It's been an absolute pleasure seeing friends and colleagues getting chosen for social media campaigns and commercial photography jobs all around the world as a result of sharing their talents via Instagram.
The Smithsonian recently joined forces with the White House to make an exact 3D model of President Barack Obama, the most accurate visual-and-physical replica of any head of state to date.
Sainsbury's produced a stunning, almost four-minute video commercial for this holiday season. The cinematic spot recreates a historical World War I moment in which, for a day or two in several spots along the front lines, the war paused for Christmas. Both sides were able to meet, play games, talk (as much as they could) and forget, for just a few hours, about why they were there.
Capturing the launch of a space shuttle is undoubtedly a tremendous task to take on. Add to that the pressure of capturing the last space shuttle launch and you may have one of the most immense photographic endeavours of your career. In a very passionate and insightful video talk, Dan Winters takes us through the process of accomplishing said task.
Mark Seliger is, without a doubt, one of the great photographers of our generation. Seliger's prolific portraiture, out-of-this-world conceptual work, and his dedication to furthering photography has earned him a place in the ranks of master photographers such as W. Eugene Smith, Ralph Gibson, Richard Avedon, and Walker Evans.
Chris Field shot this amazing time-lapse video, but that’s not all he did; he also generously shared with us the BTS video, which is a dream come true for anyone who wants to see how others do it. Chris spent three months of shooting and over 80GB of images and video. As you may realize, putting all that footage together is a process on its own.
When alpine photographer Kamil Tamiola was tapped to become the key photographer for a campaign announcing Phase One's Capture One Pro 8 software release at Photokina 2014, he had his work cut out for him. Nine weeks of planning went into this powerful concept of imagery that would be used as the subject for processing in the soon to be introduced software.
New Zealand photographer Tom Hollow has an interesting photo series titled "Love Lost." Tom took an old couch, put a bride on it, set it on fire, and took pictures of the whole thing. Tom initially just thought it would be a fun idea for a shoot. It wasn't until after the session he realized he could do something more with the images.
If you’re interested in getting big budget looks in your low budget indie film, then you should be very familiar with the Shanks FX channel on YouTube. If you’re not, you should get acquainted with it… like now! Joe Schenkenberg aka Joey Shanks is the man with the know-how when it comes to creating Hollywood effects out of simple household items.
As I start to get more campaign work via Instagram for product photography, I've found that I need to use every bit of my creative mindset to get the shot I want. All the while I must also play to some of the iPhone's limitations.
While sharing drinks with a friend, he started inquiring as to how I’m able to supplement my income with video editing projects. The more we talked, the more I realized that a lot of people have the ability and skill to do it, but they don’t understand the small things that can make or break being successful at it.
Many of us know what it feels like to have or want to do a strobed on-location portrait without the benefit of an assistant. In fact, many of the portraits that I believe to be my best were done without an assistant and only with one strobe. It's all about good strategy and proper planning gear/creative-wise.
Two things you can't get enough of: Benedict Cumberbatch and Dan Winters. Cumberbatch stars in The Imitation Game - opening next week - as Alan Turing.
For years I found myself making excuses as to why I wasn't creating the type of images that I so desperately wanted to make. I didn't have the gear, I didn't have a model, I didn't have access to a studio. At the end of the day, it came down to one simple thing, I never tried.
Undoubtedly, audio is one of the most important story telling tools in cinema. Improper use or overuse of sound can dramatically affect the impact of the viewing experience. After the recent release of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, there has been a lot of buzz about the 'mix being muddy'.
There's little debate that Iceland remains one of the most sought after locations for landscape photography and this new video from Lytro further emphasizes why that is.
It seems as if the film edit is getting more popular every day. A lot of beginner photographers out there will do anything to achieve this look. The easiest way to do that is to buy presets but I want to show you how to create the look yourself. I believe once you understand how to create the look yourself you can begin to find your own style.
