Fine Art

Most skydiving videos are extremely high energy. This video, produced by BettyWantsIn.com, has a totally different vibe though. Instead of the heart pounding "plummeting to your death" feeling, this video creates a calm almost floating sensation by taking advantage of the 60fps that the GoPro can shoot. I thought it was creative so I figured I would share it.

Recently over at the forum, a conversation came up about shooting nudes and glamour style images. One of our readers recommended a short documentary on famous fashion photographer Helmut Newton. We've all seen Helmut's images but if you were like me you might not have known the man behind the images. This 5 part documentary, filmed by June Netwon, shows Helmut working through his shoots with such famous models as Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer as well as the legendary Luciano Pavarotti. It always amazes me how images I would consider 'snapshots' can become iconic images in the fashion world. Fashion photography today often involves studio lighting and extensive photoshop, but as this documentary shows, Helmut was able to cut through the heart of his subjects with nothing more than a film camera often times in auto exposure. Check out more about Helmut over at the Helmut bookstore.

We have posted about Twixtor before but today I was sent 2 great examples of it being put to use. Instead of simply slowing frames down, Twixtor actually can create as many frames as you like for super smooth ultra slo mo. Obviously nothing beats actually shooting at 1000fps but this program is quite good in most cases. We used it on every frame for the intro of The Wakeboard Studio Shoot. Check out the full post for a second video.

I can't remember the first time I saw this video by Gregory Crewdson but I'm glad it came across our desk again. Gregory is more or less a conceptual photographer who uses both sound stages and real locations to create images that make you stop and question what is going on in the shot. His lighting is very similar to what you would see on a big budget movie, and the amount of resources required for these sorts of productions is probably beyond what most photographers would even consider.

Remember the Vivian Maier story we posted a few weeks ago? Well it has been the most popular post we have ever had on Fstoppers. For those who found it as intriguing as I did, here is an update. Below, CBS News covers the story in a new interview and I would highly suggest checking out vivianmaier.blogspot.com where you can stay up to date on the newest images that have been scanned in.

We've featured the work of David Nguyen in the past and this time he has taken his whole production to new level. In his most recent photoshoot, Whispers in the Wind, David takes his creative team out to a desert and creates some really inspiring composite beauty images. The theme is sort of a Chinese New Year, and David has included wild elephants, tigers, rabbits, and birds into the final shots. I love it when artists take a concept to the max and really push their own creative aspirations. If you have not checked out David's portfolio, you are really missing out. Now if only we could get some BTS on how he made these composites!

Jordan Matter is a headshot photographer based out of NYC but does some rather quirky personal projects. One of his going projects is titled Dancers Among Us where he places professional dancers in urban environments and tries to capture a spontaneous yet thought provoking image. I must admit some of his tactics might be a bit unlawful and I don't recommend necessarily following his advice but the concept is pretty interesting. Shooting in public places is always tough especially when you want a high production value but doing it in NYC can be extremely tough without getting proper licenses. View more images from this series here. //--> //--> //-->

Harry Taylor donated his time and talent to HeartsApart.org, an organization created to keep families connected while our military is serving abroad. In the video below Harry shoots 3 portraits which involve creating a positive image on a sheet of glass. This type of photography was created in the 1850s and if you are as interested in it as I was, you can learn more here.

I'm always getting asked by our readers to post more videos on landscape photography but it is really tough to find good videos on landscape photography. Luckily landscape photographer Clyde Butcher has a nice little interview where he talks about how he got into landscape swamp photography and some of the gear he uses. All of his work is black and white and you can really tell how he has been inspired by other black and white photographers who have come before him. If you appreciate black and white landscape photography you will enjoy this video. Make sure you check out Clyde's portfolio to see more of his work since he doesn't showcase much of it in the video itself.

Vivian Maier's street photography was recently "discovered" just a few days after she died at the age of 83. The Chicago nanny took over 100,000 photographs and many say she may rank among the top street photographers of the 20th century.

Does anyone remember the Domino's Pizza "cheese puller" video that we posted a few months back? Well I remember commenting about that lady because she seemed a little crazy. Well she did seem crazy until I saw this interview with Ellen Sirot. We all take our job seriously... but com'on... Check the full post for another video of her acting insane and a Funny Or Die spoof. <

Philip Bloom is an amazing British DP, Director, and Film Maker who also works hard to bring us some neat gadget to use out in the field when filming DSLR video. When I saw this timelapse video of Monument Valley out in Utah, I knew this BTS video/audio would appeal to our landscape photographers who are often stuck watching fashion and commercial videos. So in an effort to change it up a bit, go ahead and load both the audio and video tracks (hit play and then pause) and start with the audio track. Philip also outlines a lot of the gear used in this timelapse over at his blog so check that out too. Enjoy Monument Valley commentary by PhilipBloom

Monument Valley from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

This is going to be a busy week for FS. The contest submissions are starting to pour in because the deadline is only 6 days away. We are going to try to bring you at least one professional BTSV and at one contest submission every day. For her contest submission, Amber Williams teaches us about infrared photography (something I knew nothing about). Amber did a fantastic job of keeping the video interesting and informational. I'm just excited that there are some some cute female Fstoppers out there. Show Amber some love in the comment box below. <

I have been on Vimeo for probably an hour going through one terrible BTS video after