Behind The Scenes

In today's behind the scenes video commercial photographer Mike Pickles takes us through the process behind his recent work for Reebok via the agency Illume Visuals. Before you press the play button let me say this: To figure out his lighting setup you're going to need to pay attention and use some imagination because it's only touched on briefly. However, if you keep reading after the video I'll help break it down a bit. To get you started here are the time-stamps of the individual sections so you can get to the parts you want to see easier:

Umbrellas have been a staple light modifier for decades. But if you’ve ever wondered why there are so many types, or how the light quality from your strobe is affected by the size, lining, fabric or shape of the umbrella, then this post is for you.

Online storage through "the cloud" is one of the best ways to ensure your files are safe and secure from failure, fire, and theft. "The cloud" has also typically been a super expensive place to store a ton of content until now. I stumbled upon a way to store the bulk of my photos online through a website service called Zenfolio, which you've probably heard of.

No matter where you fall in the vast pool of opinions regarding Annie Leibovitz and her skills as a photographer one thing is certain. She and her team consistently produce amazing images. They've knocked another one out of the park with the latest in the Dream Portrait series. In this latest image Jennifer Hudson fills the role of Tiana from The Princess and the Frog.

Last week I posted a gorgeous video from Wolfe Air - their promo reel for aviation cinematography, and explained a bit of the process behind it. This week, I've found and put together a few videos which detail how they equip their planes and helicopters with some of the most advanced camera technologies available, and it's pretty mindblowing. In these videos, Wolfe Air loads up a Learjet with

Sean Madden, creative director from the ad agency Brains On Fire, reached out to me earlier this year and asked if given an arsenal of stunt drivers, the newest high performance BMW's, and a closed race course, could I create a 58 foot long composite print for BMW. My answer? "When can I start?" Watch the video and read the post below to learn how the shoot came together.

One of the reasons I love working for a magazine is that it forces me to be a Jack of all trades. While Automotive Photography and Portraits are my focus, Product Photography, Event Photography, Documentary Photography and any other discipline you can think up will also present itself from time to time and I'll have to adapt. The image above is the perfect example of the daily challenges I face as the Photo Director of RIDES Magazine, we needed something high speed and I had a day to teach myself how to do it. Here's how I did it.

A big part of the appeal for composite photography for me has always been one's ability to imagine a scene, then use different components of the world around them to make it a reality. In this behind the scenes video from Erik Johansson, we're given a breakdown of one photo from the beginning sketches, to the different components and method, post production, and the final product.

Guest writer, Corey Rich is primarily an outdoor/adventure photographer, but last winter he decided to do something totally different and shoot CrossFit—the masochistic athletic craze sweeping the nation. More than anything, he was keen to experiment with heavy-duty artificial lighting in an indoor environment–not exactly what he's known for. His goals were simply to elevate his lighting skills, unlock his creativity in different ways, learn some new things, and have fun in the process.

As a fellow commercial photographer I know that clients come to us for consistency and reliability. They hire us because when they are spending the big bucks on advertising campaigns they don’t want to leave things up to chance. It is part of our job to deliver the end product on time and free of flaws, but even a professional at the top of their game still battles with human error.

A few months ago we featured one of commercial photographer Michael Herb's tutorials on masking and composting. Michael is back with an awesome behind the scenes video of a national ad campaign he shot for Textile Designer Patty Madden. Michael set out to create some creative photos to showcase the unique advertising that hasn't really been seen before in a nation ad campaign for furniture.

In the last few years, video-sharing sites like YouTube have become a marketer’s best friend.

These sites offer the opportunity to disguise advertisements as pure entertainment. As more people recognize the marketing opportunity, getting exposure becomes more difficult. Video producers are constantly scrambling to stay relevant and unique.

I'm sure if you're reading this you are a Game of Thrones fan just like me! Spin VFX has put together an amazing peek behind the visual wizardry that they do for the HBO series. Sometimes you will see some poor visual effects take you out of the experience, but this video is a study in how to do it right.

A few years ago we featured photographer Kevin Kozicki in a behind the scenes video using pointsettias for a beauty shoot. Kevin is back with an amazing glamor photo and video shoot with filmmaker Christopher Park in a beautiful pool location using the Phase One IQ180 that was featured in Sessions Magazine. We had the opportunity to speak with Kevin and get his insight on the shoot.

It’s interesting times for those of us shooting photo and video. I enjoy highlighting photographers or videographers who are utilizing elements of both stills and motion work, and are pushing the creative envelope by integrating them so that the end result is more than just the sum of the individual parts. I'm going to go all in and lay my cards down here and say that the video in this post is going to be the most innovative, creative use of combining stills and video together that we’ll see in 2013.

Wolfe Air is a company that specializes in creating air to air footage for airlines, big-budget movie productions, the military, and private commercial clients, and they recently released their updated reel, which is absolutely mindblowing. Not many people think about what might go into these shots, so as the Fstoppers designated aviation photography dork, I've decided to write up a reader's digest version of how they're made.

