If you're a filmmaker on a budget, you've probably lusted after the various camera stabilizing offerings from Steadicam. With this tutorial, some hardware store components, and a little bit of elbow grease, you'll be up and running with a DIY Steadicam in a flash.
Modern lenses are small miracles. They don’t defy the laws of physics, but they sure come close. Are you getting all you can out of your lens, though?
Joey Shanks, better known by his YouTube handle Shanks FX, has released another YouTube video based around the idea that Hollywood effects can be achieved by anyone and with only household items. This time he attempts to recreate the legendary Aurora Borealis (or Northern Lights), one of the seven wonders of the world, with just some sheets of fabric and a handful of fans. Combining those few fans, fabric, and just a little bit of precise lighting with just a touch of videography editing magic, he suddenly has one of the world wonders in his garage. Check it out!
May is upon us, wedding photographers. Its the beginning of the season and we need to prepare ourselves for the long haul. Sure, we could brushing up on lighting techniques, talk about new lenses, buy faster cards, or argue about presets, but what we really need to think about are the intangible must-haves. The greens socks, my friends. That's right, I said socks.
I was reading this extract on Reuters earlier and was blown away. It is fantastic to see how creatively camera apps are being used for the peoples' benefit for once, especially in the wake of the Walter Scott case.
The creative genius that is Casey Neistat, for me, is next to none. The pure drive and passion this man has for what he does brings inspiration and motivation to my career and even my daily life. Late last week, Neistat decided to up and create his own viral video around the launch of the Apple Watch, and this is how he did it!
Do you have any old hard drives kicking around? If you fancy yourself a bit of a DIY'er you might be pleasantly susprised at what you can make out of those old storage devices! Youtube user, Rulof Maker, shows us how to make a Steadicam out of 2 old hard drives and a few pieces from the hardware store. How's that for a fun spring project?
If you are fan of DIY projects or are on a budget, this tutorial shows you all the steps for creating a simple yet effective globe light modifier for Paul C. Buff (RIP) strobes like AlienBees and Einsteins. Unlike many other DIY modifiers, this globe actually attaches the exact same way the retail modifiers do. Best of all, you can buy everything you need for under $25!
In this episode of Hardware from PRO EDU, I take you through the super simple steps of upgrading the RAM in your 2013 or later iMac using third party RAM. Upgrading your RAM on your own is easy and can save you $300 in the process as opposed to doing it through Apple at the time of your purchase. Below is second video on how to change the RAM in your 2011 version iMac.
At one point or another we’ve all most likely played around between two mirrors facing each other, dancing and ducking as our reflection appears to repeat infinitely. As most of us know, the same effect can be achieved by pointing a camera at a live feed of its own image. While this phenomenon is certainly nothing new, YouTuber Jong Chool Do has taken this classic illusion to the next level by incorporating tilts, pans, zooms, and even some finger movement to make for quite the orchestrated performance. What may seem like child’s play at first could have you breaking out the HDMI cable by the time you’re finished watching.
When people walk through my living room studio, they are puzzled that I do not own or rent a permanent studio space. What many do not know is that when I’m contracted for a commercial assignment, about 80% of the time I must travel to a location or shot at the client’s home base. And, in many cases that requires transporting several 9 foot seamless backdrops and a whole lot of equipment. I don’t have a giant bus to haul all of my studio gear, so it’s been a trying experience to find the right tools to efficiently pack and tote my mobile studio.
The holidays are just around the corner and if you’re anything like me, you’re most likely short on cash and haven’t started gift shopping for friends and family yet. Fear not, for the lovely people over at The Cooperative of Photography have put together a how-to video of six different DIY photography gifts that you can make with just a few low-cost items and some images.
I guess I’ve always been different; I’ve never really yearned for a big studio space. As a freelance photographer, the majority of my clients require that I come to their location and shoot on-site. I have a strict organizational-mobile system to transport all my equipment which includes over 8 strobes, 2 scrims and a plethora of staging props and modifiers. I’m asked quite often about my studio and where I shoot all these incredible portraits and dramatic fashion editorials. The answer is easy; my living room.
Upgrading your RAM from Apple is a lot like buying your tires directly from the car dealership. It's overpriced for essentially the same product and you shouldn't do it. In this video I cover the benefits of upgrading your RAM from a third party to maximize your computers ability for retouching and file management through various applications like Lightroom.
For a long time teleprompters were considered bulky, unweildy, and often required you to be tethered to a laptop or other control station. In the last few years, more affordable options that used wireless technology and compact mounts began to hit the market. Now, "The Parrot" might just be the most compact system I've ever seen, and it uses a device that the majority of us will already own: a smartphone.
