Behind The Scenes

Here's a great behind-the-scenes time lapse video from photographer Finn O'Hara. It's from a photo shoot he did for the Toronto Maple Leaf hockey team. They set up on the ice and it was an 18-hour production. You'll see the ginormous maple leaf backdrop, measuring 55 ft by 85 ft. Fantastic work from our neighbors to the north!

Ryan Connolly over at Film Riot, a how-to filmmaking site, just knocked out a short film using the iPhone 4s as his only camera. The best part is, he has also provided us with a very in-depth look at how he did. Everything from app set up, lighting, equipment, the works. See both the final video and the BTSV here.

"We took the challenge of making a short with the iPhone 4s. The goal was to make the iPhone's video mode look as cinematic as possible...

National Geographic recently released this video of the creation of one of their cover shots. While there is no exact date on it, I'd bet that it was shot sometime in the early 2000s or late 1990s guessing from technology being used. Some real ingenuity was at work here, as evidenced by the custom-built pneumatic jaw, the hand-cast Tyrannosaurus skull, and not to mention what appears to be at least ten cameras all triggered at the same time via laser in an effort to capture the decisive moment.

Photographer, Michael J Moore was granted access to a creepy and abandoned state mental hospital for this fashion shoot. He used a combination of lighting setups but mainly, the Phase One 645DF camera with a Profoto 8A 2400W and various Profoto strobes. With all three different lighting set ups, Michael did a great job at capturing that Vanity Fair-esque look that we all know so well.

Photographer turned wet-plate artist Ian Ruhter basically dropped everything and cashed in his life's savings to follow his passion, morphing his van into a massive camera and making enormous wet plate prints as he travels the country. From hand-making the silver emulsion to the financial risks of shooting at a whopping $500 a plate, this video "Silver & Light" gives an in-depth

Here's a behind the scenes video from Toronto photographer Finn O'Hara. It was for a recent cover story about Toronto smokers in a magazine called The Grid. O'Hara explains that the story is "a confessional tale of the stigmas faced by smokers every day in Toronto, and what it takes to finally kick the habit. To illustrate the commitment of a winter smoker, we enlisted a

There is no doubt that Dave Hill is a well known name in the photography community. With his recent collaboration with Sony, here's a behind the scenes look of him switching to the Sony NEX camera system for a reinterpretation of Spiderman. Do you feel that mirrorless is a feasible alternative for the way cameras are headed?

Let's Colour is a worldwide initiative to transform grey spaces with colourful paint, and the results are quite incredible! This film was shot by Adam Berg over four weeks in Brazil, France, London and India. Every one of these locations has been transformed by a palette consisting of 120 different colours. The people in the film who rolled up their sleeves to transform their community with colour. I love this unity through art. Enjoy!

Photographer Dave Hamilton takes us behind the scenes on his latest shoot with hockey legend, Trevor Linden. This video is very informative and well produced - including a lighting diagram for each of the different setups. Aiming to get that perfect cover shot for Vancouver View Magazine's April 2012 issue, Dave was able to get some nice shots using his Canon 5D Mark II.

Canon Explorer of Light Tyler Stableford is making it into yet another post on Fstoppers. This time, he was out on a shoot testing the capabilities of the new Canon 1DX DSLR and the 600 EX RT (currently available for pre-order) by shooting some action shots of alpinist Steve House working with some ice climbing gear. In this video, Tyler shows us how he is using the Speedlite to get the look he wants, while having some fun with the new 1DX.

If you enjoy looking at fashion images, then the photography duo Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello should be on your radar. They are ranked as among the top fashion photographers on Model.com and it's easy to see how their work stands out within one of the most saturated fields of photography. In their latest campaign shoot for clothing designer Anna Sui, Sanchez and Mongiello have one of the simplest lighting setups ever: just a single gridded Profoto head.

Most car guys would be happy just to see a McLaren Mp4-12c in the flesh. Getting to hang out with one for a day, while also being paid to take photos of it, would be "dream job" material. Clearly Dallas based photographer Brian Braun is living the dream!

You may remember Canon's promo video for the 5d Mark III that I posted a couple of weeks ago, which showcased the, ehem, interesting sport of Radball. Love it or hate it, I think we can at least agree that it was pretty entertaining. Canon recently released a companion to the promo video which goes behind the scenes into the filming of the piece.

The crew for Travel Channel’s television show, "No Reservations" with Anthony Bourdain have started posting BTSVs on their Road Bite TV, YouTube Channel. This is an interesting and entertaining look at what the crew, from producers to cameramen, have to go through while traveling the world. Check out the first four videos and decide if life on the road is for you.

DSLR guru Phillip Bloom recently worked on a short scifi film that used the new Canon C300 as it’s primary camera. While the short film isn’t finished yet, this behind-the-scenes video has been released for everyone to see. While it’s quite long, it’s a unique inside look at how the director worked with the crew and what it was like to be on set.

I know that we've experienced a pretty big spate of aviation-related posts over the past few weeks. Anyone else getting sick of them? No? Good. Me neither. Here's another one that is just too cool, and makes me way too jealous.

If you grew up during the late 1980s through early 1990s, then you can remember the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Using a combination of action figures, about 60 hand-drawn backdrops, and over 4,000 individual images, director Kyle Roberts pays tribute to this classic cartoon with a stop motion animation. This is one you won't want to miss.

Good friend of Fstoppers and Commercial Photographer, Monte Isom, takes us behind the scenes on his latest shoot with world class boxer, Sergio Martinez. Click through to the video to check out his lighting placement and setups. Enjoy!