“Philly is Ugly” is a timelapse photography project by Philadelphia area photographer, Nathaniel Dodson. He took an impressive amount of time to not only create this short film piece, but also to extensively document his behind the scenes process. When he sent this to me, I couldn't help but share this with you. In addition to the video, he provides a lot of info to help you learn everything that goes into creating a proper timelapse from pre-to-post production.

Shooting aerial video for commercial purposes might be iffy in the United States, but the team at Helicam, based in Finland and Estonia, make some truly epic video using a quadcopter, a RED and a custom stabilizing gimbal. The featured video is a reel showcasing shots from the system, but we also have BTS footage of the team using the copter and a video showing the custom rig being constructed.

Based on what we've published in the past, I think it's safe to say you guys really appreciate detailed tutorials showing how to make impressive composite scenes. My buddy at TutsPlus just showed me this amazing composition and I just had to share it. The artist combined 23 stock images to make one fantastic underwater scene.

This behind the scenes video from Lars Schneider, would no doubt be a killer shoot to land.

The location for the outdoor catalog shoot took place in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies last September for Ortlieb, a company that makes various bags for outdoor activities.

You've all seen these images. It's the knob-and-hanger set up that has become the signature style for many kids retail sites such as Zulily. What you do not see, however, are all the tools that go into creating these minimalist images. The bulk of my work as a commercial photographer is with product, one of which is children's clothing for sites like Zulily, so let me give you a sneak peek into my personal tool bag that I could not work without.

Sunday seems like the right time to tell a big fish story, so I was happy when I stumbled across director Kibwe Tavares's, "JONAH". It's a visually impressive fiction that begins with every photographer's worst nightmare (a stolen camera) and becomes the tale of how one photo changed everything. Well, one photo and some masterful visual effects executed by Factory Fifteen and Jellyfish Productions. Watch the follow-up, "JONAH MAKING OF" for a peek into how it was all achieved.

When calling ourselves artists, we also inherently accept the title of “story teller”. We each use different mediums, but our goals are ultimately the same: Creating memorable and engaging content. We use art to tell stories in beautiful and unique ways, which in turn helps connect us together.

Recently, Julia Kuzmenko has been putting together a wonderful tutorial on how to read lighting in photography to help better understand different lighting concepts (Seriously, read Part 1 and Part 2). Applying these to photos, you can reverse engineer different lighting diagrams. However, using these concepts in your everyday life will allow you to give you a much better understanding of lighting techniques as well.

Imagine a portrait photographer asking people to pose for a quick picture on the streets of a large city, nothing too out of the ordinary, right? Now imagine if he asked you to pose with a compete and utter stranger. That's what New York photographer, Richard Renaldi has set out to do. The series entitled, 'Touching Strangers' is an intimate look at how humanity could be.

The music we use in our work, whether for videos or slide shows for stills images, is an integral part of the narrative and story we are trying tell. The genre, artist and music track we choose, sets the tone for the entire story we wish to tell. I treat music as the keystone that underpins the visual story of a BTS video, commercial work, documentary piece or creative editorial shoot that I am working on.

This week Getty has opened its public domain artworks collection for free use to, modify and publish for any purpose. They will allow access to 4,600 high-res images with more to come. Getty does ask you for a description of your purpose for the image and asks that you cite. [Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program.]

This is the second part of the article on how to learn to "read" lighting in photography. If you haven't read the first part yet, please start here: How To "Read" Light In Photography - Part 1.

And for those of you who have been waiting for the second part, let's jump right back in and see what other cues we can use to breakdown lighting in other photographers' work.

In the latest video from the "Life In Focus" series presented by F-Stop Gear, professional snowboarder turned photographer Jeff Curtes is interviewed about his beginnings in the world of photography, and he explains what he thinks is the key to his success. The video goes on to show Jeff hanging out of a car to shoot road bikers from mere feet away, while moving at a very fast speed.

We've all had that moment. You're out shooting on location, the shots are looking great, the weather's perfect, and then CRASH... a rogue gust of wind tears through your set and blows over your light stand. Bummer, but there's one piece of gear you can take on a shoot to prevent this kind of catastrophe, and it's not a sandbag.

There are many factors to success in the creative industry. Of course a big chunk of it has to do with the quality of the work, but we know quality isn’t the only factor to being successful as a photographer, otherwise, there would be a lot more of us. Yet most photographers put all their efforts into developing their technical or artistic abilities and leave the entire business chunk untouched.

Earlier this week, I stumbled upon Eskimo’s latest passion project “Wonderland”. At first, I expected a step-by-step guide to finding success with commercial work. But in fact, what I watched felt more reminiscent of a support group.

Just recently Zach posted a guest article on 3 Nightmare Lighting Environments and How to Photograph Them with tips from top shooters Lindsay Adler and Erik Valind. This simple behind the scenes video takes a look at some amazing tips not only covered in the article, but in their book, Shooting in Sh*tty Light. You can catch their creativeLIVE workshop starting tomorrow.

We can often get swept up in the world of digital video. Topics like 'What it will mean for the future of photography when we can pull stills from video?' occupy a lot of time and thinking.

Discussion like this is relevant but I sometimes think we miss the most important element of all. The single biggest contributor towards great video is actually making sure we understand what it is that makes a great still image in the first place. To go faster, we should actually slow down. Maybe even stop.

