Earlier in the week I posted a video featuring commercial photographer Monte Isom photographing comedian Colin Kane. We’ll it turns out Monte has been filming great behind the scenes videos of his photoshoots all along. In this video Monte shows you not only how he created the fun ad campaign for the EA Sports FIFA 2010 video game but also how he secured the job in the first place! It’s really great to see photographers like Monte having a good time on their shoots and also showing exactly how they took a concept, pitched some images, and ultimately won the bidding war to secure a high end project. If only every photographer would be so open with sharing their success stories we might have more videos like this. Monte gives some exclusive insight on the shoot and the final image on the packaging in the full post.
Yes, you read the title correctly. The famous female Mattel toy has photoshoots, and they are actually quite extravagant. When I first saw this I thought it was a joke but after doing some research I found that Mattel designer Robert Best has big production photoshoots like this for all his Barbie Fashion Model Collections. The photographer is Paul Jordan at Mattel, and the final products are really interesting considering these are just toys. If you don’t want to go through all the set building and fashion lighting required to get these photos, you can always use a simple reflector just like this Barbie fashion photographer. Click the full post to see the final image and other images featuring Barbie.
Jay P. Morgan just sent his newest video over to me and it is once again top quality. Jay was commissioned to create a professional looking image from a drawn composite and he takes us through each step of the process. The entire project is really amazing but my jaw is still dropped after seeing his lighting setup.
The workshop started like any other; 22 photographers and 20 models (with guns) pile into a room and begin shooting at each other. Then the guys at Blown Apart Studios have an idea. How about a bullet time video shot in 1 take with a Steadicam?
With absolutely no planning they yelled for everyone to freeze and they filmed the frozen scene for 2 minutes.
Hello Fstoppers! My name is Sean Armenta, and this is my little spot on Fstoppers called The Post Production Tutorial. If you enjoy these videos, feel free to subscribe to my new Fstoppers PPT Youtube Channel for the latest updates. This time around, we will talk about how to use the Photoshop Pen Tool. Granted, it’s not as flashy and exciting as other aspects of retouching, but the Pen Tool is definitely something everyone should learn.
To be honest, the Pen Tool is something I use quite often, especially when a client requests a color change on an object or background, or even when retouching hair. Stay tuned for more videos coming up soon and feel free to leave me any comments below with questions on this video or about suggestions for future videos.
I’m sure like many of other photographers, my greatest fear is going blind or at least going blind beyond correction. Pete Eckert is a photographer who has been left completely blind after suffering from a condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa. This short little video documents Pete’s life and how he has overcome his loss of eye sight and continues his passion of photography. It’s pretty inspiring to see what is possible through human determination and reminds me to be thankful for the simple things in life. This video has become pretty viral over the last week and for good reason!
We’ve featured Tom Guilmette several times on our website and each time he never ceases to amazing me. Today Tom released a fun video that he shot on the Phantom Flex while he was staying in Las Vegas. We’ve all seen super slow motion videos before but what really grabbed my attention was Tom’s editing skills and his brilliant use of audio to help bring this video to life. If you enjoy watching and learning about high speed videography, check out Tom’s website or check out the other Fstoppers Tom Guilmette posts we have featured.
One of my favorite things about Charleston, SC is being close to the ocean. I love being in and around the water, and although I’m not very good at it, I do enjoy wakeboarding. Charleston has become a pretty big hub for sports like kiteboarding and wakeboarding over the last few years, and this city is not short on talented athletes. I took an interest in wakeboard photography a couple years ago, and I always enjoyed shooting images from extreme angles. Although I’ve gotten some cool images, I never felt like I really had much control over my images with just daylight. I’ve tried to bring strobes outside to create something “different” but even those shots have been done a million times. I decided I wanted a way to shoot a rider flying through the air with interesting, studio quality lighting and this is what I came up with….click the full post for the full story.
I thought I knew everything about shutters, sync speeds, and flash duration until I saw this video by Paul Duncan. I smugly started playing this recommended video and I got schooled. Now I am up to speed and you will be too.
Benjamin Von Wong finished an informative BTSV of his last dancer photoshoot. This video was filmed by Eva Jinn Productions. Ben gives some great reasons to use flour instead of smoke to accent light in your photos. Check out the high res shots and more info here.
My name is Sean Armenta and I am a professional fashion photographer based in Southern California. You may have seen a few of my videos posted on Fstoppers in the past but this will be the first video in a series called Fstoppers PPT (post production tutorials) that I will be producing exclusively for Fstoppers. If you have a Youtube account you may want to subscribe to the new FstoppersPPT channel.
They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, and I believe the eyes are one of the most important parts of a portrait. In this tutorial, I will share with you the techniques I use to retouch eyes and eyelashes.
We’ve featured the work of David Nguyen in the past and this time he has taken his whole production to new level. In his most recent photoshoot, Whispers in the Wind, David takes his creative team out to a desert and creates some really inspiring composite beauty images. The theme is sort of a Chinese New Year, and David has included wild elephants, tigers, rabbits, and birds into the final shots. I love it when artists take a concept to the max and really push their own creative aspirations. If you have not checked out David’s portfolio, you are really missing out. Now if only we could get some BTS on how he made these composites!
Our main focus here at Fstoppers is informative BTS content but sometimes as creatives we have the technical skills and we need a little bit of inspiration to get us going. I just ran across Karl X Johan’s music video for the song “flames” by director Gustav Johansson and I was so impressed I had to post it. I’ve never seen story telling in this way and I’m sure you guys will enjoy it as much as I did. Make sure you watch it in HD!
My brain couldn’t comprehend how this was possible I so I told myself it was some how computer generated to keep my head from exploding. I then saw the end of the video, and I still don’t quite believe it. All you need is a Segway, a Steadicam system, and an Olympic sprinter to pull focus. Check the full post for the final video.
Sometimes you come across a video that just makes you feel good, and this is one of those videos. Brooklyn resident Todd Beiber was out cross country skiing in Prospect Park during the huge blizzard which brought in 2011. During his ski adventure he happened to spot a canister of undeveloped 35mm film. Being the photo enthusiast that he is, Todd developed the film on his own and vowed to track down the owners of the lost roll of film. What he found was very similar to the Vivian Maier’s story: a bunch of great images that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. So after watching this video, I feel like it is only appropriate for Fstoppers to help Todd find the owners of this roll of film. Will you help him as well? Hopefully we will get a wonderful follow up video of Todd hanging out somewhere in Europe :)
