When you see an incredible location in images, often our gut reaction is, that it must be Photoshopped or that you need to go to an epic location to get great shots. In this article, see how I shot these cinematic portraits on the side of a road in my area by using just one camera and one lens. No fancy lighting or Photoshop.
Are you thinking of becoming an assistant? Trust me; assisting can be brutal, yet it can be exciting as well. It really depends on who you assist. Working in this role is the best way to gain lots of experience, especially when you're working your way to becoming a professional photographer. Working closely with a professional gives you valuable insights on equipment, processes, and techniques.
I love aviation and I love photography. So the other day, inspiration struck and I ran to LAX to capture a photo that compresses eight hours of airport traffic at one of the biggest airports in the world into a single frame. Here's how I did it.
I'm always fascinated by what makes the best photographers think they way they do. What shapes their ways of seeing? In the current climate of photography, it's easy to get lost in everything technical. We can often lose sight of the most important thing about photography...why we photograph. In this video from Steve McCurry's Youtube channel, we get a glimpse at what goes on in the master mind of perhaps the world's greatest living photographer.
In this fun behind the scenes video, we get to see San Diego-based production company SaintWest staging video shots for the "Find Your Moment" campaign with Torrey Pines golf course. Get an inside look on how the crew captures the golf experience in a cinematic way, but also improvises to make a simulated golf hole for a unique POV shot. Inside are the final videos.
55 nights of shooting. Your favorite characters fighting for their lives, some never to be on the screen again. How was “The Long Night” episode shot to keep us in suspense for the longest battle scene ever created for television or film? Spoilers ahead.
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.
Bela Borsodi is a NY city based photographer that shot this beautiful photo of what looks to be four different images stitched together. In actuality, it was meticulously created in one take to look like four photographs. This is a behind the scenes video showing us how it was created, which in itself is a work of art.
We might be focused primarily on photography here at Fstoppers, but many of us shoot video and many more are heading to the dark side and getting into the world of motion. This gorgeous little animation from the guys over at Inside The Edit details what a video editor does, and why editing is both misunderstood and yet so critical in the narrative process.
This week we purchased our first LED lights pad kit and I have never been more excited. After much debate on which kit, which manufacturer, how many lights, we finally pulled the trigger on the ROSCO Gaffers Lite Pad Axiom Kit sold at BH Photo. There are so many options on new lights today and the choices are overwhelming. In the end we wanted a large kit that was compact, durable, dynamic, daylight balanced, and easy for a small crew to set up. This kit did all of that.
Remember the commercial photographer who turned sick and disabled children into Justice League heroes? He’s back, and this time his family have received the Star Wars treatment.
My studio has become a second home, and I invest a lot of time and money into it. Recently, I have been restocking a few essentials I can’t live without while trying to make my shooting more efficient.
In September I was lucky enough to have the pleasure of a couple of hours of Liam Gallagher’s time to shoot a magazine cover and 12-page spread. Here’s a detailed breakdown of my thought process, creative ideas and how the shoot was executed on the day.
Amy Lynn is a 24 year old photographer from Nebraska who wanted to do an institutionalized themed shoot for a long time. Right before Halloween, she decided to finally make it happen by heading to local thrift shops in search of the right materials to match her vision. The BTS video captures the whole process and the final results are more than awesome.
As the Winter Olympics draws to a close, Getty Images has offered this fascinating insight into the logistics of covering this remarkable and incredibly cold event. Battling geography, climate, and equipment while coordinating a huge team of photographers is an immense challenge.
I love it when teams can keep churning out interesting tutorials or behind the scenes videos regularly and still keep the quality high, and one team that continues to do just that is PHLEARN. We've featured them a few times in the past, and today they released this new video on shooting beauty, but with sparklers.
The long take has been a staple of film for decades, showing off a director's capability at managing a set and camera movement. Some directors have been ambitious enough to create entire films using a "single shot," which are really many shots cleverly stitched together to appear as one long, continuous take. But none have been as ambitious as Sam Mendes with his upcoming film, "1917."
