Behind the Scenes

I had to watch this video three times. It simply blew me away. For years movies have been created using green screens, as is the case here with the 2012 hit "The Avengers." The part that amazed me in this behind the scenes video is the amount of detail that is captured to perfection by the digital artists and how they team up with photographers to recreate reality spheres to insert the actors.

As a wedding photographer I have learned that our shooting conditions are not always ideal. One of the places I dread most is the bride's dressing room. It is typically a hotel room with bags, shoes and every beauty accessory invented strewn across the floor. The lighting is never ideal and the decor just might be the straight out of your grandma's home.

The great folks over at The Slanted Lens are back with another amazing tutorial. This time Jay takes you to Concord and Lexington Massachusetts at a recreation of a  Revolutionary War battle scene to show you how to effectively light a composited image.

Early in February of 2013, Rovio announced a new side project called "Angry Birds Superstars," which juxtaposed athletes with the hugely popular Angry Birds imagery. Though there likely are more on the way, Rovio has started the project with NHL Stanley Cup champion Anže Kopitar and NBA All-Star Veteran Andrew Bynum, both photographed by Jere Hietala. The point? Because it’s fun and awesome.

Anyone who has ever tried it can tell you...photographing highly reflective surfaces can be very challenging. This behind the scenes video shows photographer Michal Tomaszewicz tackling this issue as he photographs a series of knives for Masahiro's product catalog and website. Specific things to note for those new to product shooting.

I'm kind of a huge fan of fantasy novels, and Game of Thrones (along with The Name of the Wind) is probably my favorite modern fantasy epic. I also greatly enjoy the television series on HBO. In this video you can see how the visual effects artists rendered the 3D for the final scene of Game of Thrones Season 1. Please note, this scene does have nudity. Also, SPOILERS.  

Guest writer, Julius Ise is a professional photographer based out of Germany. In January he traveled to the beautiful beaches of Miami. While he was there he called around to several modeling agencies to set up a shoot. This is a great example of shooting personal work. He was able to get some great shots for his portfolio while at the same time helping out the models at DecoModels.  

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.

During this last superbowl there were some pretty amazing commercials, but one stood out to me. The new live action, God of War Ascension trailer. Being a huge fan of the God of War series I was happy to see the character, 'Kratos', brought to life.

Watching behind the scenes videos with tons of lights is always interesting to me and this one from leading fashion pro David Thompson is no different. Not to mention the workflow insights he gives. This is a two-part video so be sure to tune in after the jump for the other half. 

Shooting action sports can be overwhelming and strenuous if you lack the proper knowledge before going out to shoot. Whether you want to shoot motocross, mountain biking, snowboarding, ect.... for the most part all of the same rules apply. Once you start to master these rules your portfolio will benefit from it.

Frequency separation is an amazing technique used to retouch skin. It separates the color from the texture and allows you to work on them separately. In this tutorial, Elena Jasic goes over how she uses frequency separation in her retouching workflow.

Martin Schoeller is a very successful portrait photographer whose work has been featured in The New Yorker, Outside Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Time Magazine, GQ, Esquire, and Vogue. The style of these portraits is beautifully simple regardless of the nature of the person in front of the lens, and the guys at PHLEARN wanted to try and recreate his unique style.  

Skreened is an eCommerce company that specializes in on-demand screen printing. Shirts are their biggest sellers. Since each shirt design is unique, they needed a library of images with models in blank tees so they could overlay the latest designs in post. When they approached me to shoot for them, their main request was that these portraits be fun and energetic. 

Whether you watched the Super Bowl or not, it's very possible you saw the now world famous PSY perform an adapted version of "Gangnam Style" for a pistachio commercial. I have to admit, when I first saw the commercial, I was taken off guard by the lack of connection. Still, I've thought about pistachios since, so I guess the marketing campaign worked.  

Everyone remembers the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover. It brought a lot of discussion for the wrong reasons. If you don't, you should refresh your memory here. This time around, the 2013 cover also features Kate Upton. Although it is much better, it seems that some people are still unhappy with it because she's the cover model again.

