Behind The Scenes

One of the most exhilarating aspects of environmental portraiture, especially when out on assignment, is that you never quite know what your shooting environment is going to look like. If I had a nickel for every time I walked into an awesome location, only to be quickly shuttled off to a closet-like space to do my work... Well, I'd be able to buy a sandwich. But a really nice sandwich. Here are some tips that may save your sanity while trying to compose an interesting portrait in a postage stamp sized room.

The latest fantasy shoot from the Slanted Lens instantly brings to mind the incredibly Academy Award winning movie Mad Max. With the help of a local junk yard, some incredible styling, and creative lighting, Jay P was able to execute an eye grabbing shoot. Check out just how he did it.

I am a wide angle fanatic, especially when it comes to prime wide angles. I carry four lenses in my camera bag: two of them are prime wide angles, one prime nifty fifty, and one telephoto. Out of all these four, I found myself reaching just for one particular lens: the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art. This came to substitute my old Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM lens which I adored, but it used to struggle a bit with chromatic aberrations and at times I craved for a wider view.

If you have not heard of Casey Neitstat yet, go check him out and come back when your done, it might take awhile but it will be well worth it. The guy is a serious talent in the film and social media world, with his own unique style and technique to movie making. This short film by Tom Bryan is an outstanding example of what each of us should be doing with our creative work. Bryan has plans to create a short film each month for the next 12 and has started it off with a bang.

There is no perfect shoot, but here are some useful tips that could save you and your final images against possible mishaps. It is better to be prepared against various external factors.

If you began shooting video within the last five to eight years, it's quite likely that you rode the "5D Mark II wave." Maybe you didn't own a 5D, and still don't, but that camera revolutionized the world of video production forever. Not only did that camera enable many "budget" filmmakers to make top notch content, it inspired almost every manufacturer to begin shoving video into every camera they could. No longer was it necessary to buy a dedicated video camera to create motion pictures. While I will certainly credit Canon with originally bringing professional video capability to the masses, I have to hand it to Sony for rocketing "DLSR video" to another level entirely.

Canadian digital camera store, Vistek, has been interviewing photographers that have exhibits in the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, in an ongoing video series called, "The Story Behind My Photo." In case the series title hasn't given it away, Vistek asked talented Canadian photographers to take us behind-the-scenes and share the stories that go along with their photos. These videos are very brief, but are compelling, beautiful, informative, and often, humorous.

For those of you may not know, we recently created a 20 hour photography tutorial with the incredible Joey Wright on all things swimsuit photography and retouching. We've been posting a weekly behind the scenes series of the creation of this tutorial. This is Episode 4.

Hello, I'm Steven Meyer-Rassow. I was contacted by Wise Ink creative publishing, who wanted a photographically based cover image for an upcoming fantasy title by A.M. Justice. The following is the process of photography and design that went into the creation of the final cover.

Watch YouTube star Julien Solomita follow behind-the-scenes as fellow YouTuber Keaton Keller of Tech Smart reviews the new DJI Phantom 4 Quadcopter obstacle avoidance feature. As a review, it isn't to be taken too seriously with Keller attempting to fly the drone into a tree, branches, a tripod, and finally himself.

Most people will agree that Alfred Hitchcock was a master of film. "Vertigo" may have been his biggest masterpiece. It's a subtle and meticulously crafted film that weaves complex storylines into a thrilling experience for the viewer. It's amazing to examine just how thorough Hitchcock truly was. Studying his methods can greatly inform your own filmmaking.

London-based Sports and Portrait Photographer Levon Biss wanted to see how he could take his commercial lighting techniques into the world of macro photography. After attaching a microscope assembly to the end of his DSLR lens and getting some samples from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Biss was able to achieve extremely detailed, high resolution three-meter prints of 10 mm insects.

Take a look behind the scenes as Photographer, Producer, and Marine Gunnery Sergeant Joseph DiGIrolamo documents the work of Photographer Matthew Callahan. Callahan is a U.S. Marine Combat Correspondent, who, when not telling the stories of the men and women who serve, is working on his personal fine art project, "Galactic Warfighters." This riveting photo essay is aimed at humanizing the fictional, faceless stormtrooper characters of the Star Wars galaxy.

The Hitfilm crew, Kirstie Tostevin, Josh Davies, and Simon Jones take over Film Riot to bring you a kick-butt tutorial on how to create an Iron Man heads-up display effect with their free HitFilm 4 Express software.​ This eight-minute video takes us all the way from pre-production to post-production.

As a headshot and portrait photographer, I'm always looking to streamline my process and create consistent results for my clients. With that in mind I want to share with you my "bread and butter," super-simple setup I've been using for the last two years.

Vancouver-based filmmakers, Jason Lucas and Matt Dennison, are all about trying to make quality videos. They're also all about trying to help you make quality videos! In this seven-minute video the IFHT (I Focking Hate That) crew run down 32 steps on, "How To Be A Filmmaker". Even though this is actually a tongue-in-cheek comedic short, rather than educational guidelines, it totally falls in the the realm of, it's-funny-cause-it's-true.

