Behind the Scenes

The final image rarely tells the whole story. Behind the scenes content pulls back the curtain on how photographers actually work — the lighting diagrams, the location logistics, the decisions made in the moment, and the problems solved on the fly. This section features shoot breakdowns, workflow reveals, and candid looks at what it really takes to produce professional photography.

[BTSV] Jim Geduldick Shoots New Phantom Miro M120

Here's a sampling of the latest slow-mo camera from filmbot, the Phantom Miro M120. Jim Geduldick takes us behind the scenes and shows us how he was able to show off the new slow-motion capabilities. This camera captures 750 fps at 1080 HD. What do you think you could do with that kind of picture quality?

 

Check out his final cut below.

 

 

Youness Valo Bouslame Shoots Paper Dresses

Check out this fashion shoot from photographer Youness Val Bouslame who shot a very interesting paper dress using only a single beauty dish. I love how the video gives you a side by side look at the shooting of the image and the final image. Definitely a simple lighting set up and some beautiful results.

 

Check out more of the photographers work HERE.

 

John Keatley Shoots Jake Locker For Men's Health

John Keatley gives us a quick look behind the scenes of his shoot with University of Washington quarterback Jack Locker for Men's Health Magazine. This video gives you a great look at his lighting set ups as well as the colossal amount of gear he takes to such a simple shoot.

 

Check out more of John Keatley's work HERE.

 

 

 

Danylö Böbyk Makes His Models Float

Photographer Danylö Böbyk made this great video about how he made his models float in his recent image "Fly-Away". This video is a little light on details so if you're interested in getting an in depth look at how the image was created, check out his blog post on the shoot HERE.

 

Check out more of Danylo's work HERE.

 

 

 

Phillip Bloom Shoots Pick Ups On The Set Of "Red Tails"

This is a cool little video from Phillip Bloom documenting some of the pick up shooting for the movie Red Tails. This is an awesome look at some of the great DSLR rigs they have for professional film production. Also, take a look at that $700 3D rig! That's the highlight of the video for me.

 

[BTS] Building A Car Composite

This is a very cool video from the guys over at Aesonica, they're shooting an Audi A4 with only a single light and a whole lot of post work. Just goes to show that you don't need a ton of money to make a great shot of a car.

Well, you'll need plenty for an awesome car to shoot, but that's not important right now.

 

Check out their blog post on the shot HERE.

Dave Hill Shoots The Ford Fusion Ad Campaign

This is a very cool video from Dave Hill as he shoots the composite images for Ford Fusion ad Campaign. This is a definitely a complex shoot and it's great to get a behind the scenes look at the way Dave works.

 

Check out more of his work HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BTSV] Behind the Scenes with The Agonist (Promo '12)

There are only a few days left before Von Wong does Europe. But instead of spending that time ironing, folding and categorizing his underwear for the trip, Ben is doing what any proper photographer would, he shoots. Check out the behind the scenes video and Ben's full commentary as he knocks out a rough and tumble band scene with the sexy hardcore stylings of The Agonist. 

[Interview] Framed Interviews John Keatley

This is a really amazing interview with John Keatley, a celebrity and editorial photographer by Framed. This is a long interview, but it's definitely worth the time, every member of his crew gets interviewed and includes a breakdown of some of his shots with his retoucher.

 

Check out more of John's work HERE.

 

 

 

 

[BTS] Brett Warren Shoots "Wooden Heart"

This is another cool behind the scenes video from Brett Warren as he shoots his series "Wooden Heart". Brett interned with Annie Leibovitz, and you can definitely tell with his work, they're lit very similarly and the processing is very reminicent of Annie's work, but it's still very cool.

 

Check out the rest of this series and more of his work HERE.

 

[BTS] Sasha Leahovcenco Makes A Band Walk On Water

This is another cool video from Sasha Leahovcenco where he shoots a band walking on water using only a single light. This video walks you through the set up and shooting and shows you the awesome final image.