Over the last 100 years, National Geographic has brought us some of the most iconic and incredible images of wildlife spanning across the globe. Though on rare occasion, we're able to actually see the work that goes into capturing these images. Some of these amazing photos take days, or even weeks to capture.

Nikon Pro Photographer Craig Kolesky went to Capetown and packed in his bag not only the Nikon D4, but their Coolpix P7700. His subject for the shoot was Redbull Athlete Sifiso Nhlapo, a BMX racer from the South African Olympic team. In this video, you can see Craig working in various environments, from dirty racing tracks to a small studio setting with ring lights. 

Freddie Child-Villiers was invited as one of two photographers worldwide in November of 2010.

I really like the team at PLEARN because they consistently come up with great photo shoot concepts, but they don't just leave it at that. They also show you have to make those images yourself in a casual yet informative manner.

So, how do you shoot at the legendary Disney Concert Hall without breaking their rule of 'No Professional Photography'? You do it with finesse. Benjamin Von Wong was faced with the task of shooting the Trio Dinicu at the location without looking like a professional photographer.

A month or so ago I was touring NBC's studios at 30 Rock with a friend of mind who works on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and he introduced me to the show's photographer, Lloyd Bishop. After meeting Lloyd I checked out his work online and discovered that this guy has an impressive portfolio!

The guys over at FROKOST FILM / FEIL FILM put together this awesome music video for While You Slept. Watch the behind the scenes video on how they shot this epic video in one take. The shot took 18 second to film, which translates into three and a half minutes in slow motion. "Havoc" was shot in one take at 300 fps using a Red Epic with a 75mm master prime.

So much is done as computer graphics these days that I've grown to really respect photographers who still want to truly make an image. Last week Fstoppers twitter follower Patric Bergkvist asked us to take a look at an image he made, and I'm glad we did.  

In a fun and unique approach that combines many different facets of art and multimedia, production group CanCanClub out of Buenos Aires worked with Antonio Balseiro from Gazz and 1st Ave Machine, Art Director Hernán Aragunde, and the crew from Nintendo to create a 30-second commercial for "Paper Mario Sticker Star." In this first of two behind the scenes videos, you catch a peek at the live act

David Loftus has been working with food television star, Jamie Oliver, for over 15 years taking dynamic imagery of the culinary masterpieces that Jamie creates in his kitchen. In this behind the scenes video David is shooting with the Nikon D4.

Marc Donahue from Permagrin Films has been busy since his production of Dream Music, which got over 2 million views on YouTube. Most recently, Marc has been experimenting with GoPro camera arrays for a unique effect, most similar to bullet-time like in the Matrix. Click on to see the final video and read an interview with the man behind the lens. 

One of my favorite books is Love Is A Killer App by Tim Sanders. In it we read that business love is “the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing your intangibles (knowledge, network, and compassion) with your bizpartners.” One person who exemplifies this concept perfectly is Jasmine Star and her series of videos called Shooting Star.

Every Week Benjamin Von Wong releases new behind the scenes content for your viewing pleasure. This week Ben takes off for Paris and tackles the challenge of shooting a piece of fine art called the “WOM dog” by Cyril Anguelidis. Ben and his talented fire-wielding partner-in-crime,  Andrey DAS, took their time in pre-production.

Here at Fstoppers we love sharing behind the scenes photo shoots with our readers so we can all learn and grow together. Every so often we come across one that while it could have been executed better is still worth sharing. Such is the case with the recent commercial shoot for the McPhee Inflatable Unicorn Horn for cats.

Sometimes your favorite shot out of a series would be perfect if only one little thing was fixed. For me, that is often shadows obscuring details I really wish were more visible. PHLEARN has released an extensive tutorial on how to get those shadows to reveal details in a way that doesn't look super fake, which an issue I have with other methods I have seen.  

So this is pretty cool! MeCam is a tiny helicopter that follows you around capturing video of you "all day", or as long as the battery lasts I suppose. This new technology, which is still being refined by the creators Always Innovating, boasts that MeCam will be able to instantly upload the video to your social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and more!

