Recent Film Photography Articles

Bert Stern: Original Mad Man Trailer

Bert Stern's career started in the mailroom at Look Magazine and soon became sought after by Hollywood and Madison Avenue.

Bert Stern: Original Mad Man directed by Shannah Laumeister, follows Stern's career through the golden age of the ad world and the iconic Marilyn Monroe "The Last Sitting" series.

Stern is notably well known for his 3 day photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe for Vogue

Brooks Reynolds' New Short Film "Footsteps"

You might remember Brooks Reynolds, we have featured him and his amazing photography on here before. Recently I had a chance to catch up with Brooks and discuss his latest project, Footsteps, a short film based on a story he was introduced to via the internet.

Filmed on a Red Scarlett he used

Balance of Life Combines Great Time Lapses With Compelling Story

One of the greatest challenges when creating art is being able to create something visually stunning while maintaining the integrity to your message. Often, one must suffer for the other to thrive, and blending them both can be a challenge within itself. Jony Karlsson was able to merge those two perfectly, with his beautiful and heartfelt short film entitled Balance of Life.

Lomography: News and Product Updates

Lomography has been around for a while now, known and loved for its crazy light leaks and cool hipster style that Instagram has tried tried to emulate for years for mobile digital imaging networkers (smartphone users). They have great stuff not only for the hipster society, but also for anyone starting out in photography, as their cameras are extremely affordable. A new Lomography Smartphone Film Scanner and the Peacock 110 X-Pro film are among the newest products Lomography has to offer...

"Into The Mind" A Trailer Worth Watching

The guys over at Sherpas Cinema sure know know to put together a epic video. Traveling to ethereal locations and filming the sports best athletes is definitely a winning combination, add the Sherpas behind a camera to film it all and you get one hell of a movie. The Sherpa's filming style is on a completely different level than the rest of the playing field. They have some cool cinematography tricks like at 2:35, which they've done in several of their other films. I'm guessing they do something similar to Mike's last post to get that effect. I always get excited when I see they released a new trailer.

A Chemical History Of Photography

When I bought my first DSLR 4 years ago, I offered a very enthusiastic "SAYONARA!" to the film era. This wasn't because I'm not grateful for the journey that photography has endured to end up where it is, but because my ADHD spark plug of a mind needed a process that was faster and more efficient than it's film and darkroom roots. Even with the mindset that I have towards the film era and the process of early photography, this video is pretty cool and goes through a brief history of photography via the paradigm of a chemist. Enjoy!

A New Take On The 365 Project: One Second Of Video Every Day For a Year

Everyone who has ever taken any interest in photography has thought about attempting to take one picture a year in order to fuel creative growth or to create an interesting and varied body of work in a relatively short time span. Jonathon Britnell put his own spin on the 365 project (technically a 366) by shooting one second of video every day for a year and compiling into a very cool documentary look at his life over the last year.

Kodak Announces Sale of Patents

Last week we reported the possibility that Google and Apple would snatch up the Kodak patents, but news out says that instead Kodak has made the sale to Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation, who are to pay approximately $525 million for them. Kodak is touting the sale as building "Kodak’s momentum toward a successful emergence in the first half of 2013."

Using Film for Portraits of a Highway Patrolman

I started a new project recently creating portraits on 11x14 film. I have had an 11x14 back for my Deardorff for several years, but I have never shot much in that format. I decided to try a couple sheets in hopes of kick starting a new project.

Fstoppers Rapid-Fire Interview With Fine Art Photographer And Surrealist Tara Minshull

Tara Minshull is a rather successful fine art photographer based in Los Angeles who specializes in conceptual and cinematic images, oftentimes utilizing mixed media to realize her vision. Tara was kind enough to give us some of her time for an interview, in which she discusses the merits of art school, her motivations and the constantly evolving themes of her work.

Projecteo: The Tiny Instagram Projector

Like it or not, Instagram isn't going anywhere. I personally love Instagram because I can snap a photo, post it, and share it with everyone who follows me in less than a minute. With that being said though, I do miss the times I spent as a kid, looking at projected slide film with my family on the holidays. Now thanks to Projecteo I can have those times back again!

Free Wedding Cinematography Workshop With Vanessa & Rob

If you've always wanted to get into wedding cinematography then this is your jump start. Starting at 9AM tomorrow, Monday December 3 creativeLIVE will be hosting a FREE Wedding Cinematography workshop With Vanessa & Rob. Together, they've got a career's worth of film-making knowledge and will be packing it into this three day course.

