Recent Composite Articles

Watch This Time Lapse of a Seven Hour Super-Composition of a Fantasy Airship Battle

Not too long ago we featured a tutorial that showed you how to make a fantasy desert kingdom out of tourist images, and thought I would share with you another amazing project by a talented artist. Alexander Koshelkov has quite an impressive resume of outrageous Photoshop compositions that excellently use real world items to create fantastical scenes. He just released this time lapse where you can watch his latest composition which took him just over 7 hours and uses 284 Photoshop CC layers.

Lighting A Lighthouse With A Strobe Attached To A Drone

As a photographer, I'm always looking to capture something in a unique way. This is the craziest landscape photoshoot I have ever done. By taping a tiny Nikon Flash to my DJI Phantom II Drone, I was able to fly my remote helicopter up the side of a lighthouse and light the entire thing with flash. Creating this photograph was one of the trickest shoots I've ever done, and this is how I made it happen.

Instagram 'Celebrity' Photoshops Himself with Actual Celebrities

Do you ever feel like you're not hanging around enough celebrities? Maybe you wish you were court-side at a Laker's game sharing an emotional moment with Kobe, or maybe you'd rather be wrapped around Kim Kardashian like couch upholstery? If any of these things are true, you might be Peeje T - a pretty creative guy with a pretty good sense of humor and a knack for photoshopping himself into pictures with the likes of Jay Z, Beyonce, Rihanna, Alisha Keys and Kobe Bryant, among others.

Create Noise-Free Images Using Exposure Stacking

Current cameras' sensors are getting better year after year. Unfortunately, they cannot create noise-free images at high ISO just yet. I am sure the day will come soon, but in the meantime, there is a very simple technique using Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo to create the illusion of a clean file.

How I Shot Donald Trump and the Solar Eclipse in One Photograph Without Photoshop

When I first found out a full solar eclipse was passing through Charleston, South Carolina, I marked my calendar hoping I would be able to photograph it. Today the eclipse passed through the final stretch of America, and even with a full year of forewarning, I was not prepared to photograph it at all. With only two hours before totality, I decided to take a huge gamble and aim for two unique photographs that would be done 100 percent straight out of camera. The results are pretty interesting.

How To Photograph And Light Real Estate At Dusk On A Budget

Last year we teamed up with Mike Kelley to produce the 7+ hour tutorial: How To Photograph Real Estate, Architecture and Interiors. We were fearful that Mike's fancy equipment would be discouraging to new photographers so we asked Mike if he could create a signature image with much cheaper gear. Mike shot an incredible, world class image with the original Canon Rebel and kit lens and only a few accessories.

Learn How to Create Proper Shadows in Photoshop

If you ever do any sort of composite work, chances are that you'll need to add shadows. They're one of the biggest aspects of making a composite image convincing, and yet, they're also very subtle and tricky to pull off. Phlearn is here with a great tutorial to get you started.

See 50 GoPros Work Together To Create The Happiest Matrix Remake Ever

Devin Graham, better known by his internet alias Devin Supertramp, recently created this video (and BTS piece) that utilized over 50 GoPro cameras to capture dogs jumping and playing as if they were Neo dodging bullets in the blockbuster film The Matrix. If this doesn't make you crack at least a tiny smile, I'm pretty sure you may be Scrooge himself. For a behind-the-scenes look at how this was made, check out the video after the jump.

How to Create Simple and Elegant Product Photos with Minimal Gear

Product photography is a great way to experiment with lighting and editing techniques. For me, it’s a chance to shoot in a relaxed environment where I have complete control over the subject, lighting, and camera. I can set up something small in the living room and find solutions that can be applied to my portrait work or professional product photography. It also requires a lot of creativity. Homemade items or DIY solutions are abundant on sets. From light-shaping tools to methods of creating parts of a composite, a lot can be created simply and at a low cost. You may be surprised to see how minimal of a setup can create some stunning photos.

How to Photograph Background Plates, and Why it's Important

Having options is always a good thing, especially when it can save you from a costly mistake. In this quick tutorial, Jay P. Morgan from The Slanted Lens shows us the importance of shooting background plates to give yourself options in post production and help speed up your workflow.

Conceptual Photography Master Reveals How It's Done Behind the Scenes

Last summer, Conceptual Photographer Erik Johansson spent a calm, pleasant evening shooting his charming photo project “Full Moon Service.” Almost instantly going viral as soon as it touched the Internet today, here’s a behind-the-scenes look of how it all came together from hand drawn sketch to fine art print.

10 More Photographers You Should Be Following On Fstoppers

Last week I made a list of 10 of my favorite photographers to follow on Fstoppers and a few people complained that too many of them were "portrait" photographers. I've scoured the community again and today I've created a new list with 10 incredible, additional photographers who shoot much more than your average portrait.

One Habit Photographers Should Get Into: Shooting Backplates

It doesn't matter what kind of photography you do, shooting photo backplates each and every time you go out and take pictures is one of the best habits you can get yourself into. Not only does it save many hours in postproduction, it will also help open up a world of creative possibilities to you as a photographer.

