Behind The Scenes

Have you ever been on a shoot in which you used two cameras or had an assistant shooting with you, imported the files into Lightroom and then realized they were not time synced properly? If so, this quick 5-minute video is for you. Lightroom makes it incredibly easy to time sync your files so they all line up perfectly in chronological order by capture time. I'll show you how it's done in the video and read on below for some additional quick tips.

Visual effects have been a huge part of the movie industry since well... movies began. Adding that extra little touch of magic makes a movie that much better and there are millions of ways to do that.

Photoshelter is hosting a webinar featuring retoucher Kristina Sherk this week, and to advertise the webinar they posted an animated gif showing before and after Sherk got her hands on the image. I was shocked, as Sherk not only easily erased 10 years off the model, but even more amazingly did it without making it look fake.

Jay P. Morgan takes us out to the Bonneville Salt flats in Utah to teach us how camera angle affects body shape. Shooting with a 50mm and 24mm lens, Jay takes us through various heights and shows us the outcome from each level.

Every week Benjamin Von Wong releases a new behind the scenes video for your viewing pleasure and this week is no different. I find that Ben is probably one of the most talented conceptual photographers that likes to use fire in his photographs, but this week he decided to switch it up a bit and the results are stunning, to say the least.

In one of their most recent advertising campaigns, Yokohama blends a fun mix of high speed sports car chases and childhood games to produce two different commercials. The filming process involved multiple rigs and setups to get a variety of shots, including the director hanging through the windshield of a truck filming the driver. Check out the final commercials below.

Los Angeles based filmmaker, John Irwin, customized a DSLR intervalometer and hacked his Canon's firmware to allow him the advantage of shooting long exposures in video mode during the day. The device uses a remote trigger to allow a controlled burst of exposure that is carefully calibrated beforehand depending on the available light. The key to his method was his ability to ramp the camera's shutter to blazing fast speeds (upwards of 1/93000) each time the remote trigger is clicked.

Nick Saglimbeni is back with an all new episode and photo set of his imaginative series, SlickForceGirl. This time Nick shoots model Nazanin Mandi in a espionage-themed role in which apparently Nick kept secret even from her until it was time to start shooting. What's wonderful about this series is that a portion of all of the proceeds go to The Breast Cancer Charities of America (BCCA) for their iGoPink campaign. Way to use creativity to help spread good works.

After Bar Refaeli took over the Superbowl with her controversial commercial, Bar found time to do something she never did before: pose nude for a magazine shoot. The magazine that paid her to do that is currently unknown, but somehow the photos leaked earlier today. Check out the BTS and the final results in the post.

From sultry ballads to uplifting melodies, Michael Bublé can definitely bust out a few tunes. In his most recent music video 'It's a Beautiful Day', famed music video director, Marc Klasfeld, talks about the long steadicam shots used in the longer sequences of the video. The video was shot using an ARRI Alexa. I always find it interesting to see how they go about filming music videos especially those with larger production values.

Video portraits, or long portraits, are just what they sound like- a subject sitting in front of a camera for several minutes. I first came across video portraits about 3-4 years ago when I saw Clayton Cubitt's long portrait of photographer Noah Kalina. Cubitt is best known for his NSFW, in-your-face fashion photography. And while lot of the work in his portfolio has an immediacy and titillating flashiness, what caught my attention in his video portraits is the extreme patience and restraint they possess.

Fabian Oefner’s latest series entitled Black Hole shows us a world of paint, drills, and motion, all within 1/40,000th of a second. While high speed photography is nothing new, the art of it is still underground, as its still incredibly expensive. Oefner’s newest work uses high speed photography to show us a world of color that our eyes normally could not process.

Commercial photographer Alex Koloskov takes us through his setup for this relatively simple (although it uses five lights) product shot. While not an incredibly in depth video, there are definitely some often overlooked things it shows that should be committed to memory. The first is that in several cases a basin of dry ice in water can make a much more versatile fog than your standard Halloween store fog machine.

