With a brilliant display and talent and planning, street artist Sofles and Selina Miles from Unity Sound and Visual joined efforts to create an epic dubstep music video. While Sofles spray paints the walls of abandoned buildings, a hyper time lapse precedes him, wrapping around walls as he works through different areas. How did they do it?
Portrait and fashion photographer Lindsay Adler is not only a great photographer, but also a superb educator. Just recently she did a session with creativeLive on studio lighting, and also taped a new show with Framed Network. In her most recent video, Lindsay shows a very cheap (between $0 and $20) way to create beautiful soft light just by using your window and some black foam core. No need in expensive strobes, no need in extra equipment. and the results are amazing.
The Curiosity rover is one of the coolest machines we ever sent into space. The rover is giving us a glimpse into the never-explored land of Mars by sending us beautiful images taken by its cameras everyday. Curiosity has 17 cameras on deck, which is the most of any NASA planetary missions to date. Take a look at what each camera does, and why some of the cameras shoot just Black and White, and some shoot color. Also, who do you think have more image resolution: the Nikon D800 or Curiosity rover?
One guy in our industry that continually impresses me with his execution of beautiful environmental portraits is Joey L. One concept he has been wanting to shoot for sometime is some portraits of "artic explorers" but rather than fight with the elements of the weather he pulled it all off in studio. Read on to learn how it was done and what equipment was used.
Many people go out every year to set a Guinness World Record, and for those who can succeed comes fame, money and the ultimate bragging rights. Mike Newman should know, he's already set four... but now he wants three more to hold the triple crown for land, water, and air speeds. In this video, photographer Nathan D'Amour heads out to capture Mike's attempt at driving over 200mph unaccompanied in the Noble M600, a British super car. You may be thinking 200mph is far below the current land speed record, and you're right... but this isn't just about driving fast. What makes this feat so impressive is that Mike is completely blind.
Jared Polin of froknowsphoto.com recently shot a concert for Macklemore of Thrift Shop Fame. Jared shot the concert with a GoPro strapped to his Canon 1D X so you could really get a feel for what a photographer does first person. Commentary was recorded over the video so you can hear what he was thinking while he was shooting.
We're back with more deals and announcements from B&H and this time we've got some newly announced Macbooks, a 25% discount on 16GB Sony SD Cards, nearly half off Manfrotto 190 tripod's after mail in rebate and big savings on Olympus lenses! If you're interested in any of these deals, check out the links below!
Now that many of us are shooting with DSLR cameras that handle both photo and video we often find ourselves doing a bit of both. For example, while I specialize in shooting weddings it is nice to be able to capture a bit of video of my clients and use it in a slideshow such as those done in Animoto or Lightroom 5. While I would love to invest in a slider for the videos, it is just not in my budget and would not be used enough. This video tip by Fenchel & Janisch will show how to get similar shots to those done with a slider, using the tripod you already own.
When Profoto contacted Portland-based fashion photographer Rob Werlinger about doing a blog post for them, he pulled out all the stops. "The concept revolved around metallics and you can see them used prominently in the wardrobe, makeup, and also reflected in the mood and emotion of the model,” writes Rob. “Since we were using the 'Profoto Pro-8a packs' that feature action-stopping short flash duration times, I wanted to bring in a strong element of motion as well.”
A few months ago Lee and I went out to Gulf Photo Plus to see what all the fuss was about and absolutely had one of the greatest trips of our lives. While we were filming our "What makes photographers successful" video, we were hearing rumors that Joe McNally was about to shoot from the top of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. If you've spent any time with Joe, you know he absolutely loves a challenge and lives to create images taken from exotic places (like his shoot on the top of the Empire State Building).
"You need to pack up your stuff, move to the mountains, and LIVE IT." Scott Serfas says this bluntly when asked how someone else can get a job like his. In this new behind the scenes video from the Life In Focus series, Scott talks about how he worked himself into a position as a top action sports shooter, while we get to see him work in a more urban setting for a snowboarding action shot.
Stage 5 TV is known for their clever take on geek culture with high production value. Their latest project is a fun video parody of one of television's best shows, 'Game of Thrones'. Many times parodies are filmed with DSLRs, so it's nice to see a company raise the level and use higher-end equipment like the RED cameras. WARNING: Vulgar Language.
It never ceases to amaze me when I see how complicated lighting setups for products can be. Thankfully photographer Phillip McCordall can walk us through his process with relative ease. This tutorial video definitely doesn't come close to the most complex setup, but of course it's still very interesting to see especially considering how cheap most of the modifiers are. This is seriously a setup most of you could do in your living room.
Rokinon, Samyang and Bower have been releasing some exciting new lenses the last few months! They have recently announced the Rokinon 8mm Fisheye f/3.5 for only $229, the $379 Bower 35mm f/1.4 and the Samyang 16mm f/2. While these are all manual focus lenses, optically they're not bad for the money you're putting out. Also, Olympus has just announced a 75mm f/1.8 lens for their Micro 4/3 mount. Check out all of the links for these deals below!
