Commercial

Several months ago, Brazilian ad agency AlmapBBDO teamed up with Getty images to produce 'From Love to Bingo in 873 Images.' The ad showed off the extensive photographic library Getty has to offer with a creative story of boy meets girl. Recently, the same creative team came up with a similar concept to advertise Getty's video library.

Finding a great retoucher (if you use one) can be a pretty daunting task. Most photographers end up doing their own - picking up techniques and tricks along the way. Ashlee Gray is a beauty and fashion photographer and [primarily a] retoucher based in New York whose clients include Tresemme, Starbucks, Rebecca Minkoff and Gatorade. As a photographer, her images are beautiful, feminine and even delicate. It's that same underlying aesthetic that she applies to her retouching- yet still managing to retain the unique style of the individual photographers she works with.

"Coty Tarr is an active lifestyle photographer based in New York City," so says the not quite so lengthy bio on his website. On initial thought, one might think the concise personal description is a little off-putting, but to anyone that has ever met Coty, it is nothing if not an apt discriptor. In a world where many photographers feel the need for shameless overpromotion (not that there's anything wrong with that), Coty takes a more subtle approach, working tirelessly and letting the caliber of his images and his work ethic speak for him.

Aaron Nace at PHLEARN teamed up with professional product photographer Rob Grimm to demonstrate how a super high-end watch shoot would be put together. Check out how Grimm takes numerous shots and combines them into one advertising-quality image.

I find athletic themed shoots to be especially interesting considering the amount of effort and expertise that goes pulling off that one perfect shot. Follow James Quantz Jr in this behind the scenes video as he takes on the challenge of shooting the South Carolina Gamecocks.

I woke up this morning to find an email from Chase Jarvis's camp showcasing his new photo campaign for the Samsung 9 Series Monitors. It feels like ages since Chase has released one of his epic behind the scenes videos, so I was excited to see he's still alive and kicking the creative cloud (pun intended). If your imaginative juices don't start flowing after watching this video then it might be time to put your camera into retirement. Check out the behind the scenes video and then

Wyn has been featured on Fstoppers quite a few times. Why? His work is outstanding. He comes up with some really cool concepts for shots. From using LED's on a basketball shoot to powder with Gymnasts. He does it all perfectly.

A Spanish organization called "Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk" (ANAR) created a new ad campaign to bring awareness to kids at risk, using a cool new idea (but a very old technique). By using Lenticular printing, they were able to show two different ads in one print - one for kids, and one for adults. Adults see a different image and message than what the kids see. Smart, creative and important.

Last week I did a photo shoot for Leo's Wisdom, which is a company that makes handmade, high end jewelry. The purpose of the shoot was to provide the client with product shots and lifestyle images for their promotional needs. Their mood board for the shoot was filled with images depicting lush locations and high society. But we were shooting on a rainy day in Columbus, Ohio. So we made lemonade.

With the new Iron Man movie out this week it's only natural that companies would cash in on the film trilogy. Verizon Wireless have released a new commercial for their new internet service, FiOS Quantum. VFX house, The Embassy, who created the special effects also worked on the first Iron Man film.

A photographer and digital artist by the name of Terrence Blanton has released a new website and photo series called "Eagle Faction" that is explosive and very influenced by Call of Duty and Battlefield. Terrence got ahold of a local Airsoft team to help create a fictional series about a team of former military and outdoorsmen that band together to help salvage their local territory of America after a collapse and invasion in the year 2023.

Social media has progressed to a point where anyone can personalize their online experience. Through your own network of friends and filters, "Likes" and "Shares" now prioritize funny or relevant content for you and those you share commonalities with. Talenthouse now seeks to utilize that method of content sharing to popularize your artistic capability. The site is designed to set apart the best of the best in any category of art through popular vote.

If you are like me, your image library is full of personal shoots and client images that were never used. Instead of just letting those images collect dust on your hard drives, now these images may have a new home. The people at Image Brief partner with designers and advertisers and pair them with photographers who may just have that perfect image for their campaign.

Adobe just released a teaser video for their May 6th event where they will announce few new products and features. In this video they show one of their new tools for Photoshop - "Camera Shake Reduction". This tool will allow photographers to save photos that were always considered as garbage - photos taken in a rush, or in low-light situations. The tool analyzes the photo, and deblur it to make it sharp.

Ok so many of you will not be fond of this technique. That is totally your preference. But for those of you who like good HDR photos, the guys are PHLEARN show a method that will teach you a method to get faux-HDR final images that will make some of your images go from good to great.

Have you ever wondered how dance companies and productions get those amazing photographs of their artists in perfectly posed dance stances? Well, Benjamin Von Wong has recently thrown some light over the intricate process of lighting and shooting a complex dance campaign.

Ryan Moore is a professional retoucher. He recently wrote a list of five tips that can help save your client time and money. Saving time and money doesn't just benefit the client. It also lays a firm foundation for an ongoing relationship between the photographer and the client.