 

Check out more of Sasha's work HERE.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Nick:

[BTS Video] Stefan Ruiz Shoots 4x5 Portraits in the Streets of Mexico

Here's a behind the scenes video featuring editorial and advertising photographer Stefan Ruiz. He traveled to Monterrey, Mexico to document the "Cholombiano" youth street culture. Skip to about the ten minute mark to see the set up and capture. He shoots exclusively on 4x5 film, and is highly influenced by renaissance paintings. 

Via: Feature Shoot

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[Video] First 4K Short Film Shot on The Canon 1D-C DSLR

Shane Hurlbut was asked by Canon to produce a short film with the new Canon 1D-C. This past week at NAB he debuted this short, "The Ticket" in full 4K glory. Shane sings the cameras praises, and is equally impressed by the simplicity in it's workflow, which he discusses in his blog post here. Hit the jump for the short film and tell me what you think of the quality.

[BTS] Annie Leibovitz Shoots Meryl Streep

For the January 2012 issue of Vogue, Annie Leibovitz shot the incredible Meryl Streep and the members of a team of women focused on building a women's history museum in Washington, D.C. While it talks a lot about their cause, you can definitely see all of her lighting set ups in the shots which are surprisingly simple.

 

Take a look and tell us what you think!

[BTS] Michael Thompson Shoots Rooney Mara

This is a really cool video of a shoot that Michael Thompson did for Allure magazine. I'll warn you, it talks almost exclusively about makeup and hair, but I loved the simple sets that they built for the shoot AND you see how the photographer used two big silver reflectors to shoot with natural light.

 

[Video] Come Along For The Ride, Karl Grobl

This video features humanitarian photographer, Karl Grobl as he travels to Cambodia to shoot the Angkor Hospital for Children. In this episode of his new series titled, "Come Along For The Ride", he goes behind the scenes to describe his technique and thought process as he's working. Karl has shot for more than 85 different NGOs in over 50 countries.  

[Gear] The Pursuit Camera Car

So this is really just a promo that Mercedes put out, but it has a lot of information on how filmmakers shoot those insane camera moves you see in car ads. The rig on top of that Mercedes is incredible, and considering they are doing these crazy moves while the camera is going fairly fast, it really makes you appreciate the car ads you see on TV.

 

 

 

[BTS] Sasha Leahovcenco Shoots Dave Moskalets

Sasha Leahovcenco was featured on this site a few weeks ago for a Help Portrait project in northern Russia. This however is a little less crazy, but pretty informative. Watch Sasha as he shoots country musician Dave Moskalets on Folsom Lake.

 

If you're interested in more information on the shoot, check out Sasha's blog HERE.

 

 

 

[BTS] The Anatomy of a Luxury Interior Shot

When it comes to interior and architectural photography, there is often much more involved than what meets the eye at first glance. In order to create a photograph that is realistic and enticing, careful planning, staging, lighting and a healthy dose of patience is imperative.

[BTS] Faye Sampson Shoots With Natural Light

Faye Sampson is a photographer based in the UK and has made this really great Behind the Scenes video of her shoot for the magazine Magnetize.

 

The really great thing is that these shots were done with natural light alone, using just a large silver reflector. The final images are pretty cool, and there are some insane costumes so definitely check this out.

 

[Workflow] Three Pro Shooters Share Their Workflows

Having a professional photographer explain exactly how they made a photo from start to finish is something that will always interest me. Having three photographers do this is obviously even better. In this short interview series we get to peak over the shoulders of photographers Romain Laurent, Raïssa Venables and Mat Baker as they explain their individual workflows.

[BTSV] An HDR, 35000 photo, 7 month Time-Lapse (for the love of it)

Here's a brief behind the scenes video featuring Andrew Geraci and Drew Breese in a Q&A regarding their haunting video, "Asylum". This HDR time-lapse was created from 35,000 photos over 7 months. If you missed this last week on Fstoppers, it's here in the full post. As the BTSV reveals, Drew and Andrew made this for no other reason than the love of shooting.

