The BBC has produced some of my favorite shows of all time. Their newest program called Earthflight captures amazing HD video from the skies as they put you literally on the wings of wild birds. I really can’t imagine how they got these shots of eagles stalking unsuspecting flamingos but it’s definitely not filmed on a Gopro Hero. Click the full post to check out the amazing view in full HD glory!
“The French Navy labeled this day a double code red prohibiting and threatening to arrest anyone that entered the water. Kelly Slater described the day by saying “witnessing this was a draining feeling being terrified for other people’s lives all day long, it’s life or death. Letting go of that rope one time can change your life and not many people will ever experience that in their life.”"
Last time, photographer Jay P Morgan gave us tips on the best way to use a reflector. This time he shows us how he combined a Hensel 1200w Porty Pack with a beauty dish attached and the photoflex 5 in 1 reflectors. Click the full post to see the behind the scenes video.
We’ve featured light-painter extraordinaire Dennis Calvert on Fstoppers before. Many of us were left wondering just how he creates those stunning images. Dennis recently wrote a post on his site detailing his method; be sure to view the full post to read more.
The guys over at stillmotion have always got their hands in something new and creative. This time, they teamed with up Shootsac to film a short commercial showing the point of view of their Tote & Shoot bag. Click the full post to watch the behind the scenes video.
Product photography can get pretty tedious at times, but this shoot for the new Volvo FH 540 is on another level. Tim Bjorn shows us how to shoot a massive, shiny vehicle all while having an incredible workflow and paying much attention to detail. Check out the full post and see how you can incorporate these techniques into your shots where you’re model is larger than your lights can cover.
Check out this beautifully shot video made by Corey Rich of Lake Tahoe, CA. The video shows off not only the incredible capabilities of the Nikon D4 (be sure to watch it in HD and full screen), but also offers inspiring footage of three athletes in action: Alex Honnold, a free-solo climber, Dane Jackson, kayaker, and Rebecca Rusch, an ultra-endurance athlete. The final product combines both time lapse footage and video footage, which according to Corey was recorded directly to CF, and all of the interview audio came directly off the camera. Now that I mention it, you might want to grab your headphones while you watch this video.
Justin de Reuck takes us with him on his job of taking photographs of fighter pilots in flight. Though there is no dialogue, the visual element speaks for itself. Photography is difficult enough as it is, but try doing it under excessive g-force and being upside down! He almost makes it look too easy. If you think this is cool, check out the full post to see an F18 pilot with his GoPro camera. You don’t want to miss seeing this!
Have you ever wondered just how many photographs are taken each day? Maybe you’ve wondered where the most photos are taken throughout the world. Well the GPS data tracking company Triposo has released a timelapse video that shows exactly where most of the world’s photographs are taken. With the help from sites like Flickr, Dmoz, TouristEye, Open Street Maps, and dozens others, Triposo was able to plot popular areas for photography using GPS data embedded into the photographs themselves. Not only did they capture the location of the photos but also the day it was taken. Click the full post to see still shots of the most popular days people are using their cameras.
If you are like me, then you might have jumped straight into studio lighting without paying much attention to manipulating natural light. If that is the case, now is a great time to play around with reflectors outside especially since the sun is lower on the horizon this time of year. Jay P Morgan heads to the ultimate graveyard with the lovely Liz Hernandez to show just how effective reflectors can be in place of strobes.
Jay is using a few of the Photoflex 5 in 1 Reflectors in various sizes to manipulate not only the size of the reflected light but also the color. Unlike when using strobes, when using a reflector you really need to pay attention to where the sun is shining so you can maximize the amount of fill light bouncing back into your subject (backlighting your subject is a good starting point). The other major selling point of using a reflector over a strobe not mentioned in this video is your ability to shoot wide open at 1.4 or 2.8 for shallow depth of field. Unless you are using something like the Pocket Wizard Flex System, strobing outside is usually going to force you into the > f8 category which destroys the wide open aperture look. Hope this helps those who haven’t used reflectors as much and good luck shooting!
Jay P Morgan is at it again with a new Christmas themed photoshoot. Almost everytime I watch one of Jay’s photoshoots I learn a clever way to artificially create something that I wouldn’t have thought of before. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to create realistic fake snow on a set, Jay teaches you a simple and easy way to bring the elements into the studio. Granted bringing in artificial snow into the studio will create a huge mess, but it looks like a lot of fun and can allow you to create a winter atmosphere even in the summer. There are a lot of places to buy artificial snow like Amazon or Superior Studios Specialties so stock up now if you ever want to try this yourself. As always, if you enjoy Jay P Morgan’s videos, check out other tips of his in the Fstoppers Archives.
The Canon vs. Nikon video has gone viral these past few weeks. The behind the scenes video was just released so I thought I’d share. If you missed the actual video, click here to see the original post. A big thank you goes out to Fstoppers reader, Marten, for submitting this video to us.
Inspired by Google’s street view, Honda Civic is launching their 2012 campaign by creating an interactive 360 degree online experience that will let viewers explore unique environments that have never been seen before. This behind the scenes video is just a peek at what is to come and so far it is pretty awesome. They have filmed areas like the previously unexplored Alaskan ice caves and an underwater art museum in Cancun, and the Boneyard at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas. Watch the preview and making of Honda’s upcoming campaign below.
Who needs a clunky camera these days when you’ve got a 12 megapixel camera in your pocket. Shot using a Nokia N8, the guys over at Aardman (producers of Wallace & Gromit) broke the world record when they produced this short animation. The final video is only 1 minute and 31 seconds but it took them 5 days on the beach to shoot all the images. I think it goes without saying that the amount of time and effort it takes to produce a video like this is tremendous. Click the full post to see the final video.
We are heading into the final stretch for our 2011 Behind The Scenes Contest and someone is about to win a truckload of gear! The latest video that caught my attention was from LA photographer Mike Kelley. Mike has been featured on our site before but in case you missed that post, his portfolio is full of some pretty kick ass commercial images of buildings and outdoor environments. So it was only fitting for his contest entry to showcase how he approaches an outdoor commercial architectural shoot. Mike uses a lot of exposures and some well thought out accent lighting to create a composite image that looks really nice. As much as I love this video, Mike won’t win this competition by impressing anyone here at Fstoppers. Instead his video has to make a lasting impression among our celebrity panel of judges. If you have any questions for Mike, leave them in the comments below.
