Commercial

On a multi-day assignment in Portland last week, I took advantage of my day off between assignments to experiment with the Sony a7R III and try it out in my normal workflow.

Two years ago I featured a macro videographer who was creating incredible visuals using chemicals and substances. Roman De Giuli has done it again, this time for the Winter Olympics.

While I was initially slow to adopt the notion of being literally tied to an external machine while I went full throttle through my photo shoots, I’ve found the process not only beneficial, but absolutely essential.

Frantic sporting action set on an urban backdrop? Check. Inventive, slick production while not taking itself too seriously? Check. Superstar cameos? Check. You’ve guessed it, it’s the latest Nike commercial. But is “Nothing Beats a Londoner” their best ever?

SmugMug just recently released its 16th film and this time they're featuring mountain sports photographer Blake Jorgenson, with a glimpse into his relentless pursuit of capturing the perfect moment in extreme conditions.

You book a commercial job and the client wants a beautiful face to grace their next ad. The client relies on you, the photographer to help with the process of hiring the model. The crew you hire rely on you to select the right candidate for their needs. That's great, right? Get the most radiant face, possibly the one with the highest social media numbers for that extra bump and you're set! Is that how it works?

Lifestyle photography means different things to different types of photographers. Some might say photojournalism is the truest form of lifestyle photography. A portrait or wedding photographer would describe it as putting their subjects in real life situations and capturing almost candid moments. I shoot commercial and editorial work so more often than not I create scenes using models and props that feel like real life events but weren't. No matter how you look at it though, lifestyle photography is about telling stories.

In the grand tradition of turning lemons into lemonade, I thought I would share with you a quick story about how a less than desirable situation for me this weekend turned into a chance to improve my business and my approach.

When it comes to studio product photography, we use a lot of tools in the studio. Sure, there’s the obvious: cameras, lenses, and lights. But today I want to talk about one of those little indispensable tools that can really make all the difference on set. If there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years of working in a studio environment, it’s that you can never have enough clamps! There’s always something that you need to hold in place, or simply rig.

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with a photographer I follow who shared his wonderful story with me about how he got where he is today. A lot of us have been told we take great photos somewhere along the way and dreamed of making a living off simply taking good photos. This doesn't really happen in the real world since you actually need a niche of some sort. If you happen to live by some of the most amazing houses in the world, luxury real estate is one of those niches that can make the dream a reality.

With the advent of digital cameras, drones, the Internet, and social media, video has become much more a part of every facet of advertising and our general content consumption. Even Fstoppers began by sharing behind-the-scenes videos of photographers at work to inspire and educate people all around the world. Everywhere you look, now, video is always present. Today's behind-the-scenes video comes to you from Parker Walbeck, the guy responsible for flying the LG V30 on top of a Red Weapon to compare the video output. In this video, he takes us on a real-estate video shoot and walks us through his gear and process.

As I set up to shoot an assignment last week, I found myself in a casual conversation with the owner of the location. He was also a photographer, and as I opened my Pelican case and began to set up my strobes, he commented on the fact that he owned the same one. He then lamented the fact that this particular kit was no longer made by the manufacturer. It had been discontinued and replaced by a new line of photographic debutants. I had no idea.

Drugstore chain CVS Health announced today that it will stop using photo manipulation in the promotional images for its store-brand makeup and will require all other companies to follow suit by 2020. Companies that continue to use manipulated imagery will have their adverts labeled by CVS to help customers understand that the photograph has been altered.

It's been a while since we've sat down to critique of the Fstoppers images but we're back with the series for our 30 videos in 30 days challenge. To commemorate our recent tutorial with Monte Isom, we filmed a new episode of Critique the Community which will focus on commercial images. A few days ago, we asked the community to submit their work for us to choose from. Since the definition of commercial imagery encompasses a wide variety of subject matters, we chose 20 varied images to give some feedback to. Do you agree with Chelsey and Lee's commentary on the images below?

Fstoppers is happy to announce we're bringing back Critique the Community in 2018. We invite everyone to submit your best commercial image to be critiqued by the Fstoppers team. We are keeping this first critique of 2018 pretty vague and broad, so if you think your image is "commercial" then submit in the comments below! Please follow the guidelines for submissions below to ensure eligibility for your image to be chosen. We will be accepting submissions through Thursday night, January 4, and will be offering feedback to a total of 20 pictures.