National Geographic has been the pinnacle of photography for 125 years now. They have continued to set the standard for inspiring the world with their photographs. For the longest time Nat Geo was one of the only ways the world was able to visually share each others cultures. Its fascinating to see how society has changed over the century. Here we look back these beautiful shots from the past 125 years. Thank you Nat Geo for revolutionizing photography.

So, what happens when you bring two very popular themes in photography, fashion and pyrotechnics, together? A combustion of epicness emerges on your screen. Fstoppers favorite, Benjamin Von Wong, is at it again, and this time he's brought along a few friends to help create the stunning images you see in the video. Pyrotechnician, Andrey DAS, and amazing designer, Virginie Marcerou, worked with Ben to create the intricate scenes in the photographs.

As a type of person that loves to figure out everything I can about gadgets and software, I am always surprised by how often I meet up with photographers that really only use the powerful programs on their computers for the most basic functions. Typically we get comfortable with a few features and never really explore what else can be done. Maybe we run out of time, maybe we just have no interest. Either way, I hope to share some short, quick, easy to follow along videos over the next few weeks sharing some of my favorite tips and tricks in Lightroom.

A couple weeks ago I was fortunate to work with Tina Hughes, a talented local clothing designer. Her latest collection blends vintage and modern elements. I thought that my friend's modernist house would be the perfect location for the shoot. We were limited to doing the shoot during the (bright and sunny) day so I used speedlites, a polarizing filter and orange gels to add a moodiness to the images.

Back in October, the local headquarters of a global company that specializes in industrial automation hardware and software solutions contacted me. Over the next several months, I put together a production plan for this company and we agreed on what they wanted for a final product. This video is a behind the scenes look at our primary shoot day. Click on to read about how I used different tools to create an engaging video for my client.

Where are the top Fortune 500 companies sourcing new talent for their advertising campaigns? Direct mail promos, e-promos, portfolio meetings? Try Instagram. Even after the Terms of Service backlash in December 2012, the photo-sharing site surges on and photographers, many just hobbyists with big followings, are being sourced by major companies for campaign work.

While many aspiring photographers work for a long time to reach their goals, it's often the journey to get there that is the most interesting story of all. This short video from Vertical Online reveals a thoughtful and inspirational tale of one landscape photographer's experiences from going broke to making amazing images.

Have you ever wondered how photographers capture bullets flying in mid air? Or get that perfect lightning strike in the middle of the day? Well the newly redesigned Nero Trigger will help you do just that. Short of the creative jolt you get when you upgrade from pop-up flash to a full off camera flash set up, I'd say that this is one of the biggest creative boosts I've gotten in a long time. This is a piece of gear worth having if you need to get the creative juices flowing again.

Brian Bowen Smith speaks at Chicago Ideas Week about utilizing the creative process and relying on your subject to allow your work to reach it's potential. This amazingly successful photographer takes us through the successes and challenges of three different shoots all the while touting the importance of trusting your gut. The common misconception is that great shoots require a great investment. I love the fact that the first shoot he discusses was done for under $500.

This year my family and I escaped the cold of NYC and went to South Florida to celebrate the holidays. I was so glad to be heading to some warm weather, and I planned some shoots that wouldn't be typical of the winter weather up North. I had never shot underwater before, so I wanted to challenge myself and try it out. I contacted BorrowLenses to see if they had an Aquatech housing that I could

Steve Gullick, one of rock music's most prominent photographers of our time takes us into his darkroom and talks about the short time he spent capturing Seattle's Grunge scene during 1990-1993. Steve shot bands like The Screaming Trees, Soundgarden and Nirvana for Melody Maker and Sounds.

Ever wonder how Red Bull or any other company films their skate videos? How they get those awesome flying shots, rolling shots, and what goes into every aspect of the films? In this video, Red Bull takes you behind the scenes in their new skate video. To say the least, it's pretty amazing.

We've got some really cool deals for you today, the biggest of which is on three sizes of Sony SDHC Memory Cards! In addition to this, Hasselblad is cutting some big money off of it's H4D-40 medium format cameras! In addition to this, the newest Wacom Tablet is avaliable for pre-order and the Battery Pack for the D7100 is now in stock!

