In September of 2014 Patrick and I met Elia Locardi totally by chance in the basement of a German beer house during Photokina. That night we learned that Elia had sold all of his possessions and had been traveling the world nonstop for 3 years taking landscape & travel photographs. Soon thereafter we decided to team up on the biggest project any of us had ever worked on.
After hearing Elia's incredible story and seeing his mind blowing travel & landscape photography portfolio, I casually mentioned that it would be cool to do a video tutorial on landscape or travel photography. Although I did think it was a great idea, I also kind of figured it probably would never happen. The amount of time and expense to film in multiple countries or continents would make this far more difficult than anything else we had worked on in the past.
I left Germany and completely put the idea out of my mind but then Elia reached out to us. He not only wanted this project to happen, he had already drawn up a rough plan and wanted us to begin filming the very next month. Somehow, there were no conflicts with any of our schedules and Patrick and I decided this experience was too incredible to pass up.
Naomi, Elia's wife planned every aspect of the entire trip, and Patrick and I were simply excited to be along for the ride. The flights, hotels, guides, and rental cars were all booked, we just needed to show up.
The concept for the tutorial was fairly straight forward; We would begin in Iceland during the winter to capture the incredible snowy landscapes (that honestly looked like an alien planet ) and then we would fly to the opposite side of the globe to capture the iconic landscapes of New Zealand during their summer.
Over the past few years we've created 5 other premium photography tutorials and while each one had its own unique challenges, none of them compared to the challenges we faced with this one. In the studio we have complete control but landscape photographers have to work around the weather. We spent 45 days filming 15 separate lessons and 15 completely unique locations. We were rained, snowed, and hailed on multiple times. We had lessons totally fail due to poor visability, and we were forced to cram ourselves (and over $150,000 in gear) into hostels when hotels were sold out, or simply didn't exist. It was the hardest video that we've ever tried to film but it was also the most fun I've ever had in my life.
©2014 Naomi Locardi
When we got home we knew we were probably only 20% done. We filmed so much footage on so many different cameras that we had to hire 3 editors to help us edit for the last 4 months. Last month Elia flew in to Charleston and we began to film the post production side of this tutorial. We wanted each lesson to include Elia's raw files so that you can watch the tutorial and follow along with him to produce the exact same images. We built a set inside our office that could mimic daylight so that we could film him at any hour.
After working on this project for almost a year, I am so excited to say that Photographing the World: Landscapes and Post Processing is finally finished. If you enjoy shooting landscapes and you want to know every aspect of Elia Locardi's on location and Photoshop techniques, I know you'll appreciate it. And as always, if you are unsatisfied, we will happily give you a full refund.
I want to thank everyone who supports Fstoppers and has allowed us to afford to take risks like this project. All of you are the reason that any of this is possible and I hope that you enjoy watching this tutorial and the Behind the Scenes videos from our trip as much as we have had making them.
To learn more about this video and purchase the instant digital download vist the product page in the Fstoppers Store.
Patrick needs some louder boots next time... Those boots were out of this world..... At least his feet could not possibly get cold....
We are trying to figure out what to do with those boots now. I was suggesting we screw them into a wakeboard.
wait, there's no fstoppers museum?!
Bought it. Halfway through a first pass. It goes deep. Going to need to take notes on the next go round. A beginner might be a little overwhelmed, but if you've fiddled around in LR or PS at all you can tell this set of tutorials will take your photos to the next level. Like many, I have a weakness for gear, and dropping lots of cash for tutorials is weirdly more painful than for a tangible new "thingy".
I'm glad I did. These lessons really tie the whole process together and are inspiring as hell.
I do wonder about one thing:
In a quick viewing of the first half dozen or so, I haven't heard Elia mention what picture profile he uses. I'm a Canon guy buy just wondering if he shoots flat or any presets?
Great job guys. The whole trip looked like a lot of fun.
I believe those profiles only matter for jpgs. Because he's shooting raw they all come in flat and he takes them from there.
Yeah, Lee is right. In fact, for this project I was shooting in "vivid" mode but that was just so Lee and Patrick could access my jpeg files quicker than working with the RAW files. I typically only work in RAW and any color mode you're working in only shows in the jpeg preview on the camera, not in the RAW.
To clarify, in LR, do you change the Profile under Camera Calibration or leave it as Adobe Standard?
I change it sometimes and I address the differences in a couple of the lessons.
Mike- Your comment about a non-tangible purchase as more painful really resonated with me.
Nice work guys! This looks pretty spectacular. Elia, you look so well spoken! That's a super rare trait and I'm sure it helped out in editing a lot.
Thanks! and yes Elia is by far the best person on camera that we have ever worked with. I don't even want to imagine editing this thing if he had been fumbling over every other word.
Hey Jaron, thanks for the compliment! The whole production was an awesome experience. We all work really well as a team so all the instruction and voice over work feels very natural.
How do you do this before and after on your site? thanks guys.
Not sure. It's a plugin our web guy used.
THanks Lee, sorry i went of topic on your new awesome tutorial. But i dig what you did with the before after :)
Could be this plugin: http://zurb.com/playground/twentytwenty
thank you!
Hey guys, just a question re the download, is it one large compressed file or multiple files, I am travelling atm so only want to use wifi to download, the tutorial looks amazing, well done.
It's 17 separate zip files totaling 26gb. You must download them within 72 hours or we will have to send you fresh links.
Lee! Please send me fresh links! I didn't see the 72 hour notice. Email me and I can provide PayPal receipt, order confirmation #, etc
Excellent job... I just saw the intro and I got hooked.
Congrats to FS and Elia of course.
I just got the "Photographing the world" videos and I'm really impressed with the high quality of the work... You are very charismatic, the camera loves you and you are an excellent teacher... It was the best $$$ I invest to my photography in a long time... Thanks again, I can't wait to watch all the lessons
Hi, I was just wondering if there was ever going to be a student addition put out somewhere? I am a college student trying to grow in my skills while working and taking classes so it is hard for me to save up $300 for an amazing course like this. However, I am a huge fan of fstoppers and Locardi so I just could not resist asking since travel photography is my dream and landscape is a huge part of that.
I have been watching and learning from Elia Locardi's post processing tutorial on Landscape photography for the last couple of weeks now and Elia is a fantastic, easy to follow instructor. He is absolutely brilliant as a photographer and with what he does in post-processing. I have learned a ton and am looking forward to using this to help me develop my own style in my macrophotography. Thank you Elia and thank you FStoppers!!!