Commercial photographer Dean Bradshaw provides us with a unique perspective of his recent photo shoot for “Startrac”. The shoot involved a handful of athletes being shot while mock competing in their individual sports. The athletes were shot in a controlled environment and then composited into different backgrounds in post. [more]
If you are a beginner in terms of lighting, or looking for some quick and simple light setups, then Don Giannatti has you covered. Don (a.k.a. Wizwow), recently posted some videos on his website showing 8 different light setups, as well as the differences between certain light modifiers. [more]
Rick Genest (aka Zombie Boy) is nothing if not intense. The 26-year-old Canadian fashion model is tattooed head to toe to look like a decomposing corpse, representing “the art of the rotting cadaver.” Genest, who you may recognize from Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” video, spent over 6 years and thousands of dollars on his body art project, so who better to star in a commercial for tattoo-cover-up cosmetic company Dermablend? [more]
Who doesn’t love watching the X Games? Those athletes are crazy. Just as captivating, though, is this behind-the-scenes two-part video on The Northface and X Games Baldface commercial. Director Todd Jones pulls out all the stops in this two part BTS documentary, breaking out a Phantom HD Gold, a helicopter, and building one really enormous jump. [more]
Fstoppers.com has featured some great behind the scenes videos over the years and showcased amazingly talented professional photographers in our Fstoppers Originals series. Recently Patrick and I were invited to Scottsdale, Arizona to expose the secrets of commercial photographer Blair Bunting. When Blair invited us down to Loft 19 Studios, his idea was to shoot something big, expensive, and one of a kind. [more]
One year ago, Japan was devastated by the Tohoku earthquake, an underwater earthquake that not only rated a magnitude of 9.0 but has been listed as one of the 5 most powerful earthquakes in the world. The earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that claimed the lives of 15,850 people and caused a number of nuclear accidents, most notably at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. [more]
I thought I had seen pretty much every type of water drop photo over the years, then I stumbled upon these. Markus Reugels is a floor installer in Marktsteinach, Germany as well as a part-time photographer. Markus has created a way to reflect images into water drops while capturing said drops in midair. [more]
Just about everyone I know is hooked on critically-acclaimed series Breaking Bad. (A high school chemistry teacher with cancer turned meth dealer? How could that not be interesting?) But as TV still photographer Ursula Coyote will tell you, shooting [more]
Photojournalist Gerd Ludwig has been making trips to the site of the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster since 1993. He has been documenting the local citizens attempts to rebuild their lives, along with the current state of buildings in the blast area. The National Geographic photographer has just released 150 of these photos, including some interactive panoramas, as an iPad app. [more]
With the Oscars taking place tomorrow, it seems like the perfect time to present a b.t.s. video of an Oscar related photo shoot. The Hollywood Reporter has made a behind the scenes video for their most recent photo shoot, entitled:”Oscar Icons”. The “Icons” include Helen Mirren, Michael Douglas and some guy named Charlie Sheen. Check out the full post for the video.
The majority of my generation doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about gender discrimination and gender issues in their career path, myself included. I actively avoided all the gender studies kids in college, finding their “keg-conversation” a tad too zealous for comfort. However, through my never-ending quest for FS Spotlight subjects, I can’t help noticing that a disproportionate number of renowned photographers are men. “Hm, coincidence?” I wondered. “Or is photography still a man’s world?” My personal impression was that while the world of established, renowned photographers is male-dominated, I know just as many young female photographers as male. But as I stared at the Fstoppers writer’s roster – 17 writers, 15 men, 2 women, I decided it was time to do a bit of research.
Marcus Nilsson thinks outside the box. A former chef, Nilsson stumbled into food photography and ended up being one of the photographers who shaped our contemporary approach to cuisine. Today, Nilsson is still pushing that envelope (with on-camera flash, what?!), and regularly works for some of the world’s top foodie magazines, including Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, Martha Stewart Living, Details, Esquire, Everyday with Rachael Ray, the Food Network, GQ, and Travel+Leisure. Check out the full FS Spotlight interview below, where Nilsson dishes on shooting on-camera flash, tilt-shift lenses, crazy Mexican market foods, and why he hates sandwiches.
Today we can finally wrap up the Fstoppers 2011 behind the scenes video contest. This contest ran for 4 months in 2011 and ended on December 31st. In January Patrick and I watched each of the 120 video submissions and narrowed our favorite down to 12. We then sent those 12 videos to our celebrity judges and they chose their favorites. without further adieu, these are the top 3 winners.
It seems the crew over at Phase One is in a particularly giving mood this week. They have decided to sell their flagship software title at 50% of its retail price. In fact ALL their software is 50% off. The catch? It’s this week only. Capture One Pro is arguably the go to software for tethered shooting and high quality raw conversions. See the full post for more details.
Photographer Michelangelo Di Battista recently shot actress Kirsten Stewart of Twilight fame for Italian Vogue. The behind the scenes video of the shoot takes the viewer through the set and shows us quite a few different light setups. Click through to the full post for more.