Being an avid iPhone shooter myself, I'm always looking for more ways to make my images better without adding the computer to the process. In this quick video tutorial, David Molnar shows you how to use the app TouchReTouch to clone out distracting spots in your iPhone and Android phone photos.
Automotive Editorial Photography will teach you many things. Mostly though, it'll teach you how to make something out of nothing and how to operate quickly and efficiently. I can't tell you how many times I've shown up to shoot a car only to be told it can't be moved from where it sits. It's those situations that will really test your mettle as a photographer and I've actually grown to love those challenges. One challenge from last year that I really enjoyed was a RIDES Magazine cover that would require fitting and lighting 10 cars. Here's how I did it.
For a couple of years now, I have been shooting a personal series about movie and tv cars, and the people that either own the original vehicles or build replicas for themselves. I call it the Unicorn Project (see more from the series here). Recently, I had the chance to photograph one of the screen-used Black Beauties from the 2011 film, The Green Hornet. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try out my new automotive rig from Rig-Pro for the first time to simulate high-speed action shots.
Denver photographer Michael Sasser got some attention when this behind the scenes video showed how a simple setup could produce some great portraits. He dropped a new video, so I reconnected with him to see what he has been working on. Turns out he has a new slow-motion video camera, and is now offering video production to clients. This video will give you a taste of one of his shoots, and in the interview Michael shares some insight on his methods, gear, and experiences.
In another great behind the scenes video from Michael Sasser, Denver Photographer Ryan Tortorelli is shown working with three students at several different locations to capture there senior portraits. Using what seems like a single light setup in conjunction with the sun, the resulting captured images show the quality of this setup. It's also great to see how Ryan is working with his talent, suggesting poses and giving directions.
Photographer Joe McNally is out in the desert again. This time he is in a dry lake bed outside of Las Vegas with Cirque du Soleil performers Daria Shemiakina and Anna Melnikova. It’s a little unclear whether he is shooting this concept for a Gitzo campaign or for the artists but if you can take your eyes off the beautiful and amazingly talented athletes for a moment you’ll be able to gleam some of Joe’s desert setup. If you're like me and prefer simple kits and small intimate teams over large crews and trailers full of gear then you’ll find it comforting to see that a master like Joe keeps it pretty basic.
If you began shooting video within the last five to eight years, it's quite likely that you rode the "5D Mark II wave." Maybe you didn't own a 5D, and still don't, but that camera revolutionized the world of video production forever. Not only did that camera enable many "budget" filmmakers to make top notch content, it inspired almost every manufacturer to begin shoving video into every camera they could. No longer was it necessary to buy a dedicated video camera to create motion pictures. While I will certainly credit Canon with originally bringing professional video capability to the masses, I have to hand it to Sony for rocketing "DLSR video" to another level entirely.
Amongst this years Broncolor Gen NEXT line up (a pioneering group of young professional photographers lighting up the future of photography) Gonzaga Manso throws in with his beautiful concept shoot, "The Pond". This photograph is meant to express the calm, sincere and deep love that comes from getting old alongside the person you love. But what maybe more interesting, for us inquisitive shooters, is the release of this behind-the-scenes video which details Gonzaga's elaborate and meticulous set-up.
Lars Schneider, an adventure and landscape photographer from Germany, spent two months on the road with his family traveling across the Southwestern US. This video documents his trip, but I also interviewed Lars about the challenges and rewards of running a photography business on the road, while at the same time taking care of a family.
When it comes to putting together a photo shoot, if there is anything that I’ve learned (and continue to learn), is that the time spent working out the smallest details will save you from at best a tremendous amount of work after the fact, and at worst, the horror of having to scrap the shoot entirely. That’s why when you’re putting together a photo shoot, no detail should be overlooked, least of all the talent that you choose to work with.
Filmmaker Stephen Vitale and Writer Eric Carrasco created a truly epic Star Wars fan fiction. When I came across this short, I found myself wishing they made a behind-the-scenes video so I could post them both for you all to enjoy. Turns out they did. So I did. And you will.
