Fstoppers » 2011 BTS Contest

Edward Hopper’s Paintings as Photographs (NSFW)

Nick Fancher — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:02:24 +0000

Richard Tuschman is a fine art photographer, whose works has appeared on a number of book covers. His latest project, Hopper Meditations, has him recreating famous Edward Hopper paintings in an unconventional way.

When I first saw his images, I was struck by the quality in them. They appear to be a composites, but it also looks like he may have been using a tilt-shift lens. Even if they were composites, I was fascinated by how he found locations that perfectly mirrored the original paintings. Tushcman’s secret? Dioramas. [more]

The Winners Of The Fstoppers 2011 BTS Video Contest

Lee Morris — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:16:14 +0000

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.

How we chose the winners: Before we heard back from the judges we came up with a simple rating system. Each first place vote got 3 points, second place got 2 points, and 3rd place got 1 point. In case of a tie, videos that had been placed by the most judges would win (this was the case for 3rd place). If there was still a tie Patrick and I would be the tie breakers (luckily, we didn’t have to do this). It is unfortunate that 2, first place videos didn’t place in the top 3 but we assumed there would be some sort of tie since there were only 12 videos and 4 judges. You can see the way each of the judges voted below.

Stacy Pearsall
First Place: The HDR Strobed Action Snowmobile Shoot
Second Place: The Making Of ‘Grolsch Idents’
Third Place: This Is How We Do Weddings

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Scott Kelby
First Place: This Is How We Do Weddings
Second Place: The 360 Project
Third Place: Go Pro Wedding

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Vincent Laforet
First Place: The Making Of ‘Grolsch Idents’
Second Place: The Whistleblower
Third Place: This Is How We Do Weddings

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Chase Jarvis
First Place: The Chase
Second Place: This Is How We Do Weddings
Third Place: The Whistleblower

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First place: This Is How We Do Weddings

Second Place: The Making Of ‘Grolsch Idents’

Third Place: The Whistleblower check out the final video here.

Youtube Version:

[Upgrades] Has The New Update To Apple’s Final Cut Pro Fixed The Backlash?

Patrick Hall — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:27:43 +0000

Remember when Apple released the new version of its flagship video editing program Final Cut X? If not, you might want a refresher course with Conan O’brien. Basically the backlash was almost unanimous, and it made many of us thankful we chose Adobe’s Premiere as our editing software of choice. Well today there is an upgrade that apparently fixes most of the complaints from FCP X users.

With the new Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3 upgrade, Apple has added a few features left out of the original version of Final Cut X. Here is a list of a few of the substantial changes that should appease the most hardcore video editors. If there is something you still want to see in the X version that your Pro version did, leave your thoughts in the comments below:

Updates:
Multicam Editing and Syncing (similar to Plural Eyes maybe?)
Advanced Chroma Keying
Better XML integration for 3rd party applications and plug-ins
Beta version of Broadcast monitoring
Initial support for Thunderbolt and PCIe cards
Conversion of .EDL files into XML files for compatibility with older FCP sessions and projects (via 7toX’s $10 plugin)

Both the free update to Apple’s V10.0.3 upgrade and the legacy plugin from 7toX can be found here in The Mac Store.

via [PC Mag]

These Are The Finalists For The Fstoppers 2011 BTS Contest

Lee Morris — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:36:49 +0000

We’re so excited to announce the finalists for our 2011 Behind The Scenes Contest. Thank you to EVERYONE who participated. The videos this year really blew us away! We were forced to choose our top 12 videos to make it to the finals instead of the the top 10 we had planned. From this stage, they will be sent off to our celebrity judges for the final round who will choose a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winner! Good luck!

1. The 360 Project by Ryan Enn Hughes

Final Product:

This video was one of the first videos submitted and it caused a huge amount of interest. Obviously we have seen setups like this before but the power really lies in the final editing. Because the final product was not simply a single photograph, Ryan Hughes had to submit a behind the scenes video as well as a final product video. Lucky for us we have two final products, one featuring ballet and another featuring breakdancing, which you can watch below.

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2. The Whistleblower – Music Video by SIX NINE THREE
Behind The Scenes

Final Video

When we said we didn’t want to see anymore “Music Videos” what we were referring to was those uninformative highlight videos of photographers running around shooting everything without any substance. Luckily we did get some amazing true Music Videos with behind the scenes footage of how they created their final production. One such project was The Whistleblower by Maya+Nadia of SixNineThree. Just like any other video production, contestants had to include a behind the scenes video along with the final video. Check out both above to see an interesting use of a 3D pyramid.

