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Do Not Be Afraid of Using Stock in Your Creations
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Being a freelance photographer and digital artist, I have resigned myself to the fact that I will not always be able to use my own photography in the images I create for clients.

Motorola Zoom Commercial BTS With Amazing Moving Sets
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Telstra, an Australian wireless carrier, recently produced an ad for the Motorola Zoom tablet. Instead of creating everything with computers in post, the team created most of the moving sets by hand. The question then becomes; was their effort worth it? Can consumers even tell that much of this is real or does the average person consider everything to be fake these days? Although this was an amazing accomplishment, I'm not sure it was worth the extra effort.
How To Photograph A Movie Theater By Rich Legg
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Rich Legg is a successful stock photographer, and he goes all out in this video as he tries to make the prefect stock photo of a movie theater audience. If you haven't checked out stock photography, I highly encourage you to sign up and test your skills. Nothing proves whether your photography is marketable or not like putting it up on a site like shutterstock or istockphoto. This video is great on how to light large groups and also how to efficiently gather model releases from a large pool of model.
How To Light Glass
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Lighting products can be extremely tricky. Especially if that product happens to be reflective. Check out this video from LearnMyShot.com and see how they choose to light 7 wine bottles. The video itself isn't a large production but there is a boat load of good info to be learned. >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NicM0o87dPE<
Karl Taylor's Tips On Photographing Funky Hair
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Karl Taylor is an excellent photographer from England who has become a leading teacher in the "how to" photography market. In his latest video he explains a few lighting techniques he uses in the studio while shooting some crazy hair styles. Karl is using a single Elinchrom monolight but is pairing it up with two Canon 580EX flashes. In the video he explains why this setup is ideal for his lighting style and useful for many applications. If you enjoy his teaching, check out his instructional videos on his website as well as some crazy location photos in his port.
Country Music Trends, Photography, and Modern Sameness
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Do you like country music (or music in general for that matter)? Hey, me too and here's a video that I think raises interesting questions and may serve as a great thought exercise regarding modern media trends and the problems of sameness.

Face Painting... For An Advertising Campaign
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Jay P. Morgan just sent his newest video over to me and it is once again top quality. Jay was commissioned to create a professional looking image from a drawn composite and he takes us through each step of the process. The entire project is really amazing but my jaw is still dropped after seeing his lighting setup.
Should Famous Artists Be Working for Exposure?
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Over the years, the fine art and commercial art communities have slowly wised up, learning how to run their businesses as businesses and saying no to free work. So, why are these famous artists working for free when it comes to the Super Bowl? The NFL surely isn't struggling for money, so shouldn't they get paid? Should any artist, famous or unknown, work for exposure?