For the launch campaign of the new H5D, Hasselblad asked Henrik Sorensen to put their new camera through its paces while shooting the new campaign. What he came up with is nothing short of spectacular. Denmark is known as the land of fairytales and castles so Sorensen opted to do a twisted take on that with a floating fairy in an 18th century palace...underwater.

Honestly while I think the whole shoot is awesome, my favorite thing is the backdrop. In a time where the prevailing

Joe McNally takes us through his lighting setup for a recent Cowboy portrait he shot. Joe's vision was to have the photo look like it was being lit by daylight coming through a window. He accomplishes this with a set of speed-lights and a 6x6 diffuser. He also adds additional lights to add fill for the shadows that the cowboy hat creates. Joe breaks down the gear...

Imagine being brought into a room blind and told that you had to photograph one of the most talented photographers in the business today? Then, imagine you have to do it live, in front of a room of other photographers including David Hobby and Joe McNally. Oh and you've only got 20 minutes. Stressful right? Completely. Watch how these three amazing photographers handled their assignment of shooting the great Gregory Heisler in very different ways.

Continuous lights are making a comeback and many photographers are giving them a second chance. In this lighting tutorial Jay P Morgan breaks down how he uses two continuous lights in his photo shoot. With the old technology of continuous lights most photographers avoided them, due to the heat the lights produced and the uncontrollable power and temperature of light. Now companies offer continuous light where you are able to fine tune the power/temperature of the light. The benefit from using continuous lights is you are able to see exactly where your light falls.

In this behind the scenes video we follow the team over at Corridor Digital as they create a stunning and moving fanfilm after the video game mod of DayZ. Corridor Digital is made up of two friends, Sam Gorski and Niko Pueringer . Apparently, Sam and Niko are huge fans of the zombie video game mod and wanted to tip their hats to the creators of the game. In the behind the scenes video they talk about filming on location and the VFX process. Below is another video by Sam and Niko explaining their workflow while filming and editing.

As photographers, we usually focus on matching photography parameters with other photography parameters: matching ISO to F-stop, matching exposure to ISO and so on. But have you ever tried matching a photography parameter with sound parameters? By matching the frame-rate (fps) on the camera to the Hz units coming out of the speaker you can create magic in video, without any editing. Create something your naked eye will never see.

Fstoppers recently brought you an exclusive interview with photographer Joey L. In the process, we took a peak into some of his latest projects and revisited some of his previous work. He recently also photographed the national campaign for National Geographic's film, Killing Lincoln. He teamed up with Variable to execute the campaign.

Last week we posted about the new Autodesk's and filmmaker, Jeremy Hunt's, new short film, 'Fix It In Post' demonstarting Autodesk's Smoke for the Mac. In this behind the scenes video Jeremy explains on how he came about joining Autodesk and creating the short film and how much he enjoys the new editing software. He also remarks on using the RED Epic and his reasoning behind that certain camera choice.

My buddy Ray Wert from the ad agency Tiny Toy Car knows how I love gadgets, filmmaking, and obviously custom camera trucks capable of racing in the Baja and destroying anything in its path. Last month he got me a sneak peek of this Ford ad (below the break) before it aired and introduced me to the director, Tim Damon, who told me about his incredible custom Ford Raptor that he used to film rally racer Tanner Foust as he thrashed the new Ford Fusion in the hills of California.

This isn't the first time Air New Zealand has made waves across the internet. While their previous safety video featured hobbits, elves, and wizards in a Lord of the Rings inspired piece, this new video features wilderness survival talent Bear Grylls. In this behind the scenes video, you can get a closer look at the conditions and locations the crew had to work around, while having a fun time even while trying to keep warm on the mountaintop. Check the BTS, then click on for the final video!

Hasselblad + Beer = Good stuff.

In this behind the scenes video, commercial photographer Rob Grimm and Phlearn, co-created a tutorial around the set of a beer photo shoot. Grimm does a great job explaining the lighting being used on set, how he works around reflections on glass with polarizers, how he creates highlights in the beer bottle and why chopsticks are necessary to make cereal malt beverages look crisp on camera.