[FS Original] Shooting The Lamborghini Aventador With Blair Bunting

Fstoppers.com has featured some great behind the scenes videos over the years and showcased amazingly talented professional photographers in our Fstoppers Originals series. Recently Patrick and I were invited to Scottsdale, Arizona to expose the secrets of commercial photographer Blair Bunting. When Blair invited us down to Loft 19 Studios, his idea was to shoot something big, expensive, and one of a kind.

How to Convert Low-Res Logos to Sharp, High-Res Images

Have you ever needed to use a logo or image that just isn't high enough resolution or doesn't have clean enough edges to use? Here's how to quickly and easily convert a low-resolution image to a more useable high-resolution image in Photoshop.

Canon Italy Responds and the Locardi Landscape Saga Continues

This week I wrote an article pointing out that Canon Italy (among other Canon EU pages and Instagram accounts) had posted a composite landscape that had a large amount of the image stolen from Elia Locardi. There was an enormous response to this and so I decided to dig for more information and between my research, the community, and Locardi himself, there's rather a lot more to unpack.

The Fstoppers Flash Disc Is Now Available In Limited Supply

UPDATE: WE'RE SOLD OUT - 6 years ago I built a collapsible softbox that could easily fit in my pocket while I was shooting weddings. I built this product for myself and never dreamed that it would become a real product one day. 2 years ago Patrick and I set out to have the "Flash Disc" mass produced and patented. We just received our patent and first batch. Order now and get 3 before Christmas.

Making the Perfect Shot of Whiskey (Photo That Is)

Patric Bergkvist is making a strong case as one of the better Swedish liquid photographers with his fantastic handle on the ideal lighting in very humble shooting spaces. We featured his exploding coffee and milk photo tutorial in early February and now he is back showing how to make a perfect shot of Whiskey. Photo that is.

The Wolf of Wall Street VFX Breakdown

The Academy Awards nominations were recently released and it's no surprise that "The Wolf of Wall Street" received nominations in the "Best Picture" and "Best Actor" categories, but what about visual effects? The visual effects for the movie while extremely subtle are outstanding to say the least. The company behind the special effects for the movie is Brainstorm Digital. They released the VFX breakdown of "The Wolf on Wall Street", and proves just how much special effects can have an impact on modern storytelling.

Watch the First Full Lesson of 'Photographing the World' for Free

Last year we teamed up with Elia Locardi, one of the most followed landscape photographers in the world, to film "Photographing The World: Landscape Photography and Post-Processing." This is a 12-hour video tutorial on landscape photography, and today, we are releasing the first lesson for free.

Working With A Creative Retoucher On A Concept From Start To Finish

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to work with a retoucher on a concept you've had in mind, this may be just what you're looking for. Photographer Justin Bettman wanted to create a concept but didn't have the ability to do so on his own, so he teamed up with creative retoucher and manipulator Krzysztof Rejek to bring his idea to life.

Bringing Pan Am Back To Life: Photographing And Lighting The First Class Cabin of a 747

I’m a bit of a dreamer. I’m also a huge aviation geek, and I often catch myself browsing the web at 2am looking up articles on aviation and aviation history. So when I found Anthony Toth and learned more about his life’s work, I knew that I had my next personal photography project in mind. As I'm mostly an architectural photographer, I got bored of waiting around for an airline to hire me to photograph their next ad campaign, so I decided to hire myself into my dream gig.

Low Budget, High Scale - Incredible Action Sequence With BTS

Whether you’re a photographer or you focus on video, this article highlights the high octane visual set piece created by Slaughterhouse Pictures, who successfully combined principles of both stills and motion work to create high impact visual media with zero budget and very limited resources. Read the exclusive FStoppers article and watch the BTS video to get some simple and highly effective little tips that you will be able to apply to all aspects of your own work.

Why I Mainly Photograph in Portrait Orientation for Actors' Headshots

Many people have asked me over time why most of my headshots are taken in portrait orientation and so tight? I used to joke around, saying I shot that way because I am a Virgo and my style of shooting is very much “in the box”. I then realized I could simply sum up three main reasons for why I shoot in portrait.

How To Light And Photograph A Beer Bottle Advertisement

Last year Fstoppers threw its very first live photography workshop in the Bahamas and world class food and drink photographer Rob Grimm was one of the instructors. I was able to sit in on a bit of Rob's class and I learned a ton about photographing drinks. We just got our new order of FlashDiscs in and I decided to try a shot of my own using the new modifiers.

I Shot A $15,000 Per Night Penthouse With A Single Speedlight (And You Can Too!)

I recently visited the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas with Lee and Patrick to scout out locations for my upcoming architectural photography workshop and we were pretty much given unfettered access by the Atlantis marketing department to shoot whatever we wanted. First on the list? The $15,000 per night penthouse suite. I only brought a minimal amount of gear