[BTS] Shooting With The Olympus i-SPEED 3 In The Paris Metropolitan

This is a really interesting behind the scenes video of the shoot for the music video for "What I Like" by Blake. The Olympus camera highlighted in the video was used at some crazy frame rates, from 100 to 400fps.

 

Also, check out the bicycle dolly they're using at the end of the video. Pretty cool.

Here's the final product:

  

[BTS] Guess Jeans Spring/Summer Photoshoot

So this video is mostly just absurdly attractive people having their pictures taken, but this video really gives you a great idea as to how big the scale of these productions are. They also seem to be using a lot of natural light for these shoots, which is kind of amazing.

 

[BTSV] A Wedding Deconstructed

You may remember R.J. Kern and Amanda Tipton from a shoot we featured on here before - well they're at it again and this one is pretty awesome too. Using the PhaseOne 645Df camera and the Capture Pilot w/Camera Control photo app they got some really cool images. They had the models lay flat on a white seamless background while they shot a typical wedding day in a 2D approach.

[Video] Shooting The Ad Campaign For Discovery's River Monsters

Our good friend Blair Bunting is at it again. This time Blair was hired to shoot the ad campaign for The Discovery Channels hit show River Monsters. The concept was relatively simple; to have the show’s host Jeremy Wade wrestling a giant fish in the shallow waters near South Beach, Florida. To do this Blair's team used a fake fish that was then replaced in post.

[BTS] Light Painting With WiFi?

Ok, so not technically WiFi, but the series of images in this video were shot using  a specially designed pole with 80 bulbs that turned off and on depending on the signal strength of the WiFi in the area.

[BTS Video] Toronto Maple Leafs Photo Shoot

Here's a great behind-the-scenes time lapse video from photographer Finn O'Hara. It's from a photo shoot he did for the Toronto Maple Leaf hockey team. They set up on the ice and it was an 18-hour production. You'll see the ginormous maple leaf backdrop, measuring 55 ft by 85 ft. Fantastic work from our neighbors to the north!   __

From Amy:

[BTSV] How to Shoot a Film With an iPhone

Ryan Connolly over at Film Riot, a how-to filmmaking site, just knocked out a short film using the iPhone 4s as his only camera. The best part is, he has also provided us with a very in-depth look at how he did. Everything from app set up, lighting, equipment, the works. See both the final video and the BTSV here.

[BTS] Voices Of Haiti: Behind The Scenes

This is how you photograph a disaster torn area. The (possibly) staged pictures children's toys in rubble do wonders to sell magazines, but when it comes to getting a sense of the actual people who are affected by the disaster, this is how it should be done.

 

[BTS] The Wade Brothers Film "House Of Fly 53"

This is a pretty cool time lapse of the production of the Wade Brothers shoot "House Of Fly 53". It's a pretty interesting concept that incorporates both a 10 minute video and a series of images used for print and web advertising. The incredible part of all of this was that both the video and stills were shot at exactly the same time, which saved production and talent costs.

 

[BTS] Ryan Schude Photographs "The Diner"

In this video , Ryan Schude walks us through his incredibly complex image "The Diner". This is an incredibly complex scene which was shot at an old diner in LA and was lit entirely as one scene.

 

[BTS Video] Abandoned State Mental Hospital Shoot

Photographer, Michael J Moore was granted access to a creepy and abandoned state mental hospital for this fashion shoot. He used a combination of lighting setups but mainly, the Phase One 645DF camera with a Profoto 8A 2400W and various Profoto strobes. With all three different lighting set ups, Michael did a great job at capturing that Vanity Fair-esque look that we all know so well.

[Workflow] Complete Erik Almas Composite And Edit In 3 Minutes

Earlier today we posted a great behind the scenes video from Erik Almas that dealt mainly with shooting the elements for a composite, this video however takes you from the point where he finishes shooting, to the completion of the final image.

