Fstoppers Original Articles

I can’t have been the only one caught by surprise when I first heard of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera earlier this year. Let’s be honest: to those of us in this field, there are only a handful of companies from whom we expect to see new cameras. Sure, once in a while we get a newcomer to the field, but they rarely capture our attention for long. Fact is, they just can’t hold up in a market saturated with top quality equipment. We as consumers only have so much money to spend. Blackmagic Design turned that stigma on its head.

Perfect travel or street photography is a delicate concoction of the right place and the right time mixed with a superb eye for the extraordinary. William J Palank is one of those individuals who managed to brew that concoction with a supernatural elegance. While traversing the globe, his weapon of choice these days is the Leica M9, a digital rangefinder that produces an uncannily beautiful image. To help us celebrate Mirrorless Month, Palank describes what about the Lecia M9 allows him to shoot at his best.

For the last 1.5 years Patrick and I have been filming our next massive project; a 10-12 hour long tutorial on all things wedding photography. To put the finishing touches on this, "DVD" we wanted to interview 2 very established wedding photographers that have completely different business models from ours. For the first interview I flew out to California to talk with Pye from Lin and Jirsa Weddings. Afterwards Pye decided to interview me for his second business, SLR Lounge.com.

What does it take to turn a blue BMW M5 into a bullet? A little of this, and a little of that, but mostly it takes a team of talented individuals with a dream and the know-how. With a limitless imagination, impeccable understanding of light and meticulous attention to detail, photographer/director Marek Glaser and Big Block digital productions took the imaginary and made it reality.

As a photographer that does a lot of non-profit work internationally, I have always been on the look out for traveling with my gear in the safest yet most affordable way. Typically, my cameras, lenses and lighting equipment (strobes and powerpacks) travel with me as carry-ons in two Pelican 1514 cases. As for my grip gear, well, I was mostly limited to what I could throw into my checked bag with my clothes, which typically would be one Manfrotto Magic Arm, a Photek Softlighter and a small softbox or

Days of preparation, hundreds of people, and 57 Profoto strobes culminated in just five minutes and forty-two seconds of fast-paced shooting. In photographer Art Streiber’s own words, “it was pretty huge, and a little out of control.” I’ll say. In an Fstoppers exclusive, we go behind the scenes of one of the largest and most sensitive group photo shoots ever undertaken with 116 of Hollywood’s greatest stars on one stage at one time to celebrate Paramount Studio’s 100th anniversary.

It’s rare these days to find a product that is so well rounded that it can appeal to an entire market of users. Especially in photography, it is not uncommon to find products that claim to be designed “for beginning to advanced users” but suffer greatly from the attempt to spread out over such a vast range. SLR Lounge's Lightroom DVD is advertised to be an A-Z Lightroom mastery experience, so does it live up to it's claim?

Jeremy Cowart is a photographer after my own heart. He started out in one of my favorite cities Nashville, TN, befriend a bunch of rockstars, shot their album covers, moved into celebrity portraiture, and continues to give back with projects like Help Portrait. Our good friend Pye Jirsa with SLR Lounge recently sat down with the nomadic photographer and picked his brain a little about creativity, post production, a new LifeFinder Tour, and a new iPhone App. If you get worn out listening

If you are like me then you might not always get caught up in some of the super technical aspects of photography. One aspect of photography I recently investigated was the loss of sharpness caused by Diffraction. Last night while playing with the new Nikon D800 camera I examined lens diffraction and how diffraction can seriously affect the sharpness of your photography.

Pye Jirsa from SLRLounge.com recently sat down with Peter Hurley for an exclusive interview. Peter talks about his history as a photographer, his DVD, his favorite gear, business techniques, and PH2. Peter is a huge character and as always he makes the interview a pretty entertaining watch.

Try wrapping your head around these statistics. Approximately 3.5 trillion photos have been taken since Daguerre captured Boulevard du Temple 174 years ago. The global photo count is rising swiftly due to the accessibility of digital cameras and camera phones. Today, more pictures are taken every two minutes

Its been a year since "The Stolen Scream" video was published here on Fstoppers- and what a crazy year it was since then. In this post I will update you on some of what happened with this story. The video was viewed over 330,000 times, and the story itself was featured in many big news outlets (Gizmodo, Time, American Photo Mag, MSNBC and others), and became a case study in many colleges around the world. Its even on Wiki now.

