Category Archives: Mind Uploading

In a world of virus-induced breathlessness, the first Assamese superhero will be without a mask, unlike most of his popular Hollywood counterparts.

But Advitya, revived two years after a digital accident prevented him from hitting the screens, will sport a special costume this time as he takes on the supervillain in a fancy outfit.

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Director Arindam Sharma expected to release Advitya a Sanskrit word for the Sun soon after uploading a teaser on social media in June 2019. A multiple system snag made him lose the edited film and all the backup footage, putting him through a phase of an emotional and financial crisis.

A superpower within awakened by his fictional superhero made Mr. Sharma pick up the pieces, tweak the script to include more action sequences, coordinate with the actors and start filming again by the dawn of 2020.

After making up my mind to re-shoot the entire film, I informed all the actors. Apart from Niha Rani Das and Bikash Bora, none agreed to be part of the film again because of their professional commitments to other producers, he told The Hindu.

Some new actors, popular on Assamese TV channels, came on board. They include Arnab Ayan in the lead role.

The COVID-19 lockdown affected the second schedule of the shooting planned in March 2020. But he held on to complete the shooting and editing after a gap in October-November that year.

The VFX team is now working on the visual effects for more than 350 shots of the film, Mr. Sharma said, hoping for the commercial release of his directorial debut later this year depending on the prevailing situation.

The film is much tighter and more action-packed than the earlier version, he said.

Advitya, the first superhero in Assamese cinemas 88-year-old history, is a common man seeking job security and stability in life. The name is given by the people he saves from danger.

The superhero finds it difficult to manage his suddenly-acquired superpowers to take on the equally powerful supervillain, an evil scientist who derives strength from his laboratory experiments and the fury of nature.

The underlying message of the film is that one should not go against time and nature, and that truth will always prevail over lies and good over evil, Mr. Sharma said, declining to disclose the source of Advityas superpowers or how he overpowers the supervillain.

Apart from directing and scripting the film, he handled the cinematography along with two others Kailash Duara and Nasirul Hussain. The choreography is by Sarat Bappi Saikia, while Dipu Sharma arranged the music.

The film, made under the banner of Krrishna Kraft Productions (India), is produced by Brojendra Nath Sarma. Popular singer Dikshu Sarma and Sanchita Sharma sang the songs penned and composed by Ankur Sharma.

Originally posted here:

Assams fictional superhero Advitya all set to hit the screens in fancy outfit without mask - The Hindu

A mother has perplexed the internet by uploading a photo of her daughter sinking into concrete, or at least that's what the picture looks like.

The little girlseen in the optical illusion has only her body up to her waist visible in the picture. Her bottom half seems to bemysteriously disappearing into the ground that borders a grassy space.

The mother was baffled by the image and decided to publish it online to see if anybody else could figure it out, but she was quickly swamped with comments from others stating it had 'melted their brains, Mirrorreported.

Some, on the other hand, were able to discern what was going on and promptly called it out in the comments, so can you figure it out?

The image, which has over 70 thousandlikes, displays a little girl clothed in pink playing on a device, but half of her body has vanished into the pavement. My daughter, where is the rest of her? wrote the mother in the caption.

Most readers couldn't figure it out, prompting one to write, "Great one, OP!" I'll admit it took me a while to get to the comments on this one, and I still struggled."

Readers with keen eyes saw that the little girl was, in fact, sitting on a lower sidewalk constructed of the same material as the raised garden wall, theIndependentreported.

To add to the confusion, the girl has her elbow elevated to the same level as the bigger platform, giving the impression that she is sinking into the pavement. However, even after comprehending the phantasm, a few of theusers struggled to articulate exactly what they were experiencing.

While optical illusions are known to deceive the mind, anotherviral video hadalso terrified netizens. A photo of a young girl with excessively skinny and long legs standing in the middle of the ground was shared on Facebook by the official account of addiction rehabilitation advocate Christopher Ferry, The Indian Expressreported.

Others found the result frightening,while some felt terriblefor the girl, believing it to be an anomaly. The missing piece of the jigsaw, however, turned out to be in the caption of the photograph. A little girl poses with a popcorn bag.

Optical Illusion, Museum of Illusions, Canada Photo by DESIGNECOLOGIST /Unsplash

The rest is here:

Netizens Baffled Over Moms Photo Of Daughter Sinking Into Concrete - Latin Times

As restrictions and social distancing norms due to the ongoing second wave of coronavirus once again keeps us inside our homes, there is a rise in the use of teleconsultations and telemedicine.

One such app experiencing a surge in usage is 1MG.

