Behind The Scenes

Have you ever been assigned to take pictures of a chef's creations in a restaurant? Photographing food on location at a restaurant is a very common assignment for a food photographer. I have an editorial client that sends me to 4 or 5 restaurants every month to take pictures of the dishes. Through these assignments, I have discovered that most restaurants are not designed with the photography in mind.

With the new Iron Man movie out this week it's only natural that companies would cash in on the film trilogy. Verizon Wireless have released a new commercial for their new internet service, FiOS Quantum. VFX house, The Embassy, who created the special effects also worked on the first Iron Man film.

I feel the need to preface this post by saying "don't try this at home." Sure, crazier things have been done to get a shot and this is relatively tame by comparison but that doesn't change the fact that a pothole could seriously ruin your day. That said, I love this video from Korean photographer Manchul Kim. Sure, I would have liked to see a second strobe team to the rear of the subject and off camera, but whatever, it's still cool. I especially enjoy how

Jeff Bridges has been nominated for six Academy Awards and has won once (for 'Crazy Heart'). He can now add another honor to his list of awards. This week at the 29th annual Infinity Awards, he is being nominated for his photography. 'The Dude' has been shooting on-set images of the films he has worked on since 1984, and his work gives us a peek at a world most people never get to see.

All of us have that favorite food that no matter what time of the day it is, we crave it. Well being a celebrity means you can have access to these foods at any time. Henry Hargreave thought is would make for a fascinating series to photograph these riders. I enjoy the fact that he decided to keep the backgrounds black and very minimal, which helps you connect with the person's interest and draws you in the most simplistic yet captivating way.

Posing multiple people can be a difficult task as it is, but throw in parkour performers into the mix and the shoot can quickly become tedious, but if done correctly the results can turn out nothing short of amazing. In this video Benjamin Von Wong walks you through the lighting set up he used to bring a three dimensional feel to the photographs. He also explains the different composing techniques he uses to get the posing and composition spot on for the shoot.

Plus, he's giving away an excellent Tamron 24-70mm SP f/2.8!

This is an incredibly informative video from The Slanted Lens that details an excellent way of shooting outdoors and balancing strobes with natural light. Some of these tricks were things that I actually never considered such as stopping down the camera and upping the flash to see exactly where the light was falling outside. Now that I think about it, it's so simple that I should have been doing it from the start, but that's why I love these videos!

Recently I have been on the watch for a good web based accounting and invoicing program. There are numerous services out there that are top notch but they all have the dreaded monthly payment. The most common web based software runs around $30 a month, that is a total of $360 for the year. For some semi professionals this is a little steep. My problems were solved when I ran across the free web based app Wave.

I'm sure most of us have had an awkward photobomb and were not to happy about it, but how would you react if the hilarious Ken Jeong decided to ambush your set with the lovely Kate Upton? Well during GQ's slim corduroy pants fashion shoot he did just that.

Originally inspired by Indiana Jones for this image, photographer Matthew Drozd almost immediately ran into budgetary constraints. In this video he sits down with us to talk about how he came up with his concept, how he found his team, how he avoided potential equine issues and how he balanced his lighting to make the final composite. There isn't a lot of technical information to be had here (though the idea of flashes spooking a horse at night is important), but definitely take note of

One of the most frustrating things that can happen in photography is seeing a perfect moment and snagging a shot, only to get back to your computer and find out the picture was barely out of focus. As a wedding photographer, I can't count how many times my couple has been composed perfectly with that magic moment that only lasts one frame, and my autofocus drags away from their eyes. To be fair, there is a lot of human error that goes into focus problems. However, did you know the problem doesn't always lie in the user?

DSLR Video pioneer Vincent Laforet partnered with Canon to create a 4 part instructional video series where he shares many great tips for getting started with shooting timelapse sequences. He takes viewers with him on a shoot in Bryce Canyon and explains his setup, and also goes in to detail on: finding a subject matter, lens selection, how to calculate properly to get enough frames, using intervalometers, and so much more. This is loaded with tons of great tips, a must watch if you do any timelapse work.

Released on May 21, 1980, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back has become over the years one of the most epic space films ever. The Star Wars series has resulted in a cultural phenomenon and made a tremendous effect on the film industry. Photos have surfaced showing the behind the scenes action including old tricks used to pull of some of the "mind-blowing" effects we watched as kids. You have got to see these.

Several weeks ago I wrote an article about Profoto's new-ish pack, the Pro-B4, which has a flash duration of 1/25,000th of a second. Well, last week I was finally able to take it for a test drive. And what better way to test an insane flash duration than with water?

Nikon recently opened up Nikon Cinema, a website dedicated to HD SLR motion projects that have been created with Nikon hardware. The website currently hosts 3 short motion projects that have been shot with the Nikon D4, D800, D600 and various Nikkor glass.

