In this weeks episode of The Slanted Lens, Jay P. Morgan shows us how to light and photograph a glass bottle. This video is also about superimposing products into real scenes so that the product looks it’s best. Tutorials like this are priceless for anyone who is interested in product photography. Glass can be extremely tricky but Jay makes things super simple for us.
If you are a fan of iphone photo apps, huge CGI production movies, and sexy girls fighting with mystical powers then you will probably love this behind the scenes video. The Demon Cam is an iphone app that allows you to turn your face into a demon zombie. In order to promote the release of the Demon Cam, the guys over at Video Copilot created an unbelievably complex promo video that showcases how the application works. The behind the scenes video has a lot of CGI and chromakey trickery but it also has a bunch of clever ideas any photographer could use in their own productions. After reading the reviews of this app and seeing the amount of work that went into the opening video, I’m kind of curious to see what a Patrick Hall demon would look like. Click the full post to see how everything came together in the final video and head over to the app store to pick up the $.99 iphone cam.
Photographer Scott Bourke gives us a complete overview of how he took a fantastic product shot of a few bottles of beer. Scott uses a single flash and 4 reflectors to create a very professional looking image that any photographer (no matter how little gear they have) is capable of creating. As I have always said, photography is all about good lighting and good lighting does not mean expensive lighting. Let’s hope that Scott is going to enter our BTSV contest. Check out the full post for the final image and a BTS diagram.
This week over on the Fstoppers Forum there has been some pretty interesting posts. One that grabbed my attention was made by user Evolize Photog who showed how he photographs luxury cars in motion. In this video Evolize shows how he photoshopped his suction cupped boom arm out of a Lamborghini Gallardo hero shot. This should be great inspiration for our behind the scenes contest we are running the rest of this year. I’m sure a lot of you are like me and have questions about mounting a boom arm, triggering the camera, and positioning the camera for the best angle. These are some of the topics you should consider when making your own BTS video in the future. Do we have any other automotive photographers here on Fstoppers?
A while back we featured a story on a new camera body cap that was designed to protect your DSLR while traveling through the most extreme of circumstances. The LockCircle created a lot of controversy from our readers over both the price and also the size of the cap itself. Well we now have a reason why this body cap is so expensive and know exactly how it works with this amazingly well crafted behind the scenes video. You may scoff at the overall idea of this product but you will no doubt be impressed with the manufacturing process. I usually leave lenses on my cameras even when traveling but I can see the advantage of something like this for extreme condition photographers who shoot in sandy, snowy, or dusty environments where a loose body cap could cause serious problems during a photo session.
Capturing images of high speed events can be done in many different ways. In this video, flickr member Jon Rutlen went with a more explosive approach. Using a sound capturing device to trigger his camera, Jon shattered a bunch of different glasses in front of his DSLR camera and recorded the unique moment easily, reliably, and ultimately in a pretty safe environment. I remember my organic chemistry classes pretty vividly and Silver Acetylide is nothing to play around with so don’t try this at home (I know no one really listens to that warning right?). I think the next step Jon and crew need to take is lighting the glasses in a more pleasing manner with some backlighting and off axis lighting to really give some depth to these explosions. Since we just launched our BTS Contest and everyone is thinking with a bit more creativity, what do you guys suggest Jon does to take this shoot to the next level?
Hey everyone! I’m Reese and I’m excited to be a part of the Fstoppers team. My segment, The FS Spotlight, is a new weekly Q&A session with professional photographers at the absolute top of their field. The interviews are going to touch on everything from from how they reached rock star status to their shooting style to what cameras they shoot with as well as their advice to all aspiring photographers. Click the full post to read my interview with product photographer Richard Gary!
As a writer/photographer myself, I want to hear how photographers got to where they are and how they get these amazing shots; but more importantly I want to know what YOU want to hear from them as well. What’s your interest? Surfing? Combat photography? Food? Retouching? If you could score a 5 minute Q&A with any photographer in the world, who would that be? Let me know!
This video gives a quick look at Jay P. Morgan’s latest advertising campaign for Pedia-Sure. The video isn’t quite as informative as Jay’s average BTSV but there is still a lot to learn from it. I was really impressed by the size of the campaign and then range of images that were taken.
Full time photographers aren’t the only ones with working studios these days. Why would you outsource your photography if you need new images on a weekly basis? Tshirt company Threadless recently showed the guys over at Photoshelter how they use photography in their own business. What’s unique about the products shots on the Threadless website is that they aren’t the typical white studio shots or stock images of models wearing generic shirts. Instead, many of the shirts are actually photographed at the in-house studio or on location around the office. It’s pretty amazing to see how photography is being used in businesses like Threadless considering so many other sites have stuck with the traditional boring photos. After the video, check out some of their most popular shirts here.
EA Sports has been allowing fans to vote for the cover of their newest installment in the college football series NCAA Football 12. For the contest, they filmed four short behind the scenes videos from each player’s photoshoot which can all be found in the full post. The photoshoots consist of two primary setups: hall of fame style portraits and on the field action shots. Each portrait was created with a gridded beauty dish and a hard background light while the action shots were lit with a huge octabank, some stripboxes, and a bunch of white v-flats acting as both gobos and reflectors. I’m not sure that the final images are online yet since the contest just wrapped up, but you can see a lot of them on photographer Tim Mantoani’s site. My vote goes to Mark Ingram; roll tide roll!
Novak Djokovic is currently ranked alongside the top tennis pros in the world. Only a crazy person would put his life and talent in jeopardy…but that is exactly what Head Tennis Racquets have done for their Untek IG Speed MP racquet commercial. The full commercial is really awesome with mysterious briefcases, seductive women, vintage prop planes, and music straight out of a Tarantino film. As far as I can tell there are no special effects here just lots of conjones by Novak and his tennis trainer.
About 10 days ago I received an email asking me to check out a video showcasing a new invisible camera. Initially I thought it was probably some crazy technical exercise but about half way through it became blatantly obvious that the whole video was a complete joke. Instead of reaching for my Haterade, I decided to have some fun with it and share Chris Marquardt’s story with you.
Was Fstoppers really getting a demo model of the camera? No! Was it going to be on sale “a week from this Friday”? Not quite. However we were right that you would probably be hearing some news about the camera in the beginning of April. Why did Chris create this hoax? According to this release, “We did not do this to mock you. The Invisible Camera is our humble attempt to bring back wonder and amazement.” How do you feel about The Invisible Camera? Hoax gone wrong or a fun journey back to your childhood filled with wonder and amazement?
The other day I came across a popular video on Vimeo right now that featured an amazing new projection technique hitting large buildings across the world. The art is called 3D Projection Mapping and the effect is really cool. By creating 3D graphic models and merging it with video and stills shot on green screen, these artists are able to project dynamic sequences onto buildings in a way that makes them come to life. Everyone from Samsung, Adidas, and Toyota have used 3D projection mapping for advertising, and the results are spectacular. Ralph Lauren recently created a 3D Projection Map sequence for their 10 years of digital innovation runway show in NYC and they filmed a great behind the scenes video. Click the full post to see the final video and several other amazing videos.
I wonder how much the budget on something like this is…Click on the full post to watch the final video.
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.
Behind the Scenes of a Barbie Fashion Model Photo Shoot from Paul Jordan on Vimeo.
