Dynamic Image Stacks

Traditionally, photography has been driven by a relatively fixed paradigm: capture, develop, and print. Even with the advent of digital photography, the photographic process still continues to focus on creating a single, final still image suitable for printing. This implicit association between a display pixel and a static RGB value can constrain a photographer´s creative agency. We present dynamic image stacks, an interactive image viewer exploring what photography can become when this constraint is relaxed. Our system first captures a burst of images with varying capture parameters, then, in response to simple touch gestures on the image, our interactive viewer displays the best available image at the user´s focus of attention. Exposure, focus, or white balance may be slightly compromised in the periphery, but the image parameters are optimal at the selected location. Dynamic image stacks turn photograph viewing into an interactive, exploratory experience that is engaging, evocative, and fun.