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3. The Black Light Warriors by Julius Ise

We received so many videos about lighting, and everyone tried to come up with something just a little different. This video by Julius Ise stood out to us because he decided not to use strobes or natural light at all. Instead, Julius painted his subjects with fluorescent paint and lit his tribal portraits with a blacklight. Of course we’ve all seen images that use blacklight instead of 5000K lighting but we were all so impressed with the theme and final images that we knew our judges would enjoy watching this one.

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4. Street Fashion Photography with Nick Fancher by Andy Newman

When we first featured Nick Faucher’s How To Shoot Fashion Quickly In Any Location, people freaked out over his simple no nonsense product and portrait lighting. Blog after blog started featuring his original video. Clearly photographers were learning and enjoying Nick’s product work. So it was no surprise when Nick submitted a second video showing how he photographs up to 10 products a day for JackThreads. It’s easy to get consumed with perfect lighting and debating which light modifier you should utilize. Watching Nick shoot campaign after campaign with barebulb speedlights was probably as refreshing to us as it was to most of our readers. Congrats to Andy Newman and Nick Fancher for making another killer BTS video about their photography.

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5. Go Pro Wedding by Jaroslav Repta

One of the most challenging aspects of this contest was to come up with something not only creative but also informative. Having started out as wedding photographers ourselves, we know how saturated the wedding market can be and how much information there is already out there about wedding photograph. So when Jaroslav Repta created his Go Pro Wedding video, we were shocked at how easily he created something we had never seen before. Jaroslav not only allowed viewers to see what a day in the life looks like for a wedding photographer but he also stopped to explain some of his go to setups that work day in and day out. This video was a huge success with our readers so we knew this had to be included in the final mix. Check out the original Go Pro Wedding post here if you missed out on the conversation the first time.

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6. The Little People by Robert Simpson

It’s fair to say that Robert Simpson was the hardest working photographer to enter the Fstoppers 2011 contest. With at least 9 full blown entries, Robert proved that not only was there plenty of time to photography and film a contest entry, but there was also plenty of ideas to explore. Our favorite video of his is titled The Little People. Using nothing more than a Nikon D70 (yes Seven Zero) and kit lens, Robert created an interesting image that definitely pulls some influence from one of my favorite childhood books The Indian In The Cupboard. Congrats to Robert on all of his contest submissions and for making the final 12 with this entry.

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7. Trapped Under Ice by Cory Albrechtson

Cory Albrechtson wanted to take his contest entry into a more eerie direction, and his final image definitely got our attention. The way Cory constructed this shoot wasn’t rocket science however the images he got afterwards are fantastic. The post production really made a difference with the images in achieving the scary look. This video is simple, informative but also very creative. Even if you never plan on making your own horror movie style image, Cory’s frozen corpse shoot should inspire you to take your own concepts to the next level production wise.

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8. The Never Ending Fashion Shoot by Amy Lynn Straub

Click the image below to see the finished product.

Amy Lynn Straub was another young photographer who instantly impressed us with her ambitious photo idea. Running with the idea of a never ending 360 pano, Amy was able to stitch together multiple fashion photos of her friends into one seamless clothing campaign. Not only are the photographs themselves great but the amount of work required to produce the final interactive media showed us how much thought went into this project. Like all of these contest finalists, Amy’s original post The Never Ending Fashion Shoot sparked a lot of positive conversation.

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9. This Is How We Do Weddings….by Justin Wojtczak

As professional wedding photographers we are extremely critical when we see “how to shoot wedding” type videos. After only a few minutes of watching this video we knew Justin Wojtczak’s submission was going to make to the finals. Not only is the video fun to watch but it is also fantastic information. When you see the shots that these guys are getting, you will see what we mean.

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10. The Making Of ‘Grolsch Idents’ by Curtis & Kar Productions

Final Product:

We cannot say enough good things about this behind the scenes video. The concept is extremely simple but the finished product is amazing. Curtis & Kar took something that had the potential to be really boring and they made it fun to watch and wildly informative. Even if you don’t shoot video there is so much to learn from this BTSV.

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11. The HDR Strobed Action Snowmobile Shoot by Andy Kawa

We got so many submissions this year that it took us weeks to finally see them all. This video by Andy Kawa was one of the last videos that we watched. We really appreciate the fact that Andy packed this video full of useful information. When he had lighting issues, he didn’t edit it out, he showed us how he worked through it. After watching his BTSV we felt like we could attempt a similar type of shoot without any issue.