This short but awesome behind-the-scenes video from Adrien Veczan shows his setup and technique for capturing a product photo of a bottle of cranberry vodka. Check out the video and then read on to hear a little bit more about his approach and method, which utilizes different lights to paint different parts of the bottle for his final image.

In this video, Guadalajara-based Photographer and Retoucher Sid Vasandani, shows us how to recreate that classic Steven Meisel vibe, used in his controversial campaigns for Vague Italia's, "Makeover Madness" and "Supermodel Enter Rehab". Watch as Sid walks us through a behind-the-scenes shoot, where he runs down the lighting set up, before going into an in-depth explanation of the retouching and color grading workflow in Photoshop.

On one side, we have advertising photography, where everything is contrived and meant to look a certain way. It might as well be a painting with how planned out each step is. On the other, we have photojournalism. As the opposite, true photojournalism should never be staged, posed or "created." The idea is to capture what is and has happened. Unlike a painting, photography has the power to show real time exactly how it is with no artistic interpretation. What captivates me is when those two worlds collide to create art with purpose, and that is exactly what Clay Cook has done with his portraits of impoverished youth in Ethiopia.

Photographer Erik Christian, based in Hudson Valley, NY, created athletic portraits using continuous lights and strobes. He recently shot a series of mixed light portraits for a local newspaper that annually features their local high school basketball all-stars. He decided to shoot the team much more creatively than past portrait sessions.

Following the introduction of its Immerge virtual reality system, Lytro, the "light field" camera company whose consumer models we now see discounted nearly everywhere, recently left the consumer space to concentrate on and introduce its new product, Lytro Cinema. Offering a complete solution with an included server to handle the 755 megapixels of data at up to 300 frames per second (not typos), the Lytro Cinema is a new kind of too-good-to-be-true beast. But the most incredible thing about the camera? It's no lie.

It's been said that Prague-based Photographer and Retoucher Erik Johansson doesn't capture moments, he captures ideas. To him, photography is a way to actualize complex, surreal concepts that are in his head. So, when you think about it, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Johansson is kind of like our generation's Ansel Adams, as they both heavily employed previsualization techniques while pioneering unique solutions to achieve their visions. The end results are images that match the exact ideas they had in their minds' eyes.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of reviewing Syrp's awesome, affordable, perfectly executed Genie Mini time-lapse device. However, time-lapse photography and videography barely covers the beginning of what can be done with the New Zealand company's awesome devices. The Slanted Lens' Jay P. Morgan not only shares his entire lighting setup for a classic food shot, but also proposes some clever and welcomed case studies for how to use Syrp's devices to create better shots, not only around stars, but also around close-range subjects.

I've never been one for artificial light in my photography, and it's an issue that many photographers come across when leaving that oh, so beautiful natural light. The struggle of having a budget to put towards lighting equipment can be daunting but shouldn't limit you in finding the best way to create the shot. In this behind the scenes look, I will go into how I created a high-end product shot using light trails, all while on a budget. Remember, this can be recreated with any camera, including an iPhone, that allows for long exposures.

All too often in our business, we are thrust into a job in which we either have no time for or cannot afford lighting tests. I find that these gigs force me to fall back on my old tricks and techniques. This can lead to the dangerous place of shooting stuff that all looks the same. Sure, you can try out new ideas on personal projects, but sometimes, the job calls for stuff that you don’t own or cannot afford to get. Usually, when planning a shoot, I have great theories and fantastic ideas on how to pull off a look. However, the idea of winging it in front of a client...

In February, Sony announced their new "G-Master" lineup of full frame zoom lenses, with fast apertures and made specifically for their mirrorless camera options, like the popular the a7rII, or even the recently reviewed a6300. In this video review by Chelsea and Tony Northrup, they got to kick the tires of the new 24-70mm f/2.8 Sony G-Master lens, and were impressed by the results.

We have finally made it to the end of our behind-the-scenes series of Elia Locardi's “Photographing the World” tutorial. In episode 18, we continue our travels through New Zealand as we hike out 4 miles to the base of Mount Cook for an interesting astro photography lesson, the team celebrates the end of this trip with a skydiving session in Queenstown, and Lee and I say our final goodbyes to Elia and Naomi Locardi.

Take a trip back to a time before World War II where the idea of a portable 35mm camera was just becoming a reality. Filmarchives Online brings us an amazing peek into the Earnst Leitz Optische Werke factory in Wetzlar, Germany sometime between the two World Wars.

As someone who makes a full time living working as a photographer I am often asked for advice on how to get started and how to make it in this career. Despite the seemingly impossible odds, it is in fact quite possible to make a fantastic living in this industry. Former assistant to Mario Testino, Alexi Lubomirski, has created one of the best videos I've seen describing the persistence and tenacity required to succeed. If you are looking for a dose of motivation I highly recommend giving this a watch.

Since the birth of social media, almost every business, public figure, and of course, creative, like us, are discovering new, interesting ways to engage with their following to portray value. In our industry, engagement and creativity in garnering it is very essential because of the abundance of noise and content that exists in the social media world. By constantly looking for new ways to engage with their fans and projecting value to clientele, there are always innovative ways to fill the gap. With that being said, there’s a new kid on the block and its name is Snapchat.