Recent BTS Articles

Hidden Lightroom Script To Recover Lost Photos | Huge Life Saver

Let's imagine you've lost the drive that houses all of your RAW files for Lightroom. Let's also assume ninjas broke into your off site location and stole your backup. Let's even go so far as to say that hackers erased all of your images backed up in the cloud. If you've made previews there may still be one way to recover your work.

Go Behind the Scenes With the Photographer of the Royal Wedding

I can't think of a more high-pressure job than photographing the royal wedding, but Alexi Lubomirski took the challenge and delivered in spades. This neat interview sees him detail the 25 minutes he had to capture six portraits and the challenges he faced during that time.

Simplify your Photography, It Helped Me Remember Why I Love What I Do

Recently I was lucky enough to have a day off, something that doesn't happen too often. I woke up that morning feeling a little burnt out from the daily non-stop marathon that is living and working as a freelancer in New York City. I dragged myself out into the kitchen, made myself some bacon and eggs and sat down to eat. Over breakfast, I realized I hadn't made a picture for myself in almost a full year.

Dixie Dixon Explains How and Why You Should Be Filming Video On Every Photoshoot

Dixie Dixon has been a good friend of Fstoppers over the years, and she even came down to the Bahamas with us for the first Fstoppers Workshop. Lee and I have been preaching since the start of FS that photographers need to film behind the scenes videos their own photoshoots. I was absolutely thrilled to see that Dixie has produced this short video outlining exactly how you should incorporate video into your own business.

Microsoft Hyperlapse Project Aims to Make First-Person Videos Enjoyable at Last

First-person cameras, such as the ubiquitous GoPro, have been filming hours of footage from their owner’s journeys for years now. These lengthy uncut videos don’t hold much interest to most people, but a team of Microsoft Researchers are aiming to change that by using some remarkable technology they hope to release as part of an upcoming app.

Interview with Stu Thomson | Director of Latest Danny Macaskill Video "The Ridge"

Trials cyclist Danny Macaskill released a new video featuring a ride through unthinkable terrain in his homeland of Scotland. The daring exploit took place on the Cuillin Ridge in the Isle of Skye, where the spectacular scenery alone is worth the price of admission. The beauty of the Scottish landscape, mixed with the technical and dangerous mountain bike riding is absolutely thrilling to watch. The pinnacle shot, where Danny climbs up a ridge with bike in tow, closes the film and solidifies Danny as a death defying badass. We reached out to the director of the film, Stu Thomson, to ask a few questions about the making of this project.

Tips on How to Pose Newborn Babies

Have you ever wondered how baby photographers (no, not babies that are photographers) pose newborns? Have you wondered how they got those little writhing, crying, flailing bundles of joy to stay the heck still for at least 1/200th of a second? Well, the crew over at Redhead Photography seems to have found the right combination. In fact, the babies in this video are so malleable that it's a little bit unnerving.

Creating Drama Through Cinematic Light

WDP 2012: Photographer of the Year Lauri Laukkanen guides us step by step through two images from his World War II inspired photo shoot explaining in detail what he used and why. The entire video is done using a stand-in model so we don't get to see much of the actual production but Lauri's explanation of his thought process is really what matters here. In fact the one thing I expect many of you will want to pay attention to is when he addresses feathering your light.

Three Easy Steps To Improve Your Lighting on Webcam

Last week Fstoppers and Peter Hurley hosted a free Illuminating the Face release party on Spreecast (view it here if you missed it). Since I had learned so much from Peter's tutorial I figured it would be exciting to use some of his studio lighting techniques for my own webcam session. What I didn't expect was all the emails, tweets, and live questions concerning my lighting setup. So in this post I'm going to share my lighting setup with everyone so you can reproduce it with your video sessions.

Interview with a Film Set Photographer Niko Tavernise

Niko Tavernise has every portrait photographers dream job. Well at least my dream job. He hangs out on movie sets and takes pictures of what he sees. And what he sees are the top actors of our time in impeccable costumes and makeup, on sets that are pre-lit by masters in lighting. And before you start scheming about how you can try to get a job like this, read about how he came about landing this epic gig.

Filming A Ford Fusion Ad With A Badass Custom Raptor Camera Truck

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.

Behind The Scenes | Bailey's Irish Cream Shoot

Here is a look at a 4 day photo shoot my studio PRO Photo did for Bailey's Irish Cream through Brand Content in Boston. This job was especially technical due to the bottle's reflective and concave properties. This called for an extra technical and precise lighting setup. The slightest move in any of the lights drastically changed the light shape on the set and bottle. Take a look.

