A few weeks ago I posted about the outstanding newly released internet series, The Underwater Realm, and as promised I’m back with the full behind the scenes look at the underwater photoshoot by amazing conceptual photographer, Benjamin Von Wong. He explains how he was able to accomplish the shoot in the pool and how he brought all of the elements together to create a wonderful behind the scenes image of the entire cast and crew at work. [more]
We recently released our 14 hour tutorial on How To Become A Professional Wedding Photographer and as promised, we will be releasing excerpts from it for free over the next year. In this video I show you my go to method of lighting posed pictures in a church at weddings. I’ve tried every method of lighting but I find it easiest to light up the whole sanctuary with my Profoto D1 monolight. [more]
There is one site that I consistently go to for inspiration . No matter how stuck I may feel or how many projects may demand my attention when I visit this dark and ominous page of collected brilliance I always leave refreshed. It may not always be safe for work, that part is pretty tough to predict as the work is always changing, but in my opinion the risk is worth it for the ideas and executions there. Not lighting diagrams, no explanations, just photography…lots and lots of amazing photography.
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Von Wong, who you should all know by now — if not from us, then from the million and one places he scurries around the world and online — was given a challenge by a friend, Sebastien Roignant: “To shoot and edit an insane image involving two orcs, a witch king, warrior, villager and a cinema theatre…all in 4 hours without having any information ahead of time.” Von Wong is also up for a [Framed] award for best conceptual photographer this year. Vote for him here. [more]
Every morning I wake up and walk out to my living room. I sit down on the couch and bask in the sunlight coming through my sliding glass doors. I love how the light cutting through the vertical blinds creates a pattern of lines going across my living room. I have often thought how cool it would be to shoot a photo with the light like that, but at sunset when the light is real golden. The only problem? I can’t shoot a sunset like that because my door opens on the eastern side of the house…
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I love it when teams can keep churning out interesting tutorials or behind the scenes videos regularly and still keep the quality high, and one team that continues to do just that is PHLEARN. We’ve featured them a few times in the past, and today they released this new video on shooting beauty, but with sparklers. [more]
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!
The Slanted Lens is back with another amazing lighting tutorial. This time they venture onto a 1700′s Naval ship, the U.S.S. Constitution in Boston, MA. The portraits include an early Naval captain and his shipmates loading cannons. This tutorial specifically goes through how to light creatively during the nighttime hours where lighting might be more difficult for some. [more]
Shooting street photography is always a great way to find some interesting subjects. Not only do you usually achieve a compelling image but you tend to hear some enthralling stories as well. Jesse Rogers went out and shot these in such a way that gives you a sense of optimism for these characters. I know we’ve all seen B&W’s of homeless people and yes they are engaging and frequently depressing, but Jesse series seem to tell the whole story and not just the somber side. [more]
One thing I love about the Fstoppers Facebook Group is seeing all the amazing work our readers publish. Taylor Tupy is a pretty awesome fashion and editorial photographer based out of Minneapolis. In this video he shared on Facebook, Taylor brought in gulf coast white sand into the studio to produce an awesome effect. Taking your production value to the next level is probably the most important thing a photographer [more]
A few weeks ago we featured a really whimsical BTS of a shoot from the team at PHLEARN, and this week we have something from them that’s edgier and totally different. They took brightly colored beetles (that were framed as art prior to the shoot) and used them in conjunction with colored lipstick for a really sweet final result: Beetle Beauty. [more]
Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz best known for his amazing milk dress series is back with another amazing lighting tutorial. In this video he explains how to create some pretty nifty looking light streaks to create a fiery effect in your photographs. Using both a modeling lamp and normal flash from some Paul C. Buff Einsteins he shows how you can drag your shutter to create the effect. [more]
Alright, just when I thought he couldn’t do anything more amazing, he proves me wrong, way wrong. If you have seen any sort of sports portraits, they usually do something different then your normal portrait. Adding cool lighting effects, lots of post work ect, not Wyn. His story for this shoot is a must read and great advice for anyone wanting to blow away their competition in their town. The way Wyn went about getting this all organized, shot, and edited is a pure masterpiece. [more]
I started a new project recently creating portraits on 11×14 film. I have had an 11×14 back for my Deardorff for several years, but I have never shot much in that format. I decided to try a couple sheets in hopes of kick starting a new project. [more]
A few days ago I received an email from Zach stating that he had been following my work for some time and that he had attended Brooks institute of Photography in Ventura CA with my brother quite some time ago. He had this really cool idea for a photography project with visitors that came through his apartment. Those visitors included friends, family, random roommates friends. Literally anyone that came through his apartment he got to sit down and get a shot of them in front of a giant chalk board. It was a great idea and executed very well. [more]
