Behind The Scenes

At this year’s Outdoor Retailer trade show in Denver, Colorado, the biggest names in the outdoor industry came together for one event to show off their latest and greatest to the world. While most of the products at the show were geared more toward outdoor equipment and snow gear, there were brands unveiling products that most photographers and videographers who work in the outdoors will be extremely excited about.

A few days ago, I published a copycat video on my Vimeo account. After the video was first shared by DPReview, the file became viral and got shared hundreds of thousands of times all over Internet. How did I produce this little funny video? How does having 250,000 views per day affect your visibility and social network accounts? And finally, what does this video really mean?

If you've seen "I, Tonya," you may have noticed the film isn't just great for its incredible acting, script, and fresh approach to an old story. What really pulls you in are the long takes of Margot Robbie actually skating like her character, Tonya Harding, as though she herself was a true Olympian.

If you haven't tried out night photography before, you sure are missing out on some fun and creative opportunities. One thing for sure, it's quite different than shooting during the day, so I understand why some of you may be hesitant to venture out at night with your camera.

I recently had the chance to speak to Greg Beadle, one of the official photographers for the World Economic Forum Event in Davos. From the start he made it clear that as an official photographer for the World Economic Forum, it is his job to “promote the annual meeting through photographs that best emulate the positive experiences and results here in Davos.” He said the energy is tangible and throughout the week, world leaders, celebrities, and wealthy elite will come together to discuss and try solve the current issues of the world today. This is what a day as a photographer at Davos is like.

Traveling 5,500 kilometers in six weeks, Filmmaker Florian Nick explored the wilds of British Columbia and Alberta in search of beautiful scenery, capturing 54,000 photos along the way. The result is a gorgeous time-lapse film showcasing the best of the region in stunning detail and sweeping scale. Nick discussed the making of the film with Fstoppers.

Almost every adventure and landscape photographer wants to travel the world. Capturing new landscapes and experiences in new, epic locations is a trait ingrained in outdoor photographers. But how does one balance the need for personal exploration, the need to quench a creative thirst, and the opportunity to be there for one's family?

I've wanted to be a content creator for documentaries, a la National Geographic and the Discovery Channel, since I was little. But then again, who hasn’t? I taught myself photography throughout college while studying biology and anthropology in hopes of, someday, finding myself in the situation to put all of that together as some sort of adventure photographer. I’ve been lucky enough to do a little of that type of work already, but nothing compared to these guys. In this series from The Crew, you can go behind the scenes with a crew that travels to some of the riskiest and most beautiful parts of the world just to create beautiful footage for you to enjoy.

When it comes to studio product photography, we use a lot of tools in the studio. Sure, there’s the obvious: cameras, lenses, and lights. But today I want to talk about one of those little indispensable tools that can really make all the difference on set. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years of working in a studio environment, it’s that you can never have enough clamps! There’s always something that you need to hold in place, or simply rig.

Juhamatti Vahdersalo gives us another glimpse in to how he creates scenes in one of his latest projects “Too Much is Never Enough.” With studios potentially spending thousands of dollars to bring sets alive, Vahdersalo walks us through how this setup cost a mere $75. If you don’t remember, we featured his creations in November when he showed everyone what cardboard and a little imagination can do.

Back at it again, the charmingly abrasive but always informative Jaren Polin (or as most of us know him, Froknowsphoto) released a new real-world review on Sony’s newly released a7R III. Love him or hate him, Polin always puts out the some of the most in-depth camera reviews in the photography YouTube space, and this video is no exception.

If you're a creator of any kind, chances are you've experienced being in a creative rut at some point in your journey to make cool stuff. As a photographer and cinematographer, nothing could be more true for me. Photographers by nature, I feel, have a "do it yourself" attitude. In talking with Photographer Nikki Smith, a DIY backdrop project could be just what you need to reignite that missing spark and add an additional element of creativity to your work.

Yes, you read that title correctly. In this episode of the behind the scenes of “Photographing the World 3,” we face the most disastrous day of filming yet! While Lee was recovering our crashed DJI Mavic in the mountains of Matera, someone on the hiking trail stole our brand new Nikon D500 DSLR and Tamron 18-270mm lens.

San Diego, California, content creator Aldryn Estacio of Flytpath, and photographer Spencer Pablo wanted to collaborate together on a fun project. And what would be more fun than using a light equipped drone to light paint a pair of great looking, matte black Teslas at night?

Ever have one of those shoots that seems to never go as planned? Ever have fail after fail but you have to maintain your focus just for the client? This can happen with underwater sessions in a matter of minutes. When you are dealing with something as beautiful but chaotic as water, knowing you have the tools to fix the issues will help regain your sanity.

Moody, dark, and dramatic — the term "film noir" immediately invokes cinematic scenes of crime-solving detectives and notorious mobsters in our minds. Film noir is interesting as a genre in photography too. In this article, we take a look at how to shoot film noir style portraits inside a studio.

As I set up to shoot an assignment last week, I found myself in a casual conversation with the owner of the location. He was also a photographer, and as I opened my Pelican case and began to set up my strobes, he commented on the fact that he owned the same one. He then lamented the fact that this particular kit was no longer made by the manufacturer. It had been discontinued and replaced by a new line of photographic debutants. I had no idea.