Founded in 2015 by Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal and Vikas Chauhan, 1MG allows you to order medicines, lab testing, and immunity boosting supplements on its app.

The 1MG app needs a strong internet connection while operating and might not work very well on slower connections.

On launching, the app asks for your location and then you are in.

The first impression you would get as you enter the app is that the interface is similar to that of any other online marketplace. There are flashes of discount ads.

Then there is a top banner ad for same-day delivery and a banner just below it, which keeps swiping automatically to show discounts offered on sanitisers and ordering medicines, multivitamin tablets, steamers, and all Covid-related products.

After selecting your city, these are a few different pages on the 1MG mobile app

As you scroll down further there is a plethora of services offered such as ordering medicine by just uploading the prescription, booking full body checkups with their lab partners, and 1MGs own private label products.

The app gives a very Amazon-kind of feel, a one-stop-shop for all medical and wellness needs. It is a good option for consumers as they do not need to frantically search across multiple websites for products.

You can either search for the products you need by typing the names in the search bar or you even upload your prescription and the app would let you know the availability of the medicines.

While there is a huge selection of over-the-counter medicines, to buy most things prescribed by a doctor, a prescription needs to be uploaded.

Same day and next day delivery services are provided.

The 1MG app offers you one free health consultation. To begin with, a bot asks you multiple questions such as your name, age, gender, and symptoms. It can even ask you to upload pictures in case there is a skin condition involved.

1MG's one free doctor consultation interface

After understanding your symptoms, the bot will connect you with the necessary physician. 1MG is also offering treatments in Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, and Allopathy.

There are also videos one can access where specialists talk on topics including Covid preventions, home treatment tips for mildly symptomatic Covid patients, and the importance of double masking.

The app has multiple methods of payments, including UPI, credit and debit cards.

1MGs app is developed keeping in mind the need of the hour, which is supplements for Covid patients. Necessary lab tests and Covid consultations.

But what seems a bit out of place for a medicine app is the constant banner ads for brands including Nivea, Complan, and skincare brand Neutrogena.

If you are looking to find everything from medicine and testing to skincare and wellness products all in one place then this is a good app to use.

Read the rest here:

[App Fridays] How 1MG is meeting the rise in demand for teleconsultations, medicines amid COVID-19 resurgence - YourStory

Conservative commentator Steven Crowder is taking YouTube to court over its content practices and policies which he says are used to silence conservative voices.

The Daily Wire reports Crowder announced his lawsuit against the social media platform on Monday during his show "Louder on Crowder."

"As of last Thursday, May 14, my lawyer Bill Richmond and I have filed a notice of a lawsuit against YouTube and are seeking an injunction to prevent them, to stop them from currently deplatforming us," Crowder said. "We've officially sent a notice of a lawsuit. Very different level this is the big one, boys and girls."

As CBN News reported in March, YouTube removed Crowder's channel from its partner program indefinitely, which will not allow him to make money from ads running with his videos.

The social media platform removed Crowder's video from March 16 containing references about black farmers and slavery. The company said the video violated its COVID-19 misinformation policy and not its policy concerning hate speech, according to HITC.com.

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YouTube also banned Crowder for uploading a now-deleted video which reportedly challenged the legitimacy of the election in Nevada. The company has a policy against posting videos that claim there was fraud in the presidential election.

The second strike against him reportedly came in April over Crowder's comments about a Columbus, Ohio police shooting in which an officer shot and killed black teen Ma'Khia Bryant as she was trying to stab another girl. YouTube said Crowder was "reveling in or mocking" the black girl's death.

Crowder denied the charge Monday while Richmond reminded listeners that even if the commentator had violated YouTube policy, his show is a comedy show and is exempted under the policy."This really isn't just about us. We can find ways that we can broadcast to you," Crowder said. "But this is the world's most powerful company arguably, when you look at YouTube, Google, Alphabet and they make sure that they ghost you where people cannot find, not us, but the point of view."

"In other words, in that same point in time when we're talking specifically about the Columbus issue, you can go to Stephen Colbert, you can go to CNN, they're all uploading at that same time with information that we know to be incorrect," he continued. "To not allow half the country, half the world ever to correct those mistruths under some misguided and, frankly, not outlined policy the last thing I want to be doing is doing a lawsuit with Google and YouTube for crying out loud."

"What YouTube is saying is these ideas are so dangerous that we can't address them or rebut them, we can't criticize them, we just have to extinguish the opinions entirely. We have to eradicate these opinions from the planet because we can't deal with them," Richmond added.