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. He teamed up with PBS Digital Studios to bring you quality behind-the-scenes content online and has recently partnered with Red Giant to explain how he created a black hole effect very similar looking to the one in the recent movie Interstellar – all captured in-camera.
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. I know too many photographers that take an image, slap a preset on it, and call it good. All the editing on these images was done in Lightroom 5.
Self-promotion is an aspect of photography that many, if not most, photographers struggle with. If you’re a photographer who’s in business for yourself, you know that a good portion of your working hours is spent exploring ways to stick out and stand out from the pack. While there’s certainly a fine line between shameless narcissism and tasteful and effective promotion to help your business and brand grow, The Photographer's Guide To Self-Promotion helps navigate that border with some keen advice and tips to grow your photography business.
The holiday season is right around the corner, and for many photographers it’s one of the most lucrative times for print sales. If you’re selling framed prints of your work, it’s imperative that you package your products correctly in order save yourself a lot of money from damages, and to avoid having disappointed customers. Let’s take a look at how to do packaging the right way and earn yourself repeat customers that will come back year after year.
I think we can all agree that catch lights in the eyes of our subjects can enhance a photo tremendously. Each modifier we pick renders a different reflection in the eyes of our subject and can give the image a completely different feel. I recently discovered a way to build virtually any shape modifier that can be used in a mobile photo booth or permanent installment in your studio. And it's amazing!
Owners of Sony Alpha and NEX camera bodies have long been complaining about the rotational barrel wobble experienced with mounted lenses. Entering what is quite a unique product space, Fotodiox recently released the Tough E-Mount that replaces the original body mount of these cameras. As a sufferer of said wobbles, I purchased the Tough E-Mount for my Sony a7R to test and give you my verdict of the installation and results.
If you're anything like me then you feel pretty strongly that your face belongs behind a camera, not in front of it. I absolutely hate getting my picture taken, and I'm never more displeased than when I get my photo IDs made. From garish drug store / post office lighting to a poorly executed smile there's always a reason to dread whipping out my driver's license or ID. While I can't really help you with your DMV escapades, passports are unique in that you can actually provide your own image for the document — something I recently took advantage of and you can too. So here it is, The Photographer's Guide to Taking a Passport Photo You Won't Want to Destroy with Fire. All in 10 minutes or less.
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. Having said that, there's a lot of things that have become kind-of standard practice in food/beverage photography, some of those items I'll share with you today.
Last year Fstoppers threw its very first live photography workshop in the Bahamas and world class food and drink photographer Rob Grimm was one of the instructors. I was able to sit in on a bit of Rob's class and I learned a ton about photographing drinks. We just got our new order of FlashDiscs in and I decided to try a shot of my own using the new modifiers.
Growing up in the family's studios and labs, I learned a thing or two about mounting and framing prints, and I also ruined a lot of them in the process. In this video, I'll demonstrate a version of my process so you can skip the lab and mount your own prints, fresh from your home or studio printer.
As a commercial photographer, I specialize in product, food, and architecture. One of the products we've been shooting a lot of lately is jewelry, specifically jewelry for catalog use. In my opinion, jewelry is one of the hardest things to photograph, and many photographers don't know where to start. Whenever we're tasked with photographing shiny, reflective, spherical objects, our studio sounds like a group of sailors on leave with all the profanity flying around (often times strung together to make complete sentences).
If you listen to the podcast On Taking Pictures, you know that co-host of the program Bill Wadman is a New York-based portrait photographer who's worked with the likes of Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell, Philip Glass, Ze Frank, and many, many others. Though his traditional portrait and conceptual work are tremendous in their own right, Bill has gotten quite a bit of attention over the years for his projects such as his critically acclaimed Dancers in Motion, cinematic Drabbles, and the 365 Portrait project that helped him to start it all.
Mathieu Maury and Antoine Pai are two photography and filmmaking enthusiast who decided to launch a production and advertising company called Maison Carnot. They are passionate about finding new subjects and ways to explore what surrounds them. Based on this philosophy, they came up with the short film "Paris through Pentax".
Photographer and educator, Tony Northrup, was inspired by Fstoppers' own Dani Diamond's awesome larger-than-life ring light and put together his own tutorial video showing you how to build a light source in just about any shape you set your mind to with supplies picked up at a hardware store. This nifty little tutorial will get you up and running in an afternoon with catch lights that'll make your buddies green with envy and left scratching their heads.
When it comes to diffusion panels, several companies have prefab "blades" intended for holding diffusion materials that fit nicely into grip heads and knuckles, but at nearly $100 a pop, buying several of them may not fit into everyone's budget. Earlier this week, fellow Fstopper Clay Cook put together an awesome post about building your own V-Flats. His post got me thinking about some of my own DIY projects.