A few weeks ago, I flew to Los Angeles to shoot a commercial project for Mitsubishi. They had a custom Outlander built by RIDES Magazine and were in need of press shots. Studio shooting can be among the most challenging of all types of photography, but with a little patience and some care, its really not that difficult. Here's how we did it.

“Dress for the job you want, not the job you have”. I’m sure we’ve all heard this saying at one point in our lives. Even though I never took the advice (In your face Mom!) it can easily be reworked into something I firmly believe. “Film for the job you want, not the job you have”.

One of the first very important skills I acquired in my Australian Photography course was the ability to breakdown lighting and determine approximate camera settings in images taken by other photographers. If you understand how the direction of light and its degree of diffusion are controlled and how they affect images, it should be easy for you to train yourself to "read" lighting in the images you see in magazines, on billboards and in your favorite photographers’ portfolios.

Where we’re going, we don’t have roads. The North Face sent photographer Celin Serbo on assignment to an area near Canyonlands National Park to capture stills of Alex Honnold, Daniel Woods, and Matt Segal establishing new climbs in a place called Labyrinth Canyon. In this post, Celin reveals the challenges of shooting a 10 day expedition, and shares his amazing images.

There have been many books written on the subject of face anatomy and how it impacts not only our perception of someone but our reaction to them as well. There are features we deem as authoritative, feminine, funny, somber, and so on. With over 7 billion people in the world we've got quite a few unique faces out there, and yet, certain features and proportions are universally and subconsciously interpreted as "appealing".

7 years of shooting Automotive Editorial Photography has taught me to streamline as much as possible. One area I've simplified to fit my needs is my lighting kit. I used to rent gear wherever I could, but after you use your own gear long enough you almost develop a relationship with it and now I definitely prefer to use my own lights.

Yesterday, I showed you the process of pre-producing a successful photoshoot and used a recent session as an example on all the steps it takes to put together a successful session with a large team. Today, I put together a breakdown of the entire production and post production process on creating a successful portrait session and a behind the scenes look into what all goes into it.

"Trevor, I see that a lot of people are visiting my site, but no one is contacting me for business. What can I do better?" I get this question quite a bit either via email or at the workshops I teach and while there is no magic solution that will work for everyone, I'd love to share what has been the biggest game changer for me in my business.

Recently, a duo by the name of Cruz + Jacob released an short documentary about a niche of concert photography known as EDM Photography. EDM, short for electronic dance music, has swept up the top music charts and its popularity is spreading quickly. The filmmaking duo snuck into this year's ULTRA, one of the biggest EDM festivals in the US, and did a pretty good job at showing what it's like to be an EDM photographer or videographer.

Looking on photography groups and forums, you'll quickly find a reoccurring problem among photographers. No Call, No Shows. It’s going to happen regardless of your location and the seriousness of the industry, and security deposits sometimes scare clients away all together. So how do you counteract this and ensure that your talent and team are timely, and even show up?

Pye from SLR lounge shows us how he used light painting and a strobe to get this amazing engagement photo. Pye booked an engagement session where the couple were both into track racing and had very nice cars. They decided to incorporate the couple's hobby with their shoot. With only a 15 minute window Pye and his team knocked out this great photo.

Before we get into the meat of this video, I've got to warn you...it's long. Like nearly 20 minutes long. That said, if you'd prefer not to gawk at the model and get to the parts that will truly help you with your photography, I have them listed out below. Despite it's length this may be one of the better BTS videos I've come across in a while. I say this because it's not often that a photographer will actually

Automotive Editorial Photography will teach you many things. Mostly though, it'll teach you how to make something out of nothing and how to operate quickly and efficiently. I can't tell you how many times I've shown up to shoot a car only to be told it can't be moved from where it sits. It's those situations that will really test your mettle as a photographer and I've actually grown to love those challenges. One challenge from last year that I really enjoyed was a RIDES Magazine cover that would require fitting and lighting 10 cars. Here's how I did it.

When we talk about on-location mixed lighting we usually mean shooting with light sources of different nature, such as natural ambient light and artificial, or shooting with lights of different color temperatures (tungsten, fluorescent, flash, etc.).

There are dozens of cool effects that one can achieve when mixing ambient light with controlled lighting, but today I would like to talk about mixing lights in studio - impulse (i.e. strobe or flash) and continuous. I love this technique and hope my article inspires you to try it out too.

Sometimes the greatest tool for creating unique movement is your own body. Using human-powered camera moves, an aggressive color grade, and high-speed cameras, the final video in the full post is definitely worth a watch. In this behind the scenes video, Sebastian Linda explains how his vision came together using a high speed camera to create a fascinating 'dream world' of skateboarding.

Casey Neistat was approached with an unusual proposition from Mercedes Benz. They wanted Casey, a successful Youtube filmmaker to make a car commercial for the new Mercedes Benz CLA, even though Casey has never filmed a car commercial or anything close to resembling one. The following set of the three videos is his rather interesting journey so far. With Casey's charismatic personality it's curious to see how the commercial will turn out. I will update this when the final commercial is released. Enjoy.