The NBA Films Commercials From The Past
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Have you ever seen those commercials where old footage appears to come back to life with added scenes or impossible revelations are revealed years after the initial filming? The NBA commercials "Where Amazing Happens" feature high school footage of some of their hottest players practicing with another high school player "from the future" who encourages them with accomplishments from their own future professional career. In this video, go behind the scenes with Phoenix Suns player Steve Nash as the crew shows how they used actors, green screen, and special effects to successfully combine old home footage with compelling new footage in these fun basketball commercials. Click the FULL POST to watch the other NBA Videos.
Gopro's Make Me Want To Get Extreme!
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The newest promo video for the incredible GoPro HD camera has me wanting to get out of the house and do something exciting! We are big supports of what Gopro is doing and can't speak highly enough of these little cameras. If you enjoy adding a unique perspective to your own videos or want a small time lapse camera, you can't go wrong with these...well unless you destroy them :) <
Gregory Heisler Lights a Time Magazine Cover
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When I first saw Gregory Heisler, I thought he was a college professor not a professional photographer. I guess in reality he is both since this is one of the most indepth BTS videos I've seen explaining how to construct lighting that doesn't call too much attention to itself. I'm always a big fan of images like this since shooting environmental portraits forces you to not only produce a great portrait but also create something iconic and often time monumental. Gregory does a great job with this portrait of then NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Much props to Profoto for producing some really educational videos.
Beauty Confessional: 1950'sville
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Beauty Confessional is a fashion based blog out of the UK but that doesn't mean that their tough motion photos shouldn't be appreciated world wide! I love what photographer Piers Vernon Kell has done with these images and the editing reminds me of something you'd see in a Hitchcock or Woody Allen opener. If you are looking to add a twist to your own photography or simply advertise your own creativity in a new fashion take notes from this video! <
Mike Folden Shoots An Album Cover
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I've had some great BTS videos piling up here so I am going to post them all now. Check out the video below where Mike Folden shoots an album cover for "The Resume".
Back In Black: Visa Black Card
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You may not be one of the 1% of Americans who owns a Visa Black card but that does not mean you cannot enjoy their marketing. This video was sent in by Grant Lankford and features Curt Morgan and his team at Brain Farm as they work on the current ad campaign for the Visa Black Card. Everything about this video is sick from the choppers, the model in black leather, the one of a kind black yacht, and of course the cinematography. This video shows just how much creativity you can have with a simple concept like "back in black". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqtAd6rG0c8<
Tom Guilmette Shows How Sports Are Done
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We were first introduced to Tom Guilmette's work last week when he showed us how to shoot slow motion video at 718 fps. This next video is even better! Tom takes us behind the scenes of a Big East college basketball game. Cox Sports shows us everything that goes into producing a sports program at the event and piping it to your television at home. After watching the last 3 minutes or so of real time action, I think I would have a nervous breakdown if I had to work on something like this day in and day out. Tom has more information on his blog; hope you guys enjoy! <
iPads, Light Painting, And A Lot Of Calculations
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I remember when I was first playing around with my first SLR camera and someone explained to me the concept of painting with light over the course of a long exposure. Well the guys over at Dentsu London have decided to make light painting extremely complex by creating a sort of stop motion animation with ipads displaying different shapes. There is really no way I can explain this so you pretty much just have to watch this for yourself. You can read more about this project over at Dentsu London's blog here.

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

EA Sports NCAA Football 12 Cover Shoot
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EA Sports has been allowing fans to vote for the cover of their newest installment in the college football series NCAA Football 12. For the contest, they filmed four short behind the scenes videos from each player's photoshoot which can all be found in the full post. The photoshoots consist of two primary setups: hall of fame style portraits and on the field action shots. Each portrait was created with a gridded beauty dish and a hard background light while the action shots were lit with a huge octabank, some stripboxes, and a bunch of white v-flats acting as both gobos and reflectors. I'm not sure that the final images are online yet since the contest just wrapped up, but you can see a lot of them on photographer Tim Mantoani's site. My vote goes to Mark Ingram; roll tide roll!
David Jackson Creates a Creepy Circus
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David Jackson is a commercial photographer based out of Appleton, Wisconsin and this week he has released a personal project entitled "Circus". Dave puts a lot of effort into not only every detail of this shoot but also in explaining why it is important to shoot for yourself and not just for clients. You only book the types of jobs you already have in your portfolio and if you want to book something new down the road you really have to go out and shoot similar images for yourself first...and for free. This first video is a bit long and has few BTS clips but there is also a second less informative BTS video just for the shoot itself. Both videos are in the full post and if you want to see the final images check them out here. David also has a second post outlining in complete detail every element of the photoshoot which is really worth checking out here. Lots of videos, lots of posts, but a pretty cool concept.

Shear Chaos Salon Circus Shoot :: Technical Banter from David Jackson on Vimeo.

Mike Sisk Makes A Mess
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Mike Sisk of FX Studios just sent this video over to us. He used falling paper to make his background a bit more interesting and appeared to tether his camera to his iPad to review his shots. Cool idea!

Flying Papers - BTS from Fx Studios on Vimeo.