According to Moore, "there are many contributing factors in a modern day retail campaign,

Here in New York, we finally had a day that that you could actually call "warm." To celebrate, here is a BTS of the Guess shoot for their 2013 Spring/Summer collection shot in Bora Bora, Tahiti by Yu Tsai. I've always been a fan of the direction that Guess chooses to go with their campaigns. It has a seemingly effortless sex-appeal. A great thing to take away from this BTS is that, although every person on set is an incredibly talented professional, the fundamentals of what they are doing is rooted in simplicity.

Automotive photography can be an extremely rewarding niche in the photography industry. The fast, shiny, power-inducing machines that rush by in a blur of color can be a thrill to anyone photographer, but it can also be daunting making sure that every detail is just perfect. Automotive photographer John Zhang walks us through the post processing of one of his lates shots of a Lexus LFA.

To say that I have been absent from writing lately is a slight understatement. In all reality I have been absent from life in general. I have been sitting on planes listening to podcasts more than I have been sitting at bars listening to friends. All for one giant campaign: "Give Me Strength" by Muscle Milk.

When it comes to compositing, the most tedious part of the Photoshop workflow to me has to be the extracting of objects from the background. With so many different ways to extract a subject: the pen tool, the lasso tool, refine edge, or Fluid Mask, it can be hard to find the technique that best suits your workflow. Commercial and editorial photographer Michael Herb has recently released an amusing quick mask tutorial that might just be the thing to get you out of your compositing rut.

In one of their most recent advertising campaigns, Yokohama blends a fun mix of high speed sports car chases and childhood games to produce two different commercials. The filming process involved multiple rigs and setups to get a variety of shots, including the director hanging through the windshield of a truck filming the driver. Check out the final commercials below.

Jurassic Park is my favorite movie of all time. The story line itself is captivating but the incredible special effects are what really set this film apart. The movie was released 20 years ago in 1993 and the CGI and robotic dinosaurs still look more realistic than the majority of special effects in movies today. Stan Winston has just released 3, never before seen videos of the creation of the robotic dinosaurs from the original Jurassic Park.

Hasselblad + Beer = Good stuff.

In this behind the scenes video, commercial photographer Rob Grimm and Phlearn, co-created a tutorial around the set of a beer photo shoot. Grimm does a great job explaining the lighting being used on set, how he works around reflections on glass with polarizers, how he creates highlights in the beer bottle and why chopsticks are necessary to make cereal malt beverages look crisp on camera.

A few minutes ago I received an email that contained some big red flags and alerted me of a dangerous situation that all photographers and models should be aware is happening. Recently here on Fstoppers we reported on models that went missing after accepting jobs on these modeling sites. Well now I have discovered that someone is actually representing themselves as me on one of these sites and trying to setup various shoots with models.

With the current state of the photography business flooded by part-time professionals, Ourspot (or something like it) was ultimately inevitable. The website, which launches in San Francisco today (New York and Los Angels coming soon), is an online marketplace where anyone can hire an amateur photographer for as little as free to as much as a few hundred bucks.

Car photography can be done in many different ways using different techniques. Some people like shooting it with gelled strobes, some like to lightpaint it or just shoot with available light. There is no one right way to do it. Shooting cars is something most photographers can try: just take your (or your friends) car and start shooting it - but as easy as it is to try - its not easy to produce breathtaking results. Check out this collection of amazing car photos found on Flickr.

I have been following the amazing work of boudoir photographer Christa Meola for a couple of years now. Just a quick look at her portfolio and you will agree that her boudoir work is some of the best out there. Recently she posted a lighting diagram for a two light setup she has been using. Christa happens to use a nude model for the lighting setup so heads up.

Patric Bergkvist is making a strong case as one of the better Swedish liquid photographers with his fantastic handle on the ideal lighting in very humble shooting spaces. We featured his exploding coffee and milk photo tutorial in early February and now he is back showing how to make a perfect shot of Whiskey. Photo that is.

Early in February of 2013, Rovio announced a new side project called "Angry Birds Superstars," which juxtaposed athletes with the hugely popular Angry Birds imagery. Though there likely are more on the way, Rovio has started the project with NHL Stanley Cup champion Anže Kopitar and NBA All-Star Veteran Andrew Bynum, both photographed by Jere Hietala. The point? Because it’s fun and awesome.

I recently came across the work of Miller Mobley on Twitter on a random chance of browsing through a few recent tweets. I was linked directly to his blogwhich had a post about his recent shoot with Quentin Tarantino and Jamie Foxx. What I loved, more than his impeccable results, was how he was quite giving in regards to the details of the shoot.

During this last superbowl there were some pretty amazing commercials, but one stood out to me. The new live action, God of War Ascension trailer. Being a huge fan of the God of War series I was happy to see the character, 'Kratos', brought to life. Below are the behind the scenes videos on how they brought the game out of the Playstation and into the real world.

The Verge and Gizmodo have featured a video found on Youtube that shows Adobe's CEO, Shantanu Narayen, masterfully avoiding answering a very direct question: "How can Adobe justify selling the Creative Suite for $1400 more in Australia than in the United States?" Rather than talking about the pricing of the Creative Suite, Narayen continually deflects to the Creative Cloud.