The three films include Joyride by Sandro, Why by Corey Rich and Chasing The Light by Florian and Salomon Schulz

With the recent rebates available for both Nikon and Canon shooters, many Sony shooters have probably been wondering "What about me?". Well folks, the wait is over. Sony has just announced some big savings on it's line of cameras which ends on April 27th. In addition to this, there's an inexpensive tilt-shift lens coming to the market soon and the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 is now available! Check out the links below for more information!

While on a recent trip in the US, Dave Piper had the chance to stop by The 1905 Academy of Music Theatre in Lynchburg, VA. This historic theater is in the middle of a fund raiser to help raise money to complete their renovations. However while there, Dave had the chance to shoot a model with his Fuji X-Pro in this amazing historic environment.

As leaders in the video post-production plugin world, it's really cool to see Red Giant creating short films to promote its products, and they are always a blast to watch. You might recall "Plot Device" or "Form 17" as some of their previous work. This new short isn't directly related to BulletProof, their new plugin, but it's a very entertaining piece with an equally informative making of video as well.

As one of the writers here at Fstoppers I do quite a bit of scouring the internet trying to find the best 'behind the scenes' videos to share with our readers. Sadly much of what I see lacks content, rather it is most commonly just a music video of a photographer on a shoot. Fortunately, this video by Simeon Quarrie documenting his shoot in Italy is quite the opposite. Packed with great information and lots of tips this video is worth checking out. Read on to see a lighting diagram and some of the photos from the shoot.

Counted among legends like Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, Christopher Wahl is certainly a photographer that will define a time in image making. Global News 16x9 correspondent Carolyn Jarvis takes us behind the scenes with this portrait master as he shares his insights with us. He has photographed everyone from the Pope to the President and still remains grounded. When a man like that speaks, I think it's time to listen.

Being in the right place at the right time is often critical for making iconic imagery. Astronaut Chris Hadfield is always in the right place for creating powerful landscapes of planet earth. In a video released yesterday by the Canadian Space Agency, Hadfield demystifies his photographic process for capturing stunning landscapes of the planet from the International Space Station.

Tim Kemple has "always been an adventurer, an explorer, a climber", but how did he make the transition into being a photographer? A new web mini-series from F-Stop Gear is setting out to tell the story of outdoor and adventure photographers. In this premier episode, Tim Kemple shares his background while running around the mountains in France, and he explains what it takes to capture images in those environments.

Devin Graham creates Youtube videos for a living. Not just any Youtube videos, but breathtaking videos that not only leave you in awe-inspiring wonder, but are obviously made with tediously hard work, amazing creativity and most importantly... passion. Devin takes you behind the scenes in this motivating video about exactly what he does for a living.

Just the other day a buddy introduced me to hypersync via this video from PocketWizard featuring Chris Garrison. Hypersync is technology in PocketWizard FlexTT5's and MiniTT1's which enables you to sync your camera with big studio strobes at speeds up to 1/8000 with certain setups. PocketWizard has more information on hypersync over at their site. This video is pretty long (over an hour) but Chris walks you through several of his setups as well as talks about how he got his career to where it is now.

Quite a number of years ago I had a friend that suggested I use Photomechanic to review my photos and pick the ones I want to edit (also known as "culling.") I downloaded the free trial and was immediately turned off by the archaic and confusing menus. Had someone showed me then what I was missing I would have immediately adopted it into my workflow and saved myself lots of time over the years. Hopefully this video will do it justice and show you just how incredible and valuable a tool Photomechanic is for your workflow.

If you've been hired to photograph a wedding, there's a very good chance your clients will also want you to take engagement photos. Recently we released our 14 hour long wedding tutorial How to Become a Professional Commercial Wedding Photographer which covers everything about how to start a wedding business. Lee Morris previously released a sample called How To Light Posed Photos In a Church but today I wanted to share a free excerpt on making the most out of your client's engagement session.

When I saw this series of photos from Rob Turney, I dismissed them as photographs because they looked computer generated. It turned out that I was completely wrong when I read the description of how they were made. They were beyond brilliant. What's even better is the 'how to' video Rob pointed me toward.

Well-known wet plate artist Ian Ruhter has just released the fourth installment in his 'Silver and Light' series, which chronicles his trip to Seattle to meet with Chase Jarvis, his journey to becoming an artist, Chase Jarvis' very frank thoughts on what being an artist

Recently I have been wanting to do an avant-garde hair shoot. I just needed to find the right stylist to work with. A few weeks ago I met Devan Aledia Ford who is a fantastic hair stylist. When I told her about my desire to do a stylized hair shoot, she took the idea and ran with it. She conceptualized a spring-themed, fairytale-inspired shoot. She even styled the wardrobe and did the makeup (never underestimate the power of a great stylist).

When KFC needed new, iconic images for their redesigned website they turned to Photographer Teri Campbell (author of Food Photography and Lighting: A Commercial Photographer's Guide to Creating Irresistible Images). After fine tuning the details of the production Teri, his 1Ds Mark III and the crew got to work. The project took a total of five days, and Teri takes us behind the scenes