Shot with the Red MX Camera, director Andrew Huang created this incredible short film about the gaps between people and the way those gaps are filled. Solipsist is the antithesis of human connection. This video had me glued as the models swayed back and forth in a Yin & Yang fashion, often times co-creating each other.

Haristobald's photostream has some interesting shots in it but what is more interesting is how he produced them. Using an old school, overhead projector, A4 sized transparencies, a strobe and a bit of mechanical know how, Haristobald can now transform his environment and his models. See behind the scenes of his latest Superman shoot and jump into the full post to see a video on how he modified an archaic device into a useful photography tool.

Benjamin Von Wong just hit me up, from his facebook account, to let me know his latest BTSV is out. His 9th, here on Fstoppers, if I counted correctly. And this time no one had to be set on fire but they did have to bend over backwards.
Enter contorsion artist, Myriam Deraiche.

Commercial photographer Dean Bradshaw provides us with a unique perspective of his recent photo shoot for "Startrac". The shoot involved a handful of athletes being shot while mock competing in their individual sports. The athletes were shot in a controlled environment and then composited into different backgrounds in post.

In this behind the scenes video, Jay P Morgan shows us how he combined natural light and strobes to get that perfect shot while on location. First, he starts by determining where the sun is going to set on the horizon by using the very handy iPhone app, Sunseeker. For this project, he was shooting stills as well as video, which can get a bit tricky. Using a Kessler Crane he was able to get the video shots just before sunset. After the sun started setting he pulled out the strobe lighting; two Hensel Porty L 1200 kits. If you enjoy this video be sure to check out some of his other...

Rick Genest (aka Zombie Boy) is nothing if not intense. The 26-year-old Canadian fashion model is tattooed head to toe to look like a decomposing corpse, representing “the art of the rotting cadaver.” Genest, who you may recognize from Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” video, spent over 6 years and thousands of dollars on his body art project, so who better to star in a commercial for tattoo-cover-up cosmetic company Dermablend?

Who doesn’t love watching the X Games? Those athletes are crazy. Just as captivating, though, is this behind-the-scenes two-part video on The Northface and X Games Baldface commercial. Director Todd Jones pulls out all the stops in this two part BTS documentary, breaking out a Phantom HD Gold, a helicopter, and building one really enormous jump.

Brothers Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas make quite the team. They're wildlife photographers based in Britain who have devised some clever means to get closer to some of the world's most dangerous animals. In 2009, they created a remote-controlled camera nicknamed BeetleCam and set out to photograph animals in their natural habitat. Armed with the knowledge they gained from the first trip, they went back a second time, and their results are nothing short of stunning.

It goes without saying that besides the Superbowl commercials, we can pretty much expect the same run of the mill advertisements. Whether it's cartoon bears with toilet paper stuck to their butts, or of babies talking like grown adults, this commercial really blew them all out of the water. Advertising film director, Bruno Aveillan, (along with a crew of about 50 people) spent two years putting together this epic 3.5 minute journey celebrating the 160 year history of luxury jeweler, Cartier.

Hasselblad Master, Joao Carlos, was featured on the Profoto Blog last week for his free falling studio images. That's right, studio images. Not underwater images. I met Joao in NYC last fall at PDN PhotoPlus and fell in love with his portfolio right away. He always lights his subjects with a minimalist approach and his workflow is powerful and consistent.

This is a series of videos that make up a fascinating 90-minute documentary about the great Richard Avedon. It's called "Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light," and first aired back in 1995 as part of the American Masters Series. If you're like me, you could spend hours watching things like this.

As a photojournalist for the NY Post, I got to see and encounter some CRAZY stuff, and it sure sharpened my skills as a photographer and as a New Yorker in general. In D. Perez De La Garda's film, "Chimping" you get take a behind the scenes look at the life of the photojournalist. This short film features Pulitzer Prize winners Preston Gannaway and Rick Loomis, Emmy Award winner Paula Lerner, along with Todd Maisel, Chris Usher, Angela Rowlings, Edward Greenberg, Stan Wolfson, and Rita Reed. Worth a watch for sure if you are interested in what goes into shooting for a paper or publication. Enjoy!

It's crazy to compare todays advertising campaign's to those of 30 years ago. They are becoming more involved, creative and technically advanced than we could have ever imagined. In this video, Photographer Tim Macpherson takes us behind the scenes on the new campaign for the fabric company 'Sunbrella' which was shot and filmed in South Carolina! While this video lacks technical information, it is still really awesome to see how much planning and time it took just to film and shoot one simple scene.

In this hilarious spoof on Dell Inspiron, European photographer, Clayton Sotos, begins explaining that his father bought him a camera out of the blue and he’s been taking photos ever since. From there he blabbers on about how using Dell products helps him to communicate his passion or whatever (00:001-02:00). Then… it gets weird. I won’t spoil the joke—you just have to watch the video. (And no, Dell didn’t actually produce it.) Enjoy!

This video from Smarter Every Day shows how you can capture any gun's flame throwing abilities with precise accuracy. Using a Pulse Generator, Destin explains how he rigged his flash setup to fire at the exact moment the gun is fired. By dragging the shutter and combining the exposure with flash, the Alabama native created some pretty interesting photographs. Some even show the bullet leaving the muzzle!

Last week Pocket Wizard released all the specs for their new PocketWizard Plus III Transceivers. Along with the specs being released, so have a bunch of BTS videos and reviews. Our friends over at the McNally camp did their own testing on many of the features on the new PW3 as well. [Pre-order your PW3 here]. Enjoy!