Lighting Fitness Bikini Pro Ashley Pfaff by Photographer Alexis Cuarezma

Alexis Cuarezma is a San Francisco – based sports photographer, who specializes in both on-location and in-studio portraiture. In this video Alexis walks us through his photo shoot with IFBB Bikini Pro, Ashley Pfaff, providing a great sense of the process. He begins with the mood board and guides us to the final result, explaining his lighting choices and techniques.

How To Enhance Freckles with Photoshop

In my recent Natural Light Tutorial with RGGEDU, I went through every aspect of natural light photography and retouching... Or so I thought. During a shoot this week, I realized I missed one thing: enhancing freckles with Photoshop. In this article I will show a simple method to making those freckles pop.

How To Color Tone Your Photos With Elena Jasic

If you are a regular reader of Fstoppers, than by now you should be familiar with Elena Jasic and her amazing photography and retouching skills. Elena just posted her tutorial on how to color tone your photos the way she does it. Mind you, there is no one way to do anything in photoshop, but Elena is a master at her craft and offers some very valuable insight for anyone interested in color toning their photos.

Unique Beauty - Lighting Out Of The Box

Throughout my career so far I have failed over and over again. Although it’s the successes that I'm remembered and known for, it’s the failures that are always the catalyst. At the end of the day, the key to success lies in failure. This improvisational beauty shoot was only a success because I set myself up to fail.

Behind the Scenes of the 2015 Milk Calendar with Arum Light (NSFW)

Last year we featured London-based photographer Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz with Aurum Light for his 1940’s pin up inspired milk portraits, which were then picked up for Coca-Cola's Farelife campaign. His fresh take on motion and liquids was put together in a well received and sold out magazine. This year, Jaroslav brought it bigger and better with his team by creating this years titled calendar “Splash Heroes.”

Stunning and Mesmerizing Dubai "Flow Motion" Time-lapse by Rob Whitworth Takes Us for a Ride

Rob Whitworth builds upon his previous experience from his innovative Barcelona "flow motion" time-lapse with this new production covering the business oasis, Dubai. In his latest piece, Whitworth makes it apparent that he has perfected his craft to create the most fascinating time-lapse we've seen so far. We asked him to comment on his process. And while we got some behind-the-scenes footage and images, Whitworth simply told us, "It's always fun to keep people guessing." So by all means, let's guess.

An Introduction To Restaurant Food Photography

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.

Five Simple Steps to Improve Your Portraits

When first starting out in photography, it is easy to fall into bad habits or get fixated on a single part of the overall process. Practicing simple and easy steps over and over is a sure way to build the necessary muscle memory needed to make the mechanics of photography second nature so you can spend more effort on interacting with your subject.

Tips For Making A Better Video Demo Reel Which Can Get You New Clients (Part 1)

If you’ve ever struggled to put together a video demo reel, or you’re planning to make one in the future, this post is for you. Below, I’ll share some tips that will help you be more efficient in your process to prepare for editing hours of your footage down to a montage of a couple of minutes.

Why I Spent My Money To Rent a Helicopter on 9/11

Exactly one week ago we marked the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. As they do every anniversary, The Municipal Art Society of New York created two vertical columns of light ("Tribute In Light") right next to the World Trade Center in remembrance of the Twin Towers using 88 powerful searchlights pointing up to the sky. Every year I photograph the Tribute In Light from a different spot, and this year, for the second time, I decided to photograph it from above. From a helicopter. Here is how and why I did it.

Behind the Scenes of Felix Hernandez's Fine Art Concept 'The Wardrobe'

Photographer Felix Hernandez has done it again. If the name doesn't ring a bell then you might know him by his amazing miniature photography such as "The Love Car" or his "The Crow & The Dove." These projects has been floating around on the Internet, and we have an exclusive on his new project called "The Wardrobe."

Fstoppers Lighting Diagrams- Retro Fashion Shoot

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.

8 Ways to Survive Long Stretches of No Work as a Freelance Photographer or Filmmaker

Whether you’re a photographer, filmmaker, video editor, first assistant, or even just starting out as a PA, you’ve got to work to survive. There are many lengths of time where the work might seem to be non-stop; you work so much that when you do have free time, you might not even know what to do with yourself. The winds of fate can change quickly though, and you might find yourself all of sudden not having any new jobs lined up. After doing this dance for over ten years as a video producer and photographer now based out of Lexington, Kentucky, I’ve learned a few things about dealing with the stresses of when business is slow.

Joe McNally Shoots From The Tallest Building in the World

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).