"But the reality, this is a comedy show that takes on important issues. Commentary, politics, issues that are facing everyone in every part of the nation and the world, and we have to be able to talk about them," the attorney said.

The Daily Wire reports Crowder's lawsuit against YouTube is the second legal fight he's attempted this year. In February, he announced he was suing Facebook for censoring his content.

Crowder is a conservative political commentator, media host, and comedian with millions of social media followers. He hosts "Louder with Crowder", a daily political podcast. He is particularly notable for a recurring segment called "Change My Mind". He is also a former contributor at Fox News. His main YouTube channel currently has more than 5.4 million subscribers.

More here:

Steven Crowder Sues YouTube for Silencing Conservatives: 'This Is the Big One' - CBN News

The Herald

Tendai RupapaSenior ReporterFirst Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa yesterday handed over 30 000 books to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in a gesture which demonstrates the importance of partnerships.

The books are a result of a strong working relationship between the First Lady and an international organisation, Merck Foundation, a partnership which has yielded a lot of positive results for the country.

Amai Mnangagwa is the ambassador of Merck More than a Mother in Zimbabwe.

The First Lady values childrens education and has always been providing learning materials in schools and paying fees for disadvantaged children countrywide.

The books she donated yesterday are Educating Rujeko, which tackles issues of child marriages, Tudus story which deals with issues of infertility and Make the right Choices which dwells on doing what is right in this era of Covid-19.

Speaking at the handover ceremony yesterday, the First Lady said a special relationship has grown over the past three years between Angel of Hope Foundation and Merck Foundation which share the same values and are seized with the welfare and well-being of the most vulnerable in society, mainly women and children.

Over the past few years we have come up with many ideas on how we can improve the welfare of our people. I am glad to say this partnership has yielded a lot of positive things for the country, she said.

Doctors, the First Lady said, have been trained in specialist areas of infertility and embryology, diabetes mellitus, oncology and respiratory medicine. More than 100 doctors have been trained either online or have gone to India for specialist training.

We have had media training in Zimbabwe. The importance of this is to have our media practitioners being able to write well-researched stories on sensitive health topics. For example, subjects on infertility which are considered taboo in our societies. They have a duty to inform the public with articles that have depth. Awards have also been given to journalists who have done very well, she said.

She emphasised that Merck Foundation has also worked with her foundation in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

I wish to particularly thank the CEO of Merck Foundation Senator Dr Rasha Kelej who is one of the most influential women in Africa for starting the Merck more than a Mother movement of which she is the president. This has brought issues of infertility to the forefront.

Merck Foundation is also working with other African First Ladies. It is with this in mind that Angel of Hope Foundation and Merck Foundation have developed some reading material on subjects which need awareness. Knowledge is power. We need our people to be knowledgeable on these critical issues. That way, we also contribute to his Excellencys call for Zimbabwe achieving an upper middle class economy by 2030, said the First Lady.

In is acceptance speech, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cain Mathema praised the First Lady for her gesture.

The Ministry is aware of the spirit that you have towards the welfare of all Zimbabweans and the vulnerable members of our communities. It is a fact that you are doing a valuable task through the Angel of Hope Foundation.

The donation that we have received today is testimony of the good work that you are doing to all Zimbabweans. Your generous donation dovetails with the ministrys vision of providing equitable, quality, inclusive and relevant education, he said.

Minister Mathema said one of their major challenges since 2015 when they introduced their competency-based curriculum was the shortage of learning and teaching materials.

The titles of the books you have donated do not only demonstrate the need for quality education for the learners, but also point towards moulding our learners along the expected values as enshrined in our educational philosophy of Unhu/Ubuntu, he said.

In her vote of thanks, Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education Mrs Tumisang Thabela said it was a fact that education was anchored on reading and more time people spent reading, the more they consciously and subconsciously gained the skill they needed to deal with the complexities of various tasks.

Indeed, the books that you have donated Amai will not only enable learners to gain knowledge but enable them to acquire the much-needed skills and attitudes that are necessary for life. The ministry is therefore indebted to you for this good gesture.

The books will help the children to make the right choices in their lives. We will also look into uploading the soft copies on our website and make sure they are accessed by all children. Amai you are more than a mother to us, she said.

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First Lady hands over 30 000 books - The Herald

HONOLULU On Friday, Gov. David Ige signed the 20th proclamation on COVID-19, to allow inter-county travelers vaccinated in the state to bypass pre-travel testing and/or quarantine requirements, starting today.

State Department of Health Kauai District Health Officer Dr. Janet Berreman welcomes the change. From the health perspective, I think it is appropriate for inter-island travelers who are fully vaccinated to be allowed to travel without pre-travel testing or quarantine, Berreman said.