Skreened is an eCommerce company that specializes in on-demand screen printing. Shirts are their biggest sellers. Since each shirt design is unique, they needed a library of images with models in blank tees so they could overlay the latest designs in post. When they approached me to shoot for them, their main request was that these portraits be fun and energetic.

Whether you watched the Super Bowl or not, it's very possible you saw the now world famous PSY perform an adapted version of "Gangnam Style" for a pistachio commercial. I have to admit, when I first saw the commercial, I was taken off guard by the lack of connection. Still, I've thought about pistachios since, so I guess the marketing campaign worked.

For reasons unknown, I receive many calls to photograph pseudo reality TV shows more than almost anything other than athletic campaigns. Like sports, I try not to watch the shows I photograph. It is not out of disrespect for what the celebs and athletes are doing, but rather I want to remain distant from the connotations put upon them from commentators or editors. As much as we’d all like to believe that everything about a reality TV show is real, it is often far from it.

Many of you readers are like me in that you don't have your own photography studio. While it's sometimes inconvenient, I have learned to make do without one. This diagram will show you how to get a polished looking product shot in a boring office hallway.

Now that the Superbowl is behind us we can all start talking about the best commercials we saw. All over social media it seems the one that got the big win for the night was the excellent commercial from Dodge truck with photos of farmers. Great commercial indeed... but did you know that it was inspired by an idea posted to YouTube back in 2011 by Farms.com. I have shared them both below.

For sports photographers everywhere, tonight is the night that you someday hope to be working. Super Bowl Sunday has basically became a national holiday for Americans. Whether you’re watching for the commercials, or the game, photographers everywhere want to see that lineup of camera bodies and lenses on the sidelines.

Our good friend Dave Lehl is at it again and this time he's moved out of the snow and into the skate park. To add a bit of flare to the standard skateboarding shot Dave taped sparklers to the bottom of the board and used smoke bombs to set the mood. Check out the full post to a link to the high res finished shots.

Every Week Benjamin Von Wong releases new behind the scenes content for your viewing pleasure. This week Ben takes off for Paris and tackles the challenge of shooting a piece of fine art called the “WOM dog” by Cyril Anguelidis. Ben and his talented fire-wielding partner-in-crime, Andrey DAS, took their time in pre-production. They sketched out what exact effects were to be used around the expensive sculpture for the most dramatic look, while still keeping the crew and subject safe.

Whenever I talk to another photographer the topic of “personal work” always comes up. Usually in the casual form of, “hey, have you shot any personal work lately?” This standard artistic rendition of the workplace, “how’s the weather” is usually brushed off and more enjoyable conversations quickly replace it. However, for me, it is probably better that my “personal work” remains limited, for doing it usually leeds to bodily harm (or in this case recurring nightmares).

In my opinion, nothing is sexier than a glossy black surface. And you don't even need a black backdrop sweep to achieve it.

During my time as the lifestyle photographer for JackThreads, I shot many different products in many different ways. Since I was shooting an average of 10 brands per day, I had to work quickly and in a tiny space. Through working in this condition, I developed some cheap and easy lighting scenarios.

When I first got into portrait photography, I saw his work and I wanted to be Zim Killgore. Years later, I still have inspiration folders that are filled with his stuff. I've always been interested in his work because its nothing like anything I've ever seen before. Its a fresh take on portrait photography, that encourages you to just sit down and stare at it.

In this fun behind the scenes video, we get to see San Diego-based production company SaintWest staging video shots for the "Find Your Moment" campaign with Torrey Pines golf course. Get an inside look on how the crew captures the golf experience in a cinematic way, but also improvises to make a simulated golf hole for a unique POV shot. Inside are the final videos.

A few weeks ago Eric Pare released the 24x360 project which included 24 cameras taking a long exposure picture of a single subject. It's difficult to explain but once you see it you will understand. Eric was kind enough to write up an article just for us on how these incredible video clips were made.

Although there are thousands Guinness Wold Records and some are broken every day, it's still inspiring to see large numbers of people come together with a common goal. Recently, both GoPro and Devin Graham filmed different world records.

Photography is an enormous, multifaceted industry that ranges from portrait and product to macro and landscape. As photographers, we owe it to ourselves to learn as much as we can about each specific genre of our trade. Even if you only shoot weddings or cars, it’s important to learn and practice new techniques, which will allow you to hone your skills and can keep you out of creative ruts. Recently, I have had the opportunity to take on several types of shoots that I either have never done before or have had very limited experience with.

I’m driving a beautiful triple-black Aston Martin DB9 V12 down a florida highway. Its nose so long that the sun striking it practically blinds me. AC/DC is blasting on the radio and the car’s 12 cylinders roar at the slightest touch to the throttle. One client has loaned me his beautiful British exotic so I could drive 90 minutes away to briefly meet another private client about photographing his multi-million dollar Bugatti supercar collection. Surreal, right? This sort of experience has become sort of commonplace for me recently, but it never becomes any less mind-blowing. Sometimes I just sit and wonder: how did I even get here? This is just crazy.