Brownie Harris Talks Shooting Film
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After speaking with professional photographer Brownie Harris, I realized that he didn't need to be shot behind the scenes working, he needed to be interviewed. Watch this quick 10 minute segment in which Brownie talks about his 40 years in the photography profession... you will be surprised by how many of his world famous images you have seen before.
Annie Leibovitz photographs Keith Richards
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I'm a big fan of Annie Leibovitz's photography (who isn't), and a few weeks ago I was admiring this photograph she did of Keith Richards for Louis Vuitton. I was really happy when I found a short behind the scenes video of it via Strobist even though the quality is really poor. Click the post to view the final image and hopefully you can see how relatively simple this photoshoot was in lighting. It's the overall production and attention to detail that really makes this image so awesome.
Behind The Scenes Of ESPN's TV Ratings
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Now this isn't your normal behind the scenes video. The guys over at Jess3, a creative agency, were asked by ESPN to create a video that explains how the Nielsen television rating system works. I know it sounds a bit boring but it's actually pretty interesting to see how it works especially if you've ever wondered how in the hell Two and A Half Men is rated as the top tv sitcom on the air for the last several years. Check out the behind the scenes video below on how director Mark Kulakoff created this 70s concept and employed his "2.5D" vision into the final production. Click the full post to watch the final ESPN mini show.
How They Broadcast MLB Into Your Home
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Tom Guilmette is a professional camera operator for broadcast sports and definitely one of our favorite guys to feature here on Fstoppers (search his name for some other posts on him). So with all the excitement that Major League Baseball brings this time of year I thought it would be appropriate to give you a backstage peek at how guys like Tom work to bring the game into your home. For whatever reason, Tom has yet to allow embedding of my favorite video he has ever created so after you get done watching this sort video, head over to his blog to watch a much longer video with this sort of content.

Fenway HD Camera - Sony HDC-910 - Canon 75x from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

Contest Entry: Burning Steel Wool
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Dave, Jono, and Braden are some fun lads from Australia who like to sling around burning metal during their photoshoots. Luckily for our readers they decided to participate in the behind the scenes video contest and show everyone how they too can get this wild effect. Check out this interesting video and feel free to leave comments for the guys below! <
Matthew McConaughy Directs Country Star Jamey Johnson's Video
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A few months ago I got a call from one of country star Jamey Johnson's managers asking me to take some photographs of him while he was passing through South Carolina. Since Jamey was born in my hometown of Enterprise Alabama I was pretty excited to work with the real deal country artist (not a pop country bone in this guy for sure). Long story short our schedules weren't able to work. So I was excited today when I came across a BTS video of his new single Playing the Part which was directed by Matthew McConaughy. Few people ever get to experience what it's like on set of a music video so I thought this tongue in cheek video was a good way for you guys to watch how it all goes down. Click on the full post to watch the entire music video.
Freddie Wong Sky Dives Out Of His House
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I was just introduced to Freddie's youtube channel and I am blown away. Freddie and his friends keep creating fantastic videos with some impressive homemade CGI and then they explain how they did it. Watch this BTS below and the finished product in the full post. <
Chase Jarvis Sits Down With Jasmine Star
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Chase Jarvis has started a really cool idea called Creative Live in which he gives back helpful information to other creative individuals. In this video Chase sits down with Jasmine Star who is one of the top wedding photographers in the business. I first came across Jasmine through David Jay and instantly fell in love with her. I love how they express their frustrations with living a typical 9 to 5 lifestyle and how professional photography allowed them to live the life they wanted to live. Just like them, I too went to school for something compeletely opposite of photography, and it was conversations like this that eventually lead me to change my career path to become the photographer I am today. Chase says it really well when he says, "There is no prescription for how you get to become a photographer." This video is not about fstoppers and shutterspeeds but rather about how to take control of your life and your passions and turn them into a business. I know wedding photography often gets a bad wrap but through wedding photography, I have been able to support myself financially every weekend and still have time to pursue other fields of photography during the week. Jasmine Star's story is about as good as it gets, and it's inspiring to hear her share her success story with everyone so candidly. I hope you guys enjoy this video as much as I have and I'm only half way through it! <
Underworld Evolution CGI
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If you have ever watched an action movie or fantasy movie, you have probably heard people taking about how anything can be done with CGI. But how many times have you stopped to consider what was actually real and what was computer graphics? In today's movies, the line between reality and computer animation is more blurred than ever and that's why I enjoyed watching this short film about the movie Underworld Evolution. It's always crazy to me to see how creative camera angles and complex stunt rigging can be combined with computer graphics to produce these shots we are so used to seeing on the big screen.

Underworld Evolution - Behind The Scenes from Jeff Castelluccio on Vimeo.