The state said this new rule came after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined on April 2 that fully-vaccinated travelers do not need to self-quarantine, although they should still follow CDCs recommendations for traveling safely, including wearing a mask over their noses and mouths, staying six feet away from others, avoiding crowds and washing hands often or using hand sanitizer.

Avery Kano, a weight and balance agent for Hawaiian Airlines, said prior to the coronavirus pandemic, he was fortunate to be able to live on Kauai and commute to Oahu for work daily.

With all the restrictions in place and having to adapt to COVID-19 as well as a greatly-reduced flight schedule, I needed to move to Oahu, as commuting was not an option, Kano said. Luckily, I was able to find testing options to be able to fly home on my days off and not have to quarantine.

Kano said, as someone who was hesitant about getting the vaccine, there is excitment that there is an option for inter-island fliers to be able to avoid quarantine and pre-travel testing by uploading vaccinationinformation to the state Safe Travels website.

This will make traveling home on my days off a lot easier. However, I will still test for peace of mind as well as keeping my parents, family, friends and our Kauai community safe, Kano said.

According to the state, its Safe Travels platform went online today, allowing travelers to upload their travel information and vaccination data.

We wish to thank our residents who received their vaccination to help protect themselves and our community, Mayor Derek Kawakami said. With this vaccine exemption program in place, our residents can safely visit their friends and loved ones.

Kawakami said that, as a reminder, those who have recently traveled or are exposed to travelers are encouraged to take a free COVID-19 test at the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall in Lihue weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. No appointments are needed.

In the COVID-19 briefing, the county said residents statewide who have been fully vaccinated in Hawaii will be able to travel inter-island and be exempt from the travel quarantine without needing a pre-travel test by following these steps:

w If you are traveling inter-island and have been vaccinated in the state, upload a photo of your vaccine card or VAMS certification onto your Safe Travels profile;

w For those who have not been vaccinated in the state or are traveling trans-Pacific, you may still take a pre-travel test to participate in the states Safe Travels program and be exempt from the travel quarantine.

The governors 20th proclamation said all persons traveling within the counties of Kauai, Hawaii, Maui and Kalawao, shall be required to truthfully, accurately and fully complete a mandatory state travel and health form. And they must also upload their vaccination record card to the Safe Travels platform before traveling.

Any person traveling inter-island violates this rule if the person intentionally, knowingly or recklessly refuses or fails to truthfully, accurately and fully complete a mandatory state of Hawaii travel and health form, or any person intentionally, knowingly or recklessly uploads, provides, utters or otherwise uses a falsified CDC COVID-19 vaccination record card, shall face criminal penalties in addition to any other lawful penalties established by law.

According to the governors 20th proclamation, any person who violates any of these rules will be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, will be fined not more than $5,000, imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

A copy of the proclamation is at governor.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2105031-ATG_Twentieth-Proclamation-Related-to-the-COVID-19-Emergency-distribution-signed.pdf

Safe Travels program requirements established by the director of emergency management are available at hawaiicovid19.com.

Stephanie Shinno, education and business reporter, can be reached at 245-0424 or sshinno@thegardenisland.com.

Here is the original post:

Free to fly again - The Garden Island

Staying stagnant is a surefire way to mess yourself or your business up. There's a reason that artists will go and put out music or performances that are wildly different than what got them successful, and that's because they need to figuratively "break" what they fixed. That way they can have the struggle of fixing what they consciously (or maybe subconsciously) broke in the first place.

If you haven't been invited to try it out, then you won't have the option to do so until TikTok has deemed you worthy of uploading longer-form clips.

Back in December of 2020, social media consultant Matt Navarra stated that the popular short-form video sharing app would be expanding its time limit, and if you scroll through your "For You" page on the app, you may have noticed a few three-minute videos.

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Matt even uploaded a screenshot of the "Account Updates" message that lets users know when they've received the ability to record three-minute-long video clips.

"You have early access to uploading videos up to three minutes long on the TikTok app and desktop! To try it out, make sure your app is up-to-date and try uploading a video from your device to the app or tiktok.com," it reads

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This feature is still in beta testing, meaning that TikTok could ultimately decide to pull the plug and not let everyone have the ability to record three-minute videos. Developers are probably intently watching the view counts and engagement of these longer-form clips to see if TikTok users are even interested in watching a piece of content that length on their platform.

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Metrics have already shown that the "optimum" length of the average TikTok video is slightly less than 16 seconds, with some of the most popular clips being even shorter than that.

