We’ve posted about how to photograph steel wool burning before in the past, but watching the process in action is a bit more exciting. Instead of taking photographs with extended shutters, film maker Joey Shanks decided to video the burning metal and edit everything into a motion graphics piece. The results are pretty interesting, and his behind the scenes video explains how the whole process came together.
I am always amazed at photographers who can take a simple idea that costs very little and turn it into a really cool photo shoot. In his most recent shoot, Ryan Buller does just that by applying drops of multicolored paint to the top of a garbage bag wrapped over a speaker. Check out his simple set up and the beautiful results!
In this lighting lesson, Jay P. Morgan of The Slanted Lens offers a very cool DIY effect; how to make smoke lay on water. Achieving smoke and wind in photography are two very difficult tasks that Jay P. made very easy by showing this step by step process. Have you guys ever experienced with smoke and wind? If so, share your images and how you did it in the comments below. [more]
Starting TODAY creativeLIVE will stream a 3-day lightweight location workshop featuring well-known photographer, Kevin Kubota. Learn to create studio quality lighting under almost any condition. With lightweight, affordable, and portable lighting tools, Kevin will teach you to create beautiful portrait lighting in a variety of environments from typical urban locations to more challenging situations. [more]
Seeing how this project has been running since 1995 this maybe a very old story for some of you but one that hasn’t been on Fstoppers yet. Harrod Blank has a unique “studio” in the form of a van… a Camera Van. Conceived of in a dream and constructed over two years the Camera Van has since left it’s home in Berkeley, California, travelled across America, into Canada, Britain and Germany, capturing the astonished faces of those it encounters [more]
Photographer/Diorama Artist Matthew Albanese constructs and photographs unreal real looking landscape scenes using readily accessible materials. Scroll through some of his work and be amazed at their realism, effort and the materials. Can you figure out what Matthew used to make each scene before reading it? No, no you can’t. [more]
As a photographer that does a lot of non-profit work internationally, I have always been on the look out for traveling with my gear in the safest yet most affordable way. Typically, my cameras, lenses and lighting equipment (strobes and powerpacks) travel with me as carry-ons in two Pelican 1514 cases. As for my grip gear, well, I was mostly limited to what I could throw into my checked bag with my clothes, which typically would be one Manfrotto Magic Arm, a Photek Softlighter and a small softbox or [more]
Philippines portrait photographer Laya Gerlock graces the pages of DIY Photography this week as he demonstrate in great detail how to build a giant, kick ass light ring. Take a look at the sample image and video and if you like what you see head over to DIY Photography for the full tutorial on how to build your own. [more]
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been yearning for the day when a DSLR comes equipped with an iPhone-like OS, complete with apps and fully functional wifi. This DIY doesn’t take a DSLR quite to that level, but it’s surely a step in the right direction. Using EyeFi cards or tethering is pretty cool, but can still be very limiting. It’s awesome to see projects like this being created and shared that open up the possibilities. [more]
Every now and then you have to stop and recognize a piece of work not only for the creative thoughts put into it, but also for the sheer amount of effort involved in pulling off the project. Vu Hoang and a small team managed to come up with this clever stop motion music video using over 3,000 hand cut pictures stitched together in a clever guy meets girl music video. The final product was shot with a Canon 7D and Canon 17-55mm F/2.8.
Many of you are familiar with Blair Bunting, one of the premier commercial portrait photographers in the United States, and a good friend of mine. A couple weeks ago we were chatting about lenses when he brought up this project he did several years back. I instantly wanted to share it, and we tweeted an image of his 50mm f/1.4 next to his 110mm f/.95, which many of you thought was fake. It wasn’t. [more]
Gary Fong takes 2 minutes to show us how you can trick your camera’s custom white balance into producing a colored background in white environments. If you have some gels on hand you could play with this technique to turn out a multitude of colors.
GFIGARYFONG on Youtube:
“Gary Fong shows how playing with [more]
Here is a rad way to spruce up the background of almost any photo or video shoot. Whoever Unallocated Space is (cant find anything on who or what that is) has created an amazing tornado of fire by using a bunch of box fans and a tub filled with fire. This video demonstrates how you can easily create a beautiful and deadly looking whirlpool of fire in your own backyard. Disclaimer: Fstoppers did not tell you to try this. If you try this, it was at your own risk. Enjoy!
Last weekend, my buddy David Cross who works with our friends over at BorrowLenses sent me a text that he was building something unusual and really cool. When he sent me the photos after he finished his project, I was immediately excited. His DIY ring light (which they are calling the spider light, tentatively) not only leaves really unusual catch lights, but is easy and fun to build. Ok, so it’s not really a “ring” light, but it casts similar light and I don’t know what else to compare it to. So let us show you how to make yours! [more]
FilmRiot has been quietly working on a series of educational behind the scenes videos over the last few months, and I think this one is definitely worth a mention (avoid the random skydiving tangent at 6:00). Aimed at beginner and intermediate videographers, this short video will walk us through some techniques for lighting people as they move through multiple rooms. [more]
