Humor

Here's a little cinematography humor to brighten up your lazy Sunday. From the people over at Autodesk and filmmaker Jeremy Hunt comes a coming of age story of a dude. A dude who just wants to go about his business and a visual effects editor who ruins said dude's day. We all know the importance of 'getting it right in camera', but this is what happens when post-processing runs amok.

The general idea of Photoshop is to help make someone look flawless, while still maintaining their unique and human qualities. It's a tactful technique that requires a keen eye and a good understanding of the human face’s shape. This basic concept was completely destroyed for the cover of Harper’s Bazaar China cover featuring actress Sarah Jessica Parker.

Greek law enforcement officials are facing investigation after ‘allegedly’ airbrushing out a black eye and face lacerations that the police may or may not have given to a young man and his three other bank robber friends.

Greek government officials have admitted to some photo alterations, but they would really insist you believe that it was done only to make the robbers more noticeable in public. It has nothing to do with making them look like half a Japanese Anime character.

Iran recently released information and a photo regarding a new stealth fighter jet that left the US foreign policy makers nervous and concerned for the impending future. The problem with this news? It’s a pretty obvious Photoshop composite, and a pretty terrible one at that.

Rob Dunlop, creative director and brains behind PrettyInWhite.com, just posted an interesting and also somewhat humorous account of his purchase of a Canon 5d Mark III through DigitalRev.com. Rob, spurred on by a series of bizarre coincidences, ended up doing some research on his new camera, only to find that it had not only been used, but used somewhat extensively by DigitalRev to create a review.

PocketWizard is to radio transceivers what Kleenex is to tissues. PW's have become the industry standard and the benchmark which all other radio transceivers/transmitter & receiver combos are measured. This week PocketWizard introduced the G-Wiz Vault Storage Solution... What is it? To me it would appear to be the fancy name for a lunch box...

Reality is sometimes funnier than fiction when it relates to something we all do. In this situation, I asked my network of colleagues to fill in the blank, “You know you're a photographer when, ____.” The responses were better than I was expecting! Here are some of the best answers given by other photographers in the industry. Be sure to post your own answers in the comments as well!

Camera Sutra is a tale of love between a photographer and his camera. This witty shirt was designed by Trey Ratcliff, HDR phenom of the site StuckInCustoms.com, and is being sold on his site store. About the shirt Ratcliff said, "We don't take ourselves too seriously around here... occasionally we seem to find ourselves in embarrassing positions with our tripods, so we thought it best to consult the hallowed ancient tome of the Camera Sutra and make a t-shirt out of it." Read on to see all the named positions.

Here at Fstoppers we love sharing behind the scenes photo shoots with our readers so we can all learn and grow together. Every so often we come across one that while it could have been executed better is still worth sharing. Such is the case with the recent commercial shoot for the McPhee Inflatable Unicorn Horn for cats. I can gather from the video that it is best to shoot unicorn'ed cats against a white seamless, using Pocket Wizards to fire your lights and a number of cat petting assistants. Big props go out to the audio mixer on the video as well. Enjoy!

While digging through hundreds of RSS feeds that jam pack my reader each week, I ran across an impressive camera tattoo on the arm of Lotte van den Acker of an Asahi Pentax 35mm SLR. Normally I would see a camera tattoo and think big whoop but this was one different and I thought it should be shared. I reached out to Lotte and asked a few questions about the camera tattoo and found out a little more about the meaning.

So I have seen quite a bit of caricature portraits and fell in love with them. I decided to try my hand at doing a few and kind of fell into a new little series with them. Everyone who has seen them has asked if I could shoot them or their families in this style. This little tutorial will show you how I go about doing these shots.

Being a member of a lot of online photography communities, I see stuff like this all the time. A photographer just took a shot that I can tell they are really excited about, and want some feedback on it. They'll post it to a forum or a Facebook page with the typical "C&C please." line. And it drives me up a wall.

For the past few years DigitalRev has done the "Cheap Camera Challenge" with a professional photographer and a crappy little toy camera. This year's challenge consisted of Strobist's David Hobby, a 2MP Buzz Lightyear toy camera and 3 of the best named speedlights of all time, the Family Jewels FUQ 690. Kai of DigitalRev gives Hobby 5 photo tasks in 5 different locations and Hobby handles it pretty dang well considering the slight limitations. Enjoy!

I'm originally a marketing/advertising dude, so I'm always looking at ads. I actually watch commercials intentionally to see what brands are doing to promote their product. I just stumbled across this banner, and it's baffling to me how this got past the creative director's desk. I mean, really?

Do you really, REALLY love Pantone? Did you forget to send your all important retoucher a gift this holiday? Do you have some Christmas money left over that you want to blow on your beloved Pantone? Check out the new Perfect Matching Scarf. This collection of 6 scarves will leave you set for life to match any outfit you could ever wear. Also, you will look like a moron. Enjoy!

After all these years, Victoria's secret has just been revealed. She can't sing, not a lick. A recent VS Christmas commercial features their Angels getting ready for the holiday and singing carols while placing presents under the tree and waiting for Santa to show. The girls mess up lyrics, sing horrible notes, drop props ... and look fantastic the entire time. MERRY CHRISTMAS from me. Enjoy!