Seeing as TikTok is known for these "flash" pieces of entertainment that people endlessly scroll through, it's hard to imagine that many folks are going to be using the three-minute videos option unless TikTok's got another purpose in mind for the new feature.

Now, it's no secret that some of the more popular pieces of content on TikTok are dancing videos.

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Are they usually mirthless ones where the "dancers" are focused more on the tie-dye sweatsuits they're wearing or their abs or make-up? Yes. But there are also plenty of other folks who are all about legitimately busting a move, and the ability to record longer-form dance video compilations or even full-blown music videos for artists who are trying to get their songs to go viral on TikTok could eventually prove to be a big move for the platform.

What do you think? Have you ever watched a TikTok that lasts more than a few seconds on the platform? Are you excited about the ability to record and watch more three-minute clips? Or is that what YouTube is for?

Continue reading here:

Here's How to Record a Video That's Three Minutes on TikTok - Distractify

The Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Jan. 25, 2021.

Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

If you believe my current Twitter feed, the Liberal government in Ottawa has misplaced its mind along with all democratic norms and is about to pass a law that will censor Canadians internet activity. Apparently, no funny cat video, let alone sneaky political GIF, will ever be safe again as Big Brother Justin rips page after page from Chinas notoriously intrusive internet policies. One defiant wit, in the dying days of his free expression, recently posted an old socialist realist painting of Mao onto whose head he had cleverly morphed Justin Trudeaus face. Meanwhile, in an opinion piece published in the National Post Saturday, Conservative Leader Erin OToole began quoting George Orwell, telling Canadians the Liberals might start monitoring their Facebook groups and their comments on news stories.

Its amateur hour in Ottawa as the Heritage Minister seeks to salvage the botched broadcasting bill

Worried the government will censor your cat videos? The rest of Bill C-10 is even worse

Well, the truth is that Trudeau and Mao share neither the same hairline nor the same politics. The alarm over supposed censorship is overblown and misplaced. It is fuelled by dishonest politicking from OToole and the Conservatives, and predictable paranoia from technological fundamentalists, those who believe the heaven-sent internet should not be subject to any human law disinformation and election interference be damned.

What is really going on is that a parliamentary committee is working its way through Bill C-10, the Liberals much-needed and much-delayed update of the Broadcasting Act. That bill, which looks increasingly unlikely to make it into law before an election is called, states that foreign streaming services (such as Netflix, Spotify and YouTube) are broadcasting in Canada, so so they should be subject to regulation by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission though the bill leaves the CRTC to figure out most of the details.

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If you arent convinced that the CRTC is too busy trying to regulate commercial media distributing professional content to bother with your cat videos or Facebook chatter, then read the act, which has always stated: This Act shall be construed and applied in a manner that is consistent with the freedom of expression and journalistic, creative and programming independence enjoyed by broadcasting undertakings Thats not changing.

Meanwhile, the bill would also add a clause stating individuals uploading content arent considered to be broadcasting. So, if you will permit me a mixed metaphor, cat videos are a red herring.

What became contentious at the committee was the Liberals decision to remove a loophole they had inadvertently placed in the bill. The loophole Section 4.1 also stated that the rules would not apply to content uploaded by users, or to platforms whose content consists primarily of such uploads. Sounds great. Individual citizens can upload whatever they want to social-media sites without fear of being somehow caught up in CRTC regulations, even if the act already stipulates it isnt intended to cover non-commercial activity. So a belt-and-suspenders solution two clauses, one exempting individuals and the other exempting content on social media. Cat lovers could rest easy.

The trouble is that 4.1 would effectively exempt Facebook and YouTube altogether and, for starters, the latter is actually Canadians leading choice for streaming music, as professional musicians upload their own videos to the site. The clause would have created a situation in which the CRTC could require a subscription service such as Spotify to reveal how much Canadian music it featured and how it promoted those tracks, but not ask the same of YouTube, leaving the countrys top music service untouched.

And that is why the Liberals, once their error was pointed out, tried to drop the loophole while the Conservatives, spying political opportunity, began sounding the censorship alarm. Maybe the Tories are just trying to make the Liberals look bad in the run-up to that inevitable election. Maybe they have been listening to too many big-tech lobbyists. Certainly, they care little for Canadas creative industries: They avoided this tricky but crucial file during their recent decade in office, never introducing legislation to update cultural protections and labelling their own bureaucrats attempts to apply the GST to digital services as a Netflix tax.