The Saddest Boy In The World

The Saddest Boy In The World is a short film by Vancouver filmmaker, Jamie Travis of Modern Family Productions. "Saddest Boy" is a perfect double rainbow of dark humor and a vintage nabes-esque aesthetic. On Modern Family Production's site, there is a Q&A section with the director that gives some insite to how they made the movie. Here is a selection from the Q&A ...

Brian Andrew's Blurs The Line Between Human and Animal

Using salvaged x-ray films and a somewhat disturbing design sense, Brian Andrews video "Hominid" has blurred the lines between human and animal anatomy. The resulting video is the result of a year of work with Ex'pression College of Digital Arts, mapping the movements of different animals to create a realistic blend between the two or more species being represented.

Series Of Behind The Scenes Videos From The New James Bond Movie "Skyfall"

One of the most anticipated movies this year has got to be the new James Bond flick, "Skyfall", directed by Sam Mendes. A series of behind the scenes videos have been posted online, and they really do offer a great look at just a few of the many things that go into such a vast production. Well worth a watch. 12 more videos are inside!

Rack Focusing Made Easy With FocusMaker

Anyone getting started out in DSLR video production can tell you that one of the biggest frustrations for them is changing focus during a shot. This is where FocusMaker comes in. It attaches to any lens and in just a few minutes you can have focus points marked on the big ruler, and easily jump back and forth from focus point to focus point.

Large Format Film for Corporate Brochure

I teamed up with Luquire George Andrews, an ad agency in Charlotte, NC, to create four images for a corporate brochure for Lincoln Harris, a commercial real estate company with properties in 26 states. LGA wanted to feature b/w photographs of executives in Lincoln Harris' properties.

Disney Acquires Lucasfilm, Star Wars Franchise: More Star Wars Films Coming

In the most unexpected yet earth-shattering news in recent film and video memory, Disney has agreed to purchase Lucasfilm for a reported $4.05 billion. Along with that purchase, Disney has stated that it will continue to produce original Star Wars films and related material. Since I know that most all of our readers grew up watching Star Wars and at some point in their life have pretended to wield a lightsaber, this has got to be the greatest Star Wars news in some time.

The State of Kodak at PhotoPlus Broke My Heart

There are a few names in this industry that have always meant something. Nikon. Canon. Hasselblad. Fuji. Kodak. The latter has had a rough go of things in the past couple years, culminating in what can essentially be called a final meltdown in early 2012. Chapter Eleven bankruptcy and a rapidly collapsing stock price have left the company a shell of what it was. This week at PhotoPlus, I saw the realization of that at their booth, and it was one of the saddest things I have experienced in recent memory.

Another Film Bites the Dust

A few days ago, Fuji unfortunately announced the end of one of its finest films, Reala 100. I've used it myself exclusively for a particular project -- very recently, in fact -- but now that the 120 format is kicking the bucket (35mm already did a while back), it's time to say goodbye to another film that will be remembered for its superbly accurate rendition of color.

Via Phoblographer

Kodak's New Helpful Film App!

Today, Kodak released a new mobile application that helps film shooters pick a film for various occasions, giving hints on how to shoot it and where to get it developed locally. I love film and absolutely love that Kodak is taking a step like this. I think it'll help professional shooters while also making it easier to bring new photographers into the world of film. Check it out on iTunes!

Ian Ruhter Shoots Inspiring People With an Enormous Wet Plate Setup

We've featured Ian Ruhter before: his Silver and Light series was an incredible display of talent, ingenuity and originality. I'm glad to say that he's back at it again, this time criss-crossing the country, telling the stories of inspiring people with his portable darkroom setup. Watch as Ian shoots Madison, a young girl who overcame some serious setbacks, and creates a series of incredible portraits using his custom made (very large format) camera which is built into the back of a box van.

Last Day Dream, A Man's Life Flashes Before His Eyes

Check out Chris milk's interpretation of what a man's life flashes before his eyes looks like in Last Day Dream. Filmed in a 1st person POV, this intriguing video did a wonderful job of high lighting someones life and showing it in under a minute. I've always been fascinated by POV videos and this video has a such a awesome story line. This video shows that you don't always need a expensive equipment to create such a inspiring and unique video, but that creativity can go a long way. Chris filmed all of this with a Canon 5D mk ii and Lensbaby lenses.

Check Out These Fantastic Single-Take Live Performance Music Videos

SerialBox Presents is a live music project created by Texas photog and all-around creative, Ryan Booth. Serial Box produces music videos that are shot entirely on a few 5Dmk2s with audio tracked into ProTools. There are no overdubs, no cut-ins, and no pick-ups. What you see and hear is one time through, mistakes and all.