Fstoppers.com has featured some great behind the scenes videos over the years and showcased amazingly talented professional photographers in our Fstoppers Originals series. Recently Patrick and I were invited to Scottsdale, Arizona to expose the secrets of commercial photographer Blair Bunting. When Blair invited us down to Loft 19 Studios, his idea was to shoot something big, expensive, and one of a kind.

Back before I ever picked up a camera, I always enjoyed looking through the pages of Sports Illustrated. I was never the rabid sports fanatic many of my friends were growing up, but I definitely loved the close game, the epic play, the milestone achievement, and of course the human emotion that came with obtaining greatness. So when one of our readers, freelance sports photographer Tyler Kaufman, offered a chance to see how the photographers of Sports Illustrated covered the biggest game in college football, you know I happily obliged. It also didn't hurt that my college days were spent on...

The response Peter Hurley's downloadable tutorial The Art Behind The Headshot has been receiving over the last few months has been unbelievable. Peter's technique has changed the way so many photographers approach working with models, and it's apparent by his facebook group that photographers of all skill levels are taking the best headshots in their portfolios. So we have decided to release one free lesson from the DVD for those of you who might still be on the fence. Peter's knowledge is expensive sure, but it's guaranteed to change the way you shoot headshots for the rest of your career. We believe in this so much that if you don't think your headshots are any better after watching 4 hours of Peter's instructions we will give you your money back guaranteed!

A week ago today, a friend of mine introduced me to environmental art photographer Jack Gescheidt. Minutes after talking with Jack about his Tree Spirit Project I knew I had to share his work with the Fstoppers community. Jack's photographs are unlike anything I've ever seen; yet even while they appear rather innocent, they still somehow strike up a bit of controversy. In a nutshell, the Tree Spirit Project is as much about bringing attention to ecological injustice as much as it is about evoking an almost spiritual experience for Jack and those posing in the photographs (yes he has posed in his own images). By allowing both groups and individuals to pose naked on and around trees that are involved in political and ecological debate, Jack has not only found a way to create amazing art but also unite communities together who value their natural surroundings. Recently Jack was in Charleston, South Carolina where he caused a huge media frenzy as he posed more than a dozen people naked around the Angel Oak (claimed to be the oldest living thing east of the Mississippi). Check out Jack Gescheidt's story below and click the full post to see a few images of his work. NOTE: while Jack's work doesn't always contain full frontal nudity, it still might be Not Safe For Work. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did and click here for many more photos of Jack's amazing work.

If you have seen Peter Lik's work in person then you understand that it's impossible to put into words the look and quality of his prints. Peter's photography (and his post production) is fantastic, but what really makes his work stand out is his printing and presentation. If his images were printed on standard photo paper at a standard size, his work would not have the same "wow" factor.

What if you took a set of images that became so popular that it was used hundreds of times all around the world by hundreds of artists, businesses, websites, and publications? As photographers, it's what we all dream about but what if you were never paid for your work? What if you weren't even given credit? What if your images were stolen for years and you never had any idea? If there was ever a video to share, this is it. This is Noam Galai's story.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/20718237

https://www.youtube.com/embed/A5lEMIf7_FM

Fstoppers Original: The Studio Wakeboard Shoot from FStoppers on Vimeo.

How To Directly Tether Your Camera To An iPad By Lee Morris from FStoppers on Vimeo.

Fstoppers Original: David Bergman Photographs Bon Jovi from FStoppers on Vimeo.

Fstoppers Original: Lee Morris Shoots Oak Steakhouse from FStoppers on Vimeo.

James Karinejad is a commercial product photographer out of Edgware, North London and his work is probably best described as clean yet imaginative. Some of the clients he has worked with have included Dolce & Gabbana, Pizza Hut, Clarins, and Addison Lee. It's also interesting to note that James made the transition to stills by first working in video.

I have always enjoyed watching these product shoots because the lighting required to make a product look desirable is often very different than the lighting needed to make a face or figure look good. In this video James...