The Liberals, meanwhile, have moved frustratingly slowly on the cultural portfolio after spending their first term studying the problem. They have finally said in recent budget statements that they will apply the GST to Netflix bills and Google ads a bit of housekeeping also years overdue but they are now messing up the delivery of a new Broadcasting Act. While Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin has tried to get the bill through hearings, Tory MP Rachael Harder, dropped into a committee on which she doesnt usually sit, has mounted a filibuster that was still continuing Friday. And out in the media, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault has failed to offer a clear defence of the bill while OToole is busy scoring points.

Canadian creators are currently forced to compete with foreign tech giants that operate outside the regulations and taxes imposed on local cultural industries. Canadian artists, including musicians, screenwriters, actors and directors all professions that are, by their nature, committed to freedom of expression deserve a broadcasting law that offers basic fairness. The tragedy is that politics and disinformation is about to deny them that.

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Enough of the Conservative filibustering, the alarmist Twitterstorms and the ill-informed opinion pieces. Canada needs 21st-century broadcasting legislation now.

Sign up for The Globes arts and lifestyle newsletters for more news, columns and advice in your inbox.

Continued here:

Dishonest censorship scare may torpedo Bill C-10, a chance to update broadcasting laws for the modern era - The Globe and Mail

Are you excited about finally resuming your wedding and events photography, but the editing stageis giving you flashbacks to countless hours spent in front of your screen? This is where ImagenAI might come in handy! Take a look at this review.

I believe, it is safe to say that post-processing is one of the least appealing parts of wedding photography, especially if you are tasked with delivering numerous galleries during the peak of your wedding season and clients are eager to get their hands on the images as soon as possible. Although it might be a process we enjoy during a quieter season, the hours spent at the screen for every client quickly rack up, eating into our time we could have spent working on something else or relaxing.

The pandemic brought a very quiet, or rather nonexistent, wedding and events season upon us, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel as things are slowly starting to open up and restrictions have begun to loosen up. This meanssoon, you will be diving right back into photographing clients' weddings and events, bringing back all the highs and lows with it, including editing.

If you are looking for ways to reduce time spent editing while still maintaining a level of control and authority over your personal style that clients know you for,ImagenAI has brought out a product that may be of interest to you.

To put it simply, ImagenAI is an AI-assisted smart tool that works seamlessly with Lightroomto deliver you fast edits straight into your catalog, based on your own personal and unique editing style, which the algorithm learns from to improve on with every catalog that you edit thereafter. This algorithm learns your editing styleby reviewing several catalogs of your previously edited work, which helps it build your unique profile. The more edited work you send in, the more it is able to extract the information to deliver more accurate results.

ImagenAI can and has been used for wedding, events, newborn, food, real estate, and other types of photography. It is primarily aimed at professionals who regularly edit and deliver work to clients; however, it can also appeal to photographers who are starting out to help them build a faster workflow.

This tool has two primary features: editing with your own unique profile, which is built from your previous catalog edits or editing with the help of "Talents." Currently, ImagenAI features five Talentsto choose from with distinct styles of editing. These are actual working professionals whose editing styles or,to be more precise, profiles can be applied to your own catalog. From there on, you would adapt the final edits in Lightroom to suit your preferencesand also have the opportunity to begin building your own profile using Talents as a starting point.

This algorithm also works for studio companies to help maintain a consistent style across different editors.

When it comes to editing, ImagenAI supports adjusting white balance, tonal changes, such as exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and more, presence (clarity, vibrance, saturation, texture, and dehaze), colors section, which includes hue, saturation, and luminance, as well as advanced options, such as straighten and crop.

The whole process for working with a personal profile when a user has at least 5,000 images that the software can learn editing from can be broken down into these steps:

Overall, ImagenAI claims to reduce 75% in editing time and spends less than one second per photo, increasing your productivity four times.

Similar to companies specializing in post-processing, edits are priced based on the number of images you want to edit. If you want to maintain and build upon your personal profile, as opposed to using Talents, an additional$7 monthly fee ensures your profile is maintained and kept up to date.

If the user chooses to cancel their subscription during a quiet season, their profile is kept on the system for a certain time, but the company doesn't guarantee it will be kept forever;the company claimsitminimized the monthly fixed base payment to an affordable fee, however, even in quiet seasons, photographers can still create profile(s) that work with non-wedding work, which they may book during wedding off-seasons.

Pricing using a user-unique profilehas three tiers:

For example, editing a 400-image wedding gallery would cost you $24 using the first tier. The monthly$7 fee is already included in the bill because it acts as a minimum fee to be paid.

Editing with Talents is priced as follows:

Currently, the company is offering 1,000 free edits for 30 dayswhen you sign up. And, as of its latest update, a "refer a friend" option is available, which rewards both users with 500 free edits.