Stanley Kubrick Films Natural Candlelight With Insane f/0.7 Lens

Stanley Kubrick was one of the most acclaimed producers and directors in American cinematography (the Shining is one of my all time favorites). Back in 1975, Stanley directed the three hour masterpiece Barry Lyndon. From a photography standpoint, the film is most noted for Stanley's use of Mitchell BNC cameras mounted with NASA Zeiss f/0.7 50mm lenses.

Kodak Discontinues T-Max P3200 Film

This is for all you film fanatics out there. Grab yours as its still in stock! Kodak announced that it is discontinuing the Professional T-MAX P3200 film due to "low sales volume". In the past few months Kodak stopped producing digital cameras, sold its sensor business, increased the price of film by 15%, and discontinued three slide films in an effort to reorganize its business.

Fearless Jaleel King: Against All Odds

Every so often we all need to refill our motivational gas tank to keep us going. This 4-minute video of photographer Jaleel King (website / facebook) will do just that for you. King's story of death, losing everything and finding life is sure to inspire you. Big thank you to Mike Allebach (website / facebook) for putting the video together so we can all be inspired by Jaleel's story.

Gallagher In Slow Motion ... This Video Was Destined To Be Made

In an attempt to create the best camera review video the interweb has ever seen, FCTN (Fiction) put the Phantom Miro up against Gallagher, 80's icon and nemesis to watermelons the world over. There's enough 80's power, shirtless old men, whacky hair, glitter and splattering in this video that some of you may confuse this for a Richard Simon's workout tape. But be certain, Phantom Miro + Gallagher = you're all going to watch this, love it and share it.

Game Of Thrones CGI VFX Breakdowns

Be fair warned, this video contains SPOILERS for anyone who hasn't seen season 2 of Game of Thrones yet. Ok, the warning is out of the way. This video, while lacking any commentary, gives an awesome insight into the CGI effects used in this visually stunning show. The group who did this, Pixomondo, actually won a Creative Arts Emmy for outstanding special effects for this season. Check it out! (I just wish it was in HD)

Lenovo's "Seize the Night" Alternate Ending Challenge: "Do"

Lenovo, a worldwide computer company that manufacturers laptops, have gathered fifteen of what they believe are the best college filmmakers for their 'Seize the Night' Alternate Ending challenge. One of the contestants is a graduate of the University of Alabama (now a film student at USC), Xavier Burgin. His entry into the competition is called 'Do'. Shot with a Canon 5D MarkII and a Canon T2i, this is definitely a forerunner in the contest.

Images of Child Labor Between 1908 and 1924

Working as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Lewis Hine (1874-1940) portrayed working and living conditions of children in the United States between 1908 and 1924. The Library of Congress' National Child Labor Committee Collection includes more than 5,100 photographs that came with the records of the organization. Many of the pictures are familiar, but others are relatively unexplored.

Kodak to Sell Off Film Division, Ilford to Benefit

As the sad story of the fall of Eastman Kodak continues, news reports coming out state that Kodak is poised to see off its entire film division, looking to exit that segment of the market entirely. That division includes Personalized Imaging and Document Imaging departments which encompass digital scanners, picture kiosks, souvenir photo products, photographic paper, as well as Kodak's film businesses, the once bright and shining star of its core competencies.

Samsara Is The Most Beautiful Movie That You Can't Afford To Miss

This movie appeals to every photographer due to the stunning visuals. Shot entirely on 70mm film, Samsara is a movie that spans twenty five countries and took five years to make. Not only does it encompass the grand scope of humanity, the visuals are simply mesmerizing. Be sure to watch this trailer in HD and full screen to experience the full effect.

Why I Still Shoot Film

Some say film is dead. And while I have to concede that at times, it can seem like it's certainly on a few crutches, I can't say it's dead... Because in reality, it's the most live photography medium I know. And so, I still shoot film. If it's something you've been curious about or if you've been wanting to try it out but don't know how to get started, this is for you.

Gunther Holtorf Takes A 23 Year Long Road Trip And Documents The Journey

What started as an 18 month long tour of Africa, ended up lasting 23 year long but wonderful years. With his modest demeanor, we're finally hearing about his amazing journey across the World. He drove in a Mercedes Benz G Wagon and now has over 500,000 miles tacked on. The vehicle has traveled the equivalent of 20 times around the planet and the best part is that he took his cameras along with him! Gunther travels with 2 film cameras, including a Leica M6.