Sometimes if opportunity doesn't come knocking you just have to build the door yourself, or in Judson Collier's case an epic website as an intern proposal letter. The website/fancy letter was written to famed photographer Jeremy Cowart. I was blown away at the sheer creativity, not to mention ballsy approach to asking someone for a job. Judson goes into great detail on why he would like to intern, his strengths and why he believes he would be great at the job, including making a mean cup of coffee.

Google's predictive text can be a funny thing, especially with some of the suggestions it gives you. It seems to be partly based upon what other people may search for in relation to the specific keywords that you enter. I decided to see what would come up if we entered a few phrases regarding photographers such as 'Why do photographers...'. The results were hilarious and kind of sad!

For one of the most epic trailer sequences of the year, youtuber Genrocks compiled over 100 films into one sequence. Although the movies range into every genre, the sequence flows amazingly well from one scene to the next. For a list of all the movies and music used in the compilation, click here.

Youtube put together a tribute video where the biggest viral sensations of 2012 were invited to star in a mash-up of culturally defining moments from the year, directed by Peter Furia. Can you spot all the references? We've also got the BTS, so check that out once you've had a good laugh.

Ever have a filter get stuck on the front of your lens? I personally have not, but I can imagine how irritating it can be. Travel photographer (and friend of mine) Craig Pulsifer posted the method he was instructed to use by Canon Professional Services to his blog. His warning: this is not for the faint of heart.

Quebec photographer, Patrice Laroche, took an interesting approach to his personal maternity photos. He took several self-portraits of himself with the mother of his child, Sandra Denis at a convenience store air pump machine. The series of photos were taken a different times within the nine months of waiting for their daughter, Justine, to make an appearance into the world. A very unique and humorous way of documenting the whole length of the pregnancy, that I hope becomes a trend.

UPDATE: Apparently video was removed from Youtube. Link to original CollegeHumor video is here.
Taking a break from any serious discussion about whether or not Instagram is a good thing, let's all take a moment to appreciate the hilarity that is this video, which pokes fun at Instagram to the tune of Nickelback. I remember when I actually liked this song... a lot.

The Saddest Boy In The World is a short film by Vancouver filmmaker, Jamie Travis of Modern Family Productions. "Saddest Boy" is a perfect double rainbow of dark humor and a vintage nabes-esque aesthetic. On Modern Family Production's site, there is a Q&A section with the director that gives some insite to how they made the movie. Here is a selection from the Q&A ...

Ed Hetherington was photographing animal life in Kenya from a remote on-the-ground setup when a lion approached and found it rather odd...and oddly tasty. The series of images that followed show the lion sniffing, carrying, and enjoying the camera for a while. The lens survived despite getting a little dirty, but the body wasn't so lucky...

Gearing up for the holiday season Canon released a funny new commercial advertising their T4i camera. I really enjoy how companies these days are focusing on videos that gain viewers through creativity and humor rather than pop down millions on a celebrity or buying a prime television commercial ad. I believe all of us can relate with this video and insert ourselves into many of the clips. Take a minute and enjoy their latest commercial just released; then be the first to share it with your friends.

Everyone knows "that" guy or girl who should have stuck with a point and shoot when picking out their camera. From the gear head to the overly enthusiastic "artist," Youtubers DSLRnoidea have a little fun with the type of people who really weren't meant to own a dslr.

Air New Zealand has been known for their original, themed and very well made safety videos. Just recently they released their newest safety video featuring a plane full of Tolkien fans called, 'An Unexpected Briefing'. Air New Zealand partnered up with the people over at Weta Workshop to create the amusing safety briefing. The video made in anticipation of 'The Hobbit' features a few actors from the movie, real Tolkien fans, J.R.R. Tolkien's great-grandsons, actual working Air New Zealand employees and even has a cameo from the man, Peter Jackson, himself.

I'm not sure how valid the question is. Isn't it obvious...? Photography is more alive than ever. But this little graphic story gets to that point. For those interested in some of photography's most humble beginnings and boldest moves forward, or to see how much you really know, check out Overgram's infographic about the invention of the photograph and its transition from analogue to digital to everywhere...

Weapons of Mass Production's Kevin Good walks us through the in's and out's of four of the most popular lens brands on the market, in one of the most popular focal ranges... the 24-70mm. Brace yourself as only one of these lenses will be spared John Pellett's bat.

Von Wong is at it again in this super slow motion (700fps) video that has adds a certain 'epic' quality to a funny story about -- you guessed it -- his hair. Featured is a quick BTSV talking about the gear he used, but we have the full slow-mo tilt-shift video.

The Kickstarter Project called Run Free 2013 is a fake marathon that Ridiculo.us is putting on to see if they can use user-submitted photos of an event that isn't actually happening, to make it seem like it did. While certainly a fun idea, a bigger question begs to be asked– if all it takes are photos and tweets to make something seem like it actually happened, how in the future can we account for the difference between the real and a hoax? Embedded video inside.