Before I dive into first impressions of the actual product, I want to acknowledge that AI-assisted tools in the photography industry have been present for some time, whether that is assisted culling, individual edits with more complex features, such as seamless sky replacement, or others. When it comes to individuality, AI cannot replicate the full extent of creativity that humans possess, because our vision is as unique as weare;however, I believe that there is a place where AI assistance tools can come in to make our life easier.

With that in mind, the first steps of setting time aside to prepare catalogs with your previous edits are important to get this process started. I spent a couple of evenings going through older weddings that I had edited that I felt would represent my style and would positively contribute towards the creation of my unique ImagenAI profile.

The first thing to note is that you are contributing your past edited images tothe creation of one profile. If you are a multi-faceted photographer who shoots different genres, you will want to spend time creating separate profiles for each genre because how you edit your weddings will differ from how you edit your real estate photographs.

Even though the algorithm is intelligent enough to ignore images within your previous catalogs that don't contribute towards the creation of your profile, such as TIFF files that may have been edited in Photoshop or in another program and then returned back in Lightroom, there are limitations in its capabilities. For example, you cannot expect to receive both color and monochrome edits.

To do that,it would mean that the AI would need to make the decision on which images to keep in color and which ones to edit in monochrome, which is a decision some of us struggle with at times, too, and the algorithm cannot make that choice for us. If you are a photographer who edits a large portion of your galleries in monochrome, you will not needto have two catalogs for that because you can simply build two profiles.

Personally, when I edit, I don't have a setquota of monochrome images and rather editbased on the imagecontent;however, for that, I have developed several monochrome presets that tend to suit most situations where I feel a monochrome edit is required. With that in mind, whether you edit manually or use an AI algorithm, you will still need to make those minor decisions on which images need to be in monochrome.

That aside, the actual process of setting up my own profile and then using it onunedited images was fast. I am basing this on my previous experience dealing with outsourcing editing and the steps I had to take to go from the initial orderemail I sent out to receiving edits back into Lightroom. As there are no human interactions, the process is as fast as you can make it, with the exception of the time ImagenAI spends to generate your profile for the first time.

My profile was very close to how I would edit myself, which was something I can evaluate because I used it on files I had already delivered a few years ago. I simply reset any and all adjustments I had made before applying the ImagenAI generated profile on them. The first thing I noticed was the consistency throughout scenes, which is something I found time-consuming to do manually.

With the exception of fourimages from the evening reception,which were on the warm side when shot, the rest of the reception sectionwas balanced throughout as were all other scenes, including the church.The consistency and harmonyof editing also translated into more challenging scenes, such as nighttime shots using ambient light only and high ISO.

Reviewing and comparing edits to the files I delivered, I can see how close ImagenAI was to my edits in mostcases. The ones that weren't as close would require me to simply adjust either the exposure slideror a combination of contrast and vibrancy. That aside, the edit would be near perfect to what I would be happy to deliver to my clients who know my way of editing and have become familiar with it during the booking process.

One thing I noticed was that, because the edits were so close to what I would feel happy to deliver to clients, I felt comfortable going through the catalog quite fast, and I was able to spend timefocused more on the fine details to check that the image looks good, such as any adjustments to the composition or whether I would need togo into Photoshop to remove small distracting details, or in fact whether I would deliver the image in monochrome instead.

As per the example video below, when you have finished fine-tuning the edits you received, you can send these adjustments to ImagenAIso it can learn and improve based on your current style, especially as it evolves over time.

My personal profile aside, I also tested editing with the help of Talents and chose "Dreamy Twist"profile by photographerMor Elnekave. Using Talents to edit is faster because you simply send off your fresh catalog by picking out the Talent you want to go with, and you will receive an email shortly after telling you that edits are ready to download, foregoing the process of setting up a personal profile.

Although the received edits are slightly "colder"and more vibrant, in regards to skin tones, than I would choose for my own edits, I can't fault them for not being consistent because they were throughout the whole gallery. In my opinion, although not my style of editing, images using this Talent's profile excelled in natural light and flash scenes. Examples below also received minor alterations in straightening the composition.

If you don't have access to any previous catalogs, picking the right Talent profile could be useful for those who want to use this service from time to time without building their own unique profile, simply because it's such a fast process and doesn't rely on using apost-processing company, which may have longer waiting times during peak periods.

Overall, both editing routes are equally simple, especially after you have created your first profile. I can see ImagenAI becoming an integral part of photographers' workflows not only to save time but also to provide an affordable editing service.Prices vary greatly across different post-processing providers and many use their own presets or styles of editing, meaning you need to spend time browsingand potentially also testing outdifferent options before you settle on one that represents your style the most.