Sometimes those obligatory travel photos snapped on location are great on their own, but (at least for me) a lot of them aren't visually dazzling. Luckily, that can be rectified. Jonas De Ro recently published an absolutely breathtaking composite image psd.tutsplus that is jaw-droppingly amazing. Best part is, he shows you how to make it so all you Photoshop fans can try a similar project yourself. Turn ordinary into fantasy!
Although I am invested into the world of retouching, the world of creative retouching and composite work is another world. They create entirely new worlds seamlessly. We see them everyday in the form of advertisements from big companies for the most part. Check out a few videos of what goes into Matt's work along with an in depth interview about the industry.
For this shoot, Michael David Adams developed his concept from the story of Hypnos, the god of sleep. It's moody, it's dark, and I love it. But check this out... lately I've gotten a lot of questions from people looking to make the move from naturally lit location shooting, into the studio. The problem many of these photographers are running into isn't just confined to learning strobes.
James Cameron graces this months cover of National Geographic for good reason. Not long ago, Cameron took his solo manned submarine Deepsea Challenge, to depths no other human has traveled into Challenger Deep.
In the behind the scenes video, we get to see photographer Marco Grob working through pre-production with the team, how the shoot came together in a couple of hours and the tracking down a huge tank (apparently from America's Next Top Model) for the shoot.
I am a keyboard shortcut junkie. Anytime I can find a way to do something quicker using a keyboard shortcut I will force myself to use it for a few days till I have built it into my workflow. A few of my favorite keyboard shortcuts are found in the Lightroom Crop Tool. I love sharing these tips with other photographer friends and watching their eyes light up as they realize some of the great features built into the Lightroom Crop tool which help speed up their own workflow.
Think Tank launched “About A Photograph,” a video series that features stories from photographers about the photographs they have created.
The videos are co-produced by Think Tank Photo co-founders and award-winning photojournalists Kurt Rogers and Deanne Fitzmaurice. Each video will feature some of the world’s leading photographers recounting the stories behind these images that captured global attention.
Photoshop is such an elaborate program that it takes years to figure it all out. Then when you finally think you know everything, they add more features or you discover features that you never knew were there this whole time. This video by Photoshop Product Manager Bryan O'Neil Hughes explores a variation of methods and techniques.
When you think group shots, what lens immediately comes to your mind? Often, the initial reaction to a "group picture" is to reach for the widest lens in your bag. It's a safe option that makes sure you'll fit everyone in the frame. It could be said group shots are more about accounting for everyone who was present rather than being a work of art. However, if you care about the quality of images you're creating, maybe your widest option shouldn't be your default.
Aaron Nace at PHLEARN teamed up with professional product photographer Rob Grimm to demonstrate how a super high-end watch shoot would be put together. Check out how Grimm takes numerous shots and combines them into one advertising-quality image.
This is one of the most interesting, and almost bizarre behind the scenes video I've seen. Musical artist Jack Conte came up with an idea for a video to go along with a music track he created called "Pedals", and through building his own spaceship set, using real working robots, and even getting Jeff Orlowski to shoot it, everything came together for an inventive final product.
Olaf Heine is one of the world's most acclaimed music photographers and has photographed music icons such as Iggy Pop, Sting and Jon Bon Jovi. In this interview from H&M Life, Olaf talks about what it's like to work with these musicians and how best to convey your portrait ideas so they are well received. Obviously this is a good skill to have when trying to get someone on board with a more "off the wall" portrait concept...like tying Sting up and throwing him in a pool with his mouth taped up.
Canon has recently come out with their short film, "Rhythm of Life' showcasing their new line of cine lenses. Shot with the Canon C500 director, Dean Hargrove and cinematographer, Steven Poster ASC, explain how the different cine lenses affect the footage and change the color and feel of your shots. The BTS video was shot with the Canon C300.
Plus three gorgeous Brazilian triplets. But that's not the point here.
Seriously though, I've seen a lot of crazy things done with the Red Epic, but I've never seen it shot without it's IR pass filter. The results are the definition of ethereal. The biggest shocker to me though was that none of these shots, which included a very complicated Handheld to Rope to Handheld shot that looked like a crane shot, were all done without any post-stabilization or complicated steadicam rigs. All of the shots were done using the Movi stabilization system.
Have you ever wondered how different diffusing fabrics affect the quality of light that you shoot with? Jay P. Morgan from the Slanted Lens walks you through the different diffusion materials by Rosco. He explains how the different fabrics can lessen the stops of light and how it can affect your color temperatures and look of your shoot.
Benjamin Von Wong has finally wrapped up his long and productive European tour, Von Wong Does Europe. The very first shoot that he was able to do was also ironically the last to be published and for good reason. It will blow you away. Taking over 60 hours to retouch Ben collaborated with talented retouching guru, Chester van Bommel.
Behind the scenes videos are some of the best ways to learn our craft, especially when it comes to setting up lighting. It takes quite a bit of courage though to put yourself out there online and share a video with our industry. Arizona based photographer, Lear Miller, took the leap and put together his first BTS video of a fitness shoot that I thought deserved a shout out here on Fstoppers.