Whenever I talk to another photographer the topic of “personal work” always comes up. Usually in the casual form of, “hey, have you shot any personal work lately?” This standard artistic rendition of the workplace, “how’s the weather” is usually brushed off and more enjoyable conversations quickly replace it.

So I have seen quite a bit of caricature portraits and fell in love with them. I decided to try my hand at doing a few and kind of fell into a new little series with them. Everyone who has seen them has asked if I could shoot them or their families in this style. This little tutorial will show you how I go about doing these shots.  

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.

It might be easy to form a quick opinion about a picture like this. I'll admit it, when I first heard “trucks,” I was already curious about the people I was going to work with. It's not often that you run into someone who is passionate about their vehicle.

A few weeks ago I posted about the outstanding newly released internet series, The Underwater Realm, and as promised I'm back with the full behind the scenes look at the underwater photoshoot by amazing conceptual photographer, Benjamin Von Wong.

What happens when you give a photographer free reign to come up with some crazy ideas, access to a ski park and all the day-glo they could stomach? A crazy 80's ski bunny shoot for Roastar Coffee Bags! This behind the scenes shoot from David E.

A few months ago, I hit up my buddy Paul Miller, who is a movie director out of Southern California. Regular readers of my personal blog site may recognize Paul from my previous Mad Max Interceptor shoot.

A few weeks ago Eric Pare released the 24x360 project which included 24 cameras taking a long exposure picture of a single subject. It's difficult to explain but once you see it you will understand. Eric was kind enough to write up an article just for us on how these incredible video clips were made. 

Sherpas Cinema, who have been featured before on Fstoppers, produced a ski film called All.I.Can, and in that film was a segment directed by JP Auclair that shows a skier doing runs through a town in British Columbia. They threw it online and after getting millions of views, decided to post the making of video, which is posted here.

Although there are thousands Guinness Wold Records and some are broken every day, it's still inspiring to see large numbers of people come together with a common goal. Recently, both GoPro and Devin Graham filmed different world records.

I am a photographer. I love to shoot. I live to shoot. But I am not a gearhead. I'll use anything available to me. From film to toy cameras to digital cameras, I've shot on it all. But today, with a case full of professional photo gear, I still use whatever tool I have available to me to take pictures. This includes my phone.  

Photography is an enormous, multifaceted industry that ranges from portrait and product to macro and landscape. As photographers, we owe it to ourselves to learn as much as we can about each specific genre of our trade. Even if you only shoot weddings or cars, it’s important to learn and practice new techniques, which will allow you to hone your skills and can keep you out of creative ruts.

Back in September I spent a few days in New River Gorge, West Virginia, rock climbing with a group of friends. For this trip I developed a plan to put together a short documentary that would involve shooting an interview in the climbing area and doing a multicamera shoot of a climber. Watch the final video, and then read on for a breakdown of how it was all done. 

Clients, deadlines, prints, taxes, insurance, equipment maintenance, paperwork... these are all responsibilities that can quickly fall on a full-time professional photographer's shoulders; the weight swiftly dragging you to the floor.

As I am writing this I am trying to fall asleep. I am supposed to be up in 4 hours to head off on a little snowboard adventure with some friends. Instead of sleeping though I am sitting around watching snowboard videos, smart move right? Anyway a buddy told me to check out this movie called The Art Of Flight on Netflix, and I can tell you this much, it doesn't disappoint.

Every morning I wake up and walk out to my living room. I sit down on the couch and bask in the sunlight coming through my sliding glass doors. I love how the light cutting through the vertical blinds creates a pattern of lines going across my living room. I have often thought how cool it would be to shoot a photo with the light like that, but at sunset when the light is real golden.

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.  

For the past few years DigitalRev has done the "Cheap Camera Challenge" with a professional photographer and a crappy little toy camera. This year's challenge consisted of Strobist's David Hobby, a 2MP Buzz Lightyear toy camera and 3 of the best named speedlights of all time, the Family Jewels FUQ 690.