Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Have You Encountered "Live" Photos Yet?

I had my first encounter with 'live' photos yesterday, and I was not impressed.  With my big camera lens sent off to the camera hospital, I tried out my new iphone camera when we stopped at Inglis Falls.  Unbeknownst to me, the iphone SE features a new gimmick called 'Live', and the default setting has it turned on.

I always start my visit to Inglis Falls by checking out the mill pond dam above the falls.  This photo turned out fine.

Ice formations on the main falls - the entire falls is frozen, the falling water underneath completely encased in ice.  I've only seen it like this once before.

Finally the water pops out in the river channel at the base of the falls, where it appears in black 'windows' in the snow.  I took 22 photos altogether, but when I got home and loaded them up on the computer, 19 of them were little videos!

This is one of those little videos, a 'Live' photo.  Apple came up with the bright idea that you could embed your photo in a few seconds of video to make it more interesting.  Of course it only works on Apple devices, and if you post it to Facebook.  I've seen these in online news sites, where you see a photo that seems to have a little we bit of movement to it.  But it seems like a stupid unnecessary distraction to me!  Be glad to hear what you think.

The other side of it is that once you load it into a photo-editing program like Lightroom, you can't edit it, and it shows up only as a video.  Luckily I figured out quickly how I could turn this useless little feature off!  And I went back today and got some 'real' photos which I'll share with you tomorrow.

Here's a 'real' video of the creek above the falls, just before it disappears under the ice to come out again at the base of the falls.


18 comments:

  1. I turned off live photos, too. I think it's silly and useless also. :-)

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  2. I have seen them and not impressed either.

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  3. Thanks, but no thanks. There's nothing worse in the digital age than "improvements" that are added without any obvious notification and which users may not want. That happens all too often.

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  4. Well, I will be the odd man out...in that I liked the one you show and love the REAL video...but I would not like it if it were not what I was expecting! have accidentally did that a time or two somehow and was really aggravated when it happened to me. LOL(Not an IPhone either) It was entirely my fault...

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  5. There must be a use for that feature though I'm afraid it eludes me at the moment. I'm always fascinated by frozen waterfalls; I saw a few frozen ones when I used to lead winter walks in Wales but here in the flatlands of East Anglia there aren't even any waterfalls.

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  6. running water on the real live video, very real indeed. Huge snow and icicles, it must be mighty cold!!

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  7. Had mine for over a year, think it's great though you can turn it off if you want

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  8. I don't have an iPhone! The kids post their photos on Photos, and I can view them there. It is distracting. I don't like them!

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  9. I don't have an iphone either, so it's not an issue. Beautiful in the snow!

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  10. I encountered that on my husbands phone, I didn't know you could shut it off I will do that:) You still got a couple of good photos:)

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  11. I have a smart phone so features are different but I do like to use its camera and video in a pinch if I dont have my big camera with me . Nice shots . We have lost most of our snow with the temps hitting 10C here and all the rain we have had I am soo looking forward to spring now that this warm up has happened lol ! Thanks for sharing , have a good day !

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  12. It's all very impressive, I don't think my phone camera would take as good photos as yours.

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  13. I wonder why any new device is always set to the least useful setting. Not impressed with your live photo although the subject matter was lovely.
    When we upgraded our satellite tv last year It had the child safety settings on (the children are 38 and 41 and don't live here anyway) and we struggled for days to discover why we couldn't change the channel after 9 pm. Eventually the Chef managed to change the settings online but my remote control still won't work between 9 and 7. Wouldn't you think the engineer might ask if we want child safety settings? Or turn them off as we obviously don't require them?
    Or your phone come with a "go by the way the live photo function is on".

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  14. Nope- If I want a video, I'll take a video.

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  15. Yes, I've found that 'lovely' feature! And turned it off. I enjoyed your video of the falls and the photos are so beautiful. The rains are on the way this morning and with the 10C temps the snow is already melting fast! Then the deep freeze again. Have a good weekend.

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  16. The frozen falls looks amazing and movement and sound brings the scene to life.
    Happy weekend!

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  17. Don't have the feature on my phone but I kind of like it. It is nice to have the option to turn it on or off.
    Those ice formations on the falls are amazing.
    Like hearing the sound of the water in your video.

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