Preston Kanak has been featured here before for his wonderful tutorials on time-lapse cinematography. Now, he's back with an all-new 3 minute short called, ' A Moment of Silence. Shot with the Kessler CineDrive, Preston explains in this very comprehensive behind the scenes video how the CineDrive functions and gives some amazing tips on how to push your cinematography to new heights. You can view the 3 minute short in the full post below. Enjoy!

We've seen this great post about pulling stills from video before. It really opens up the discussion about what technology can do for us. Will video really replace photography? The reality is it probably won't. There are quite a few pros and cons that go along with it. The Slanted Lens goes in depth with this behind the scenes video with a Canon EOS-1DC.

Independent Filmmaker Tom Durham recently sat down with the folks over at Red Giant and gave some very great advice on filming your very own independent movie. Tom has spent the last several years creating his newest independent movie, 95ers: Echoes and has endured both the highs and lows of independent filmmaking. Why not learn from his mistakes and successes? His biggest piece of advice when making your own independent movie... 'Whatever you do, don't go into debt!'

Fstoppers posted last night that the newest lens from Nikon the 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6, their exciting new CoolPix A and a bunch of other compact cameras had been announced. Well, now they're all available for preorder! Follow the links below to pre order one of these exciting new gadgets!

If you've ever wondered how photographers stitch together elaborate sequences of sports maneuvers, here's your answer. Pete Webb takes some of his snowboarding shots and offers us a detailed walk through on how to composite such an image in post. Although this concept is most easily applied to sports photography, I've also seen it show up with some fun applications in couples portraits and commercial work.

Not only is this video hilarious, NSFW, cute, and lovable, but we also get an awesome look behind the scenes at the cameras and filmmaking techniques used to create it. Matt & Kim, you've knocked it out of the park on this one. Check out the video by clicking to the left, then check out the BTS video inside the post. Oh yeah, the song is super catchy too!

Nikon USA has just announced the a brand new super-tele zoom, as well as a slew of new compact cameras. These include the Nikon Coolpix A a DX format compact, the P330, S3500 and L320. This is really good news because with the advent of a relatively large format sensor, compact camera, does this mean that smaller and super light full frame bodies are on the way?

Russell James is an extremely talented photographer who has shot for a long list of high end clients and famous celebrities. This behind the scenes video gives us a quick rundown of what it takes to produce and execute a high caliber photo shoot for a upper echelon glossy like GQ. Even though it moves fast, we can see from this glimpse what types of gear used during the shoot, how lights are set up and what it takes to work with talent like Erin Heatherton.

You can find more work from Russell James on his site www.studiorusselljames.com

Where do you place cameras to capture someone taking a 400 foot plunge into a rocky abyss when you can't get to the bottom? On the person falling of course! The popular YouTuber Devin Graham is up to his usual hijinks, but this time with a little help from some friends. If you enjoyed his Epic Rope Swing video, then you'll definitely want to check this out. Final video inside!

Lighting is one of my favorite things to play with on a shoot. Creative lighting can really give you're photography a large edge over just shooting natural/ambient light. I love using lights, because I am always growing and learning new techniques. This week I will walk you through the relatively simple setup for one of my favorite shots in my portfolio.

I have had quite a few people ask about my skin smoothing ways. Its really, really simple. I use Imaginomics Portraiture 2 and have figured out how to get it so it smooths the tones instead of all the texture. So if you use Portraiture, follow along and stop killing your textures!

Since the release of The Matrix over a decade ago, we've all seen the incredible "Bullet Time" segments done by many different people, including an incredible surfing video using the technique, but something I've never seen before is this technique used on something as large as a car. The Splice Boys, a team comprised of Richard Kendall and Tom Brandon created this massive camera moves using dozens of cameras all rigged to go off at specific intervals.

Last week I tried my hand at emulating Martin Schoeller's portrait lighting with a single bare-bulb speedlite. Though the experiment was technically a failure, it still produced a nice portrait. Since then, I have tried two more lighting scenarios before finally nailing it on the fourth (please excuse my OCD tendancies) and final attempt.