 

[BTS] Brett Warren Shoots "The Ugly Duckling"

Brett Warren is a photographer based out of Nashville, TN who studied under Annie Leibovitz. You can definitely see the Leibovitz influence in his finished work and in how he lights his subjects.

[BTS] Erik Almas Shoots An Amazing Composite For Credit Suisse

Erik Almas is definitely one of my favorite photographers and this behind the scenes video does a great job of explaining his process for creating his amazing composite images. I really like this video because in addition to just the photography, it speaks to the idea and inspiration behind the photography, and why they chose to shoot what they did.

 

[BTS Video] A Frozen Face Cover Shoot by Finn O'Hara

Here's a behind the scenes video from Toronto photographer Finn O'Hara.  It was for a recent cover story about Toronto smokers in a magazine called The Grid. O'Hara explains that the story is "a confessional tale of the stigmas faced by smokers every day in Toronto, and what it takes to finally kick the habit.

[BTS] Chris Crisman Shoots Lifestyle Photography In Florida

Chris Crisman is a advertising and editorial photographer who, after a series of missed jobs, set out to add an entirely new branch to his business, lifestyle photography. This video offers a behind the scenes look at his trip, as well as a glimpse at how he shoots and some of his lighting set ups.

 

[BTS] Dave Hill Switches To The Sony NEX To Reinterpret Spiderman

There is no doubt that Dave Hill is a well known name in the photography community. With his recent collaboration with Sony, here's a behind the scenes look of him switching to the Sony NEX camera system for a reinterpretation of Spiderman. Do you feel that mirrorless is a feasible alternative for the way cameras are headed?  

[Via ISO1200]

[Video] "Lets Colour" Paints The World

Let's Colour is a worldwide initiative to transform grey spaces with colourful paint, and the results are quite incredible! This film was shot by Adam Berg over four weeks in Brazil, France, London and India. Every one of these locations has been transformed by a palette consisting of 120 different colours.

[BTSV] Drew Gardner Shoots "The Zebra"

I feel like a lot of us would be hesitant to bring an unruly dog to a photoshoot, but London based photographer Drew Gardner has really pushed the envelop with his latest image “The Zebra”, which involves, you guessed it, a zebra! In the video Drew gives us some insight into the planning of the shot, as well as some great footage of the shoot.

 

[BTSV] Photoshoot With Hockey Legend Trevor Linden

Photographer Dave Hamilton takes us behind the scenes on his latest shoot with hockey legend, Trevor Linden. This video is very informative and well produced - including a lighting diagram for each of the different setups. Aiming to get that perfect cover shot for Vancouver View Magazine's April 2012 issue, Dave was able to get some nice shots using his Canon 5D Mark II.

[BTS] Tyler Stableford Demos The Canon 1DX And 600-EX-RT Speedlite

Canon Explorer of Light Tyler Stableford is making it into yet another post on Fstoppers. This time, he was out on a shoot testing the capabilities of the new Canon 1DX DSLR and the 600 EX RT (currently available for pre-order) by shooting some action shots of alpinist Steve House working with some ice climbing gear.

[BTS] Anna Sui's One Light Fashion Shoot With Sanchez & Mongiello

If you enjoy looking at fashion images, then the photography duo Sofia Sanchez & Mauro Mongiello should be on your radar. They are ranked as among the top fashion photographers on Model.com and it's easy to see how their work stands out within one of the most saturated fields of photography.

[BTS Video] McLaren MP4-12c - Dallas Street Shoot

Most car guys would be happy just to see a McLaren Mp4-12c in the flesh. Getting to hang out with one for a day, while also being paid to take photos of it, would be "dream job" material. Clearly Dallas based photographer Brian Braun is living the dream!  In this b.t.s.

[BTSV] The Making Of Canon's 5d Mark III Promo Video, Radball

You may remember Canon's promo video for the 5d Mark III that I posted a couple of weeks ago, which showcased the, ehem, interesting sport of Radball. Love it or hate it, I think we can at least agree that it was pretty entertaining. Canon recently released a companion to the promo video which goes behind the scenes into the filming of the piece.