wonder, is it mostly a dof manipulating camera or can I use it for night photography also with streaming tailights etc. What about later editing? Will commercial software IE: Photoshop strip out the information.
Lots of questions and this should be very exciting
RD

Can’t wait to see this in more hands (hopefully mine too). It adds a whole new dimension to photography. While the shots here are good on their own, the interactive feature takes them to another level. Do want!
http://3andna.com Mr.New

Thanks 4 this good Work
http://www.interestingfoto.com Interesting Pictures

Stunning piece
Eugene Holstein

I hope to try your lytro camera out some day. All of my photos are of nature.I am looking for another camera and I am interested in the Pentax kr. Hoping or rather itching to try yours because I feel it may meet my needs.Wishing you and your team every success and may all your expectations for this camera be exceeded in every way.
be blessed and remain a blessing
Gene
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http://www.vishnurao.com vishnur ao

Everyone i’ve shown this.. wants to show it to more people. As a consumer, I spend a lot of money on electronics but I have only followed and waited for the release of two products, ever, the Apple iPhone, Xbox Kinect. This right here is the third one.
http://www.flickr.com/coontoonstudios Gary Coon

Light field? How about Variable Depth Of Field! ~ VDOF?
- Gary Coon
CoonToonStudios
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coontoonstudios/show/
- Bruce Hockenberry
  
  A simulated f stop in software providing an extended range of focus is something that consumers will want to see in the finished product. This would give the consumer an option as to depth of field.
  The information is there to provide an optimally sharpened image of every pixel in the processed image. It would be nice to see that option provided to the consumer as well. This would be something like images from a pinhole camera. A pinhole camera with the brightness from a f 2.0 lens. No twenty minute exposures here. Nice.
http://www.brandonloyd.net Brandon

Been watching this for a while now and can say that I’m even more excited about this then I was before. (apparently this is a daily occurrence and my head might just explode soon) I’m an artistic photographer with my sights and dreams on taking more and more beautiful pictures.

Thanks for the awesome interview.
Brent

Really excited to see the camera in real life! I’ve been showing my friends and family photos from the gallery and all of them are amazed at the technology.
Linnea Heaverlo

and the excitement builds! I know it is for me!
http://nickstrite.daportfolio.com Nick Strite

Looks fantastic! Such a revolutionary idea. I think most photographers dream of when something like this is readily available. Its not even the focal point adjustment that gets me jazzed up its the speed that the camera can be engaged at. Very cool I really hope I get to test it out as a photojournalist this product is scary and very exciting because of the ability to be able to capture a moment and truly spell out a story in photographs. Magnificent!
John Wittwer

I sure am excited on being selected to be one of your usability test volunteers. This new video of Jason’s photo shoot just gets me more interested in this new technology.
In the type of work I do, I review many photos with some of very poor quality and out of focus working with building inspectors that have little to no knowledge of taking photos. Having a camera and software that will enable me to “click” and focus poor quality photos is of extreme importance to me. Documenting stages of construction typically only gives you one chance at each stage and if the photos are of poor quality we have to delete them and we miss documenting that stage. Over the years we have tried many different cameras with little success of the cameras being able to handle the task of the environment of working on construction sites. At this time I am using a Ricoh Caplio 500SE, it is a “ruggedized” camera. It is dust proof, water resistant, shock resistant and has blue tooth. It also has the capability of GPS that will document the location of where the photos are taken. I sure hope you are considering making a ruggedized version.
I can’t wait to get started testing, commenting and making recommendations on making the Lytro camera work easily for the “non geek”
Thanks again for this opportunity.
John
Grant Hendrick

Thank you for another interesting post on your blog. Looking at picture above as well as the video makes it clear this will be a nice compact camera — I can only imagine that a production camera would be similar in size or smaller than what I assume is still a prototype.

I would love the opportunity to help you spread the word. I am very interested in 3D from the perspective of starting to learn Maya and having just configured a new computer just released Nividia card designed for 3D. I expect my new perspective will help with my long passion for photography and a camera such as the Lytro that will allow one to expand beyond 2D is very exciting.
Ryan Butters

I think the non-Lytro camera used to take the photos might be broken, it seams to always have a blurred out oval in the bottom right hand side of the frame… I can’t wait to actually get my hands on a Lytro camera. I haven’t been this excited for a new camera in a long time!
- http://echeng.com/photo Eric Cheng
  
  I’ll have to have that camera checked out. :)