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12. The Chase by Eric Herrmann

Click the image below to see the finished product OR using your smartphone log onto www.thechasepano.com

“The Chase” by Eric Herrmann was one of the entries that made us all look at each other and go “wow”. These guys had an incredible concept and they made it happen even with major obstacles (like having to turn red cars black). The finished image from this shoot was probably our favorite from this entire contest. We all appreciated the fact that these guys did something completely out of the ordinary and they did it very well.

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Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far. Your videos will now be judged by Chase Jarvis, Vincent Laforet, Stacey Pearsal, and Scott Kelby. At this point you have a 1 in 4 chance to win one of our massive prize packages.

[BTSV] Contest: Circus Girls Dangling From High Ceiling

Lauren Jonas — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:01:35 +0000

After having their studio space and equipment destroyed from an earthquake, the guys over at the Image Workshop pulled it together to create a pretty cool behind the scenes video. They were asked by alternative Circo-Art performers, “The Damaged Duo” to take their promotional pictures. While they used several different lighting setups, the one thing that remained constant was their use of Broncolor heads and packs which provided fast recycle times. To see the final photos from the Image Workshops’s shoot click here.

[BTSV] Contest: A Side-by-Side Comparison of Film vs Digital Video

Kenn Tam — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:00:00 +0000

“My name is David Keller, and this is my BTS entry for fstoppers 2011 contest. This video takes you behind the scenes of a test shoot for a feature film called ‘Warrior’. The director tells you about the film, explains why he is choosing 16mm film over digital alternatives, and talks about how the scene is set up. The video also offers a side-by-side comparison of Super-16mm film, and the digital video of a Panasonic AF-100. The video isn’t meant to be instructional, but there are several things a person can take from it. I hope yall enjoy it!”

via [BehindtheScenesContest] [ContestEntries]

From Kenn:
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If you want to receive the best of the month’s posts in a convenient newsletter then don’t forget to subscribe now.
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[BTSV] Contest: A Clever Music Vid Using a Holographic Pyramid

Kenn Tam — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:00:48 +0000

Another great behind the scenes of Arkells’ “Whistleblower” music video, where they use a holographic pyramid to capture the image of the band member, playing live.

Shot on the Canon T2i
Edited in FCP 7

[BTSV] Contest: A Desert Fashion Shoot Without the Sand or Sun

Kenn Tam — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:00:55 +0000

A short and sweet behind the scenes look at a desert sand storm photo shoot, without the desert.

www.amylynnstraub.com
@amylynnphotos
Video filmed by : Taylor Tracy
Model : Nicole Keimig
Hair and Makeup : Sara Larson

[BTSV] Contest: Strahan Of The Dead (HowToKickAss for only $35)

Kenn Tam — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:00:32 +0000

See how existing footage, sound bites, 35 bucks and some creative editing can turn out a kick ass promo vid. If this BTS teaches you anything it should be to film, shoot and archive everything, cause you never know when you just may need the footage. Great work on the video, guys. And on making me miss BC.

BTSV

Final

[BTSV] Contest: A 70′s Vibe with Guns, Booze, Bikes and Dirt

Kenn Tam — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:00:37 +0000

“Spot Cinema was asked to come along to a Matt Barnes’ Creative, as he organized an amazing PhotoShoot at Gopher Dunes rein-acting a scene from the 1960s /70s with a couple of male models, dirt bikes, vintage clothing and a Smoke Machine!”

Spot Cinema:
“The piece turned out to be one of our favourite BTS vids and after hearing about the F Stoppers Contest, we couldn’t resist but to upload our video.In this piece, Matt shoots with the Canon 5D mk II, a L series 24-70mm 2.8 and a L series II 70-200mm 2.8 + he also brought along a vintage point and shoot he got from a thrift shop that produced some awesome photos in the collection!
The BTS video was shot with a 2 Canon 60D, Canon L series II 70-200mm 2.8, Zeiss 50mm 1.4, Zeiss 21mm 2.8, a manfrotto monopod, and a Cinevate FLT slider.
To see Matt’s final products from this shoot: mattbarnesphoto.tumblr.com/post/13304708342/2stroke to see our little look book we created from the shoot: spotcinema.com/?p=39 to check out more amazing work by Matt Barnes: thatsthespot.com”