As a writer for Fstoppers I hear about a lot of personal projects. This past weekend, my attention was grabbed when I read about how Denver-based photographer Dylan Burr undertook a project to create wet plate collodion photographs. It wasn't his image making process that stood out to me though- it was his subject matter.
As soon as you think you’ve seen it all, something comes along that proves you wrong. In this case, it’s pet photos (bear with me here…). The idea came to German photographer Julia Christie while she was working on a commissioned project for an animal pharmaceutical product.
Visualization of sound frequencies using physical media is nothing new.
FroKnowsPhoto's own Jared Polin recently got his hands on the previously unannounced DJI Inspire 1 to get some test flights in with DJI's upcoming new drone. The new system shows off 4K video, larger, more powerful carbon fiber body, and an affordable $3K price tag. Fro was able to get an inside look at this new drone system, and pull some footage from his test flight.
With one hundred and fifty pages brimming his passport book, adventure photographer and professional climber Jimmy Chin has traveled the world shooting for The North Face and National Geographic. As a man who radiates both inspiration and motivation, it’s worth taking a look at this day in the life of Jimmy.
U.K. based cosmetic firm Molton Brown is known for spectacular, over-the-top photography particularly in their annual Christmas catalog. This recently released video takes us behind the scenes on the set of their 2014 holiday catalog with photographer Tom van Schelven as he and his crew transform a forest into an enchanted outdoor holiday banquet.
What happens when you dream of a surreal image that beckons you to recreate it as a photograph? For Canon Explorer of Light, Tyler Stableford, it meant heading to Mexico in search of whale sharks, with an underwater model, ready to face the challenges that laid ahead of them them in an effort to create an image that was as compelling as it was personally rewarding.
When learning a new photographic technique, it typically takes quite a bit of practice time before you achieve pleasing results. With long-exposure photography, that learning time is extended because every frame can take minutes to complete.
It seems like everyone is asking for money these days. The guy starting a fundraiser for his UBER ride home from the bar to the model wanting to start a photography career by creating a GoFundMe page asking fans to buy her a $2500 camera. With campaigns like these going around, it's sometimes discouraging to donate to some of today's fundraisers for creative projects...until today.
Taking portraits at wide apertures and consistently nailing focus is is not an easy task. In fact, it’s a skill that must be practiced in order to master it. However, an aspect not often discussed in regards to capturing sharp images has nothing to do with the lens used or the f-stop. Here is the ultimate guide to capturing tack sharp images at wide apertures.
Go behind the scenes with one of the worlds top high-end retouchers, Pratik Naik, in this two part video as he walks us through his process of working with a model shot by David Geffin.
Whether we're a photographer, graphic designer, painter, musician or dancer... throughout our career, we’ll slam right into a rock solid wall and it some cases it can be so traumatizing that some of us may never recover. It’s not really a question of if; it’s a question of when and if you’re a new artist then brace yourself, there will come a time when things just don’t click.
If you've played a few shooter video games in the last two decades, chances are you've seen at least one with a point of view that is looking from the top-down. The team over at Corridor Digital wanted to recreate this style in a video short (which also meant doing it all in a single take!) so they partnered with DJI to make it happen.
Sean Goebel might only do photography in his spare time while working on his PhD in Astronomy, but that hasn't stopped him from licensing work to the likes of Canon, the Discovery Channel, and others. A quick watch of his timelapse works, including Epochs and Mauna Kea Heavens and it is easy to see why.
In this World War II period piece a steeled tank commander (Brad Pitt) and his crew of five men trek past enemy lines to attack the Germans when they least expect it. Fury was shot on Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 cameras using Panavision lenses.
Las Vegas based commercial photographer Michael Herb recently got his hands on Westcott's 59 inch Zeppelin to test out on location in the Nevada desert. The photoshoot featured three models in an apocalyptic theme at a salt lake bed. In the behind the scenes video he shows just how difficult it can be to put together the Zeppelin on the separately purchased speedring.