UK-based filmmaker, and DSLRguide creator, Simon Cade, walks us through the importance of good audio in our videos. Cade also shows us the gear he uses, how he gets his samples, and how he puts it all together in post. But the biggest take away for me was seeing the amount of creativity, and exploration that actually goes into sound creation.

In today's behind-the-scenes episode of “Photographing the World,” Elia and the Fstoppers team continue to photograph the ancient city of Matera, Italy. Lee gets abducted by an old man, Elia scouts the city for the best camera location, and I walk for hours in search of food. After a successful production day, we then face one of the most disastrous moments in all of our “Photographing the World” journeys.

Winter has officially started and everyone loves to shoot winter portraits. But what if you want to shoot snow and there isn't any in your location? Or what if it is too cold to head outside? Well, you can always bring the winter into your studio. Watch the video to find out how.

Photography is often an underrated tool, especially when it comes to helping others with self-confidence or overcoming personal issues. Fine art photographer, Bella Kotak, went through some health issues herself a few years ago, and her whole world began to change. She couldn’t find inspiration anymore and discovered how much other people suffered as well but still put a brave face on for the world. It inspired her to create a new series of stunning images showcasing and celebrating feminity, inner light, and strength of spirit captured against the ever-changing backdrop of nature. And don’t believe for a second she used agency models; she reached out to women with insecurities issues that follow her. Here are some of their stories.

Angle is everything. It's often the difference between a mediocre shot and a legendary one. Ansel Adams once said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” It turns out he was actually pretty off because it's actually all about where you kneel, lay, and hang.

Writer and director Ryan Connolly, over at Film Riot, wanted to challenge himself to see if he and his crew could turn out a realistic, action-packed, science fiction short film with no script, three hundred dollars, and a whole lot of help from his friends.

It's 2018. A brand new page. For us creatives, renewed energy, and enthusiastic drive is what it will take to kick the new year off right. And who better to personify said energy than coffee fueled, Toronto-based photographer / cinematographer Peter Mckinnon? In his first "vlogtorial" style video of 2018 Mckinnon takes to the streets of Toronto with friend and sage-like video creator Chris Hau.

Under mounting pressure from my peers and the industry at large, I finally tried getting into video creation. While filming myself in my first video ever (an unboxing), I ran into a whole slew of issues. How should I mount my camera? Where do I place it? Why does this look so gosh diddly darn boring? To say I struggled would be an understatement. To say I gave up would be spot on. But maybe it was for the best, because two days later, Toronto-based Photographer and Cinematographer Peter McKinnon came out with all the answers to my problems — well, my technical and inspirational ones. The rest I'm still working on.

Today the behind-the-scenes series of “Photographing The World 3” continues with Episode 7. In the last three episodes, things have not been going very well for us. The food has been bad, the weather has been worse, and we've been struggling to finish lessons for the tutorial. Luckily, in Episode 7, things start to look up.

Patrick and I created Fstoppers.com about eight years ago and it's been a wild ride. We never planned any of this, we simply tried to steer this ship that seemed to be moving on its own.

The "bullet time" effect keeps evolving and today it can be achieved not only with an array of digital cameras, but with high-speed robots equipped with high-speed cameras. We, the lower budget society, always try to get the latest visual techniques in our work, but, if possible, on the cheap. This video will help you imitate a high-speed camera movement with simple tools you may already have in your video production workflow.

For the longest time, I avoided shooting weddings at all costs. I personally thought they were something photographers only did to make money and that no one truly enjoyed them. But as I developed more and more as a professional I started getting the itch to just try one, just to say I could do it. Soon after, I got in touch with my contact that worked weddings and lined up a job as a secondary shooter the following week. When it was all said and done, those four hours were possibly the most fun and challenging times I’ve ever had with a camera.

I hold these truths to be self-evident. One, things don’t always go the way we’d like them to. And two, how we respond to failure is equally, if not more important than how we deal with success.

Personal photography projects generally are meant to pull the photographer out of a creative rut or to work on a piece that draws the artist away from the boredom that can occur from shooting the same work over and over. For Sophie Palmier it was about shooting boredom itself in a new way.

Late last year, Photographer Marsel van Oosten received one of those phone calls that we all dream of: Nikon rang to ask if he would be interested in shooting a time-lapse to promote the global launch of their new, groundbreaking camera: the D850.

Growing up along the coast, I became accustomed to beautiful views of the ocean and, of course, lighthouses are an important part of the New England scenery. One lighthouse, in particular, has long been a favorite subject of mine to shoot. I've spent many days and nights shooting the 67-foot-high structure and its surrounding area, and I always envisioned creating the classic image of a massive moon as it rises behind an interesting foreground structure — in this case, the Point Judith Lighthouse on the southern tip of Rhode Island.

With the effortless launch of Capture One 11, it only made sense to go back and share a hidden gem of a seminar that helped me greatly with color editing. Capture One's cutting-edge color editing ability, now combined with the newfound layer and opacity capability breathe a new sense of life into a process that can sometimes feel overwhelming and daunting.

Wildlife Photographer Michel d’Oultremont knows what it’s like to wait. Sometimes he spends a week and a half just waiting for the perfect light and the animals he photographs to show up. The resulting images are well worth the effort.