Overall, I had a very positive experience with ImagenAI, and my only criticism, in regard to Talents, is simply something that will develop and improve over time. ImagenAI is constantly working on improving its services and takes user feedback into consideration, so it's a space to watch.

Personally, I enjoy the process, as there is no human interaction or reliance on an editor, which makes the whole experience smoother. In past, when dealing with outsourcing editing, besides uploading past catalogs, I also had to spend time on an email exchange, where I gave feedback on a number of test edits they hadperformed and had to request any changes I wantedto see in my gallery, followed with feedback after my order was delivered.

In addition,compared to outsourcing to a human editor, ImagenAI delivered my edits soon after I sent my unedited gallery. I hadn't even left my desk during that time. However, the time factor aside, what I found the most incredible was the algorithm's ability to adapt to my editing style. Sending final adjustments to ImagenAI after each gallery also allows the photographer's style to seamlessly develop alongside AI's help, which is something I would find more difficult if I was outsourcing editing toa human editor, especially if an editor I worked with closely was replaced.

I believethis product will appeal to photographers who want to be in control of their personal style of editing that their clients know them for but also want to reduce time spent on tasks that could be easily be performed by an algorithm. There is a discussion to be had on maintaining our unique vision as artists and whether AI jeopardizes it in any way; however, I think that ImagenAI is heading in the right direction.

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AI-Based Editing That Learns Your Style? Fstoppers Reviews ImagenAI - Fstoppers

Google Photos is one of the best photo storage platforms available on the Internet. One of the reasons it shot to fame was the unlimited free storage for high-quality photos and videos. This meant that you could keep your Google Photos settings at high-quality uploads, and your Android phone would continue uploading unlimited photos and videos that won't count against your Google account storage of 15GB. But, like everything, the free ride is finally coming to an end.

Back in November, Google announced that it was ending the free unlimited storage on June 1, 2021, which means starting next month, any photo or video uploaded on the photo storage service will count against the 15GB of free Google account storage. However, this doesn't apply to Pixel users globally. If you own a Pixel device, then hold it tight and continue the free ride.

For those unaware, Google Photos launched at Google IO 2015 and was a standalone app basically pulled out of Google+ service. It came with some handy tools for editing photos and videos. The app hit the 500 million users mark by May 2017 and hit 1 billion app downloads by June 2017.

One of the biggest questions raised soon after Google announced to change the Google Photos high-quality free tier to a paid one back in November was what happens to the existing photos and videos. It's worth noting that all photos and videos uploaded in high quality before June 1 2021, won't count towards users' 15GB of Google account storage.

This should come in as relief for a lot of users, especially considering that the last few months, in any case, haven't been great for holidaying thanks to the pandemic, which means fewer recent photos and plenty of old memories that will be safe in Google Photos.

Google Photos, since 2015, has been offering backup options in two ways - Unlimited high-quality storage for free and Original quality storage for free up to 15GB.

Starting June 1, 2021, high-quality content will be saved but counted towards your Google account storage. And, this means that once you've reached your storage limit, you can either subscribe to Google One for additional cloud storage or delete content to continue with the free storage option in Photos. The primary reason is simple that your Google account storage is shared across Drive, Gmail and Photos.

If some users fear losing Google account storage space by saving original quality images in the Photos app and want to change the tier, they should do it now. The photos backed up in original quality and then compressed to high quality after June 1 2021, will count towards your Google account storage. This means that if you want to switch your tier to high quality from your current original quality, then do it right away.

The good thing is, Google Photos is giving users an estimate on how long a user's storage may last based on how often they back up photos, videos, and files.

Google has also confirmed that it will roll out a new storage management tool for existing Google Photos users from June. The Google Photos page says, "In June, you will be able to access a new free tool that lets you find and review blurry, dark and other low-quality photos to help you stay within your 15GB of account storage."

Considering the new changes that go into effect from June 1, 2021, existing Google Photos users should upload all their images and videos in high quality right away. Why? Google says, "Any photos or videos you've uploaded in high quality before June 1, 2021, will not count towards your 15GB of free storage. This means that photos and videos backed up before June 1, 2021, will still be considered free and exempt from the storage limit."

The high-quality tier offered in Google Photos is one of the best you can get on any photo-storing platform. It allows you to save photos up to 16-megapixels and videos up to 1080p resolution.

Continued here:

Google Photos unlimited free storage offer ends this month, and here are few things you should keep in mind - India Today