In my last Fstoppers post, I shared an interesting video called Briefly, which discussed how and why a company or advertising agency might approach developing or executing a creative brief.
This week I wanted to share a few of the tools we commercial photographers use to create our tabletop images. Particularly the items used in photographing beverages. There's a lot of trial and error when it comes to this sort of photography, often times we find ourselves using things in ways far from their originally intended purpose.
With hopes of saving at-risk environments and capturing them before they are gone forever, a team of 15 timelapse artists have decided to join forces and create a feature film. Eric Hines, Michael Shainblum, Drew Geraci, and Joe Capra are just a few of the names on the "CodeX" roster.
Benjamin Von Wong is at it again. He teamed up with the team at SmugMug on yet another collaborative masterpiece. This time, he left the cold, foggy San Francisco forest, and retreated to the warm, sunny outdoor confines of the SmugMug campus in Mountain View, California.
People often think that modeling is just about looks. This misconception turns a beautiful person into just a body with no skills. Modeling is not about having the perfect "looks." The key to successfully modeling is the mindset. With just one thought, a photographer can take his or her models to the next level.
Recently I had the opportunity to fly to Ohio and photograph the enigmatic alternative rock duo Twenty One Pilots for the cover of Alternative Press Magazine. Sure, you may have seen my posts before about shooting musicians and magazine covers, but never have I ever had to hang one of my artists upside down for a trick shot.
Most people I work with manually dump thousands of files at the end of their shoot day (myself included.) A stack of cards, hard drives, and waiting for one card to finish before starting the next. All of this is followed by checking each dump to make sure nothing was missed.
The team from Modest (a Buford, Georgia-based production company) recently shot a commercial for Glock, featuring the G41 tactical .45 caliber pistol. The commercial itself is a gorgeous-looking short film of a special ops unit swarming a plane out on an airport tarmac.
Alex Buono, member of the SNL's film unit, helped produce one of the coolest title sequences ever using time-lapsing, light writing, freelensing, and other effects. The show is celebrating their 40th season so they wanted this sequence to be classic and iconic, a little dressed-up, and typography integrated into the cityscape.
Photographer Tyler Shields is known to be one of the craziest photographers in the world. Just few months ago we posted about how he fed a $100k purse to an alligator, all in the name of art. That seemed to be a bold move that can take years to recover from (financially).
Going back to that moment when Easter morning comes and my mother, the "Easter Bunny" at the time, had purchased two of every single X-Men character on the market for my older brother and I.
If you have not heard of BMW's nimble new i8 hybrid supercar, you should look it up now. Even if you aren't into cars, you do have to take a moment to marvel at not only its beautifully-futurisitc aesthetics, but it's equally as impressive performance technology. BMW hired director Gus Van Sant to create a trio of gorgeous ads to help introduce the car to the world.
Have you ever seen a photo of a unique place, but could never find exactly where it was located? For years, Justin Majeczky was aware of the existence of the Fly Geyser, but only after research and some smooth talking was he able to locate and document this unique phenomena.
The On Roof Top boys are at it again, this time "stealing" a digital sign high above the streets of Hong Kong in this sick behind-the-scenes video on how they did it all. Shockingly these guys are rarely caught, given the nature of the city and its crowded streets its almost impossible to catch everything that happens.
I have seen absolutely beautiful things happen in the photo industry. I've seen strangers become best friends, I've seen grand ideas being brought to life, and I've seen photographers grow from beginners to mentors. I've seen so many things that make me proud to be a part of such an amazing community. The sad news is that I've also seen the uglier side of it.
We’ve all been there, stuck with bad light and fresh out of ideas. I may spend up to an hour pre-lighting before a model or subject steps onto set, I work out the kinks and make sure everything is how it should be. But, despite my best efforts to make it right, every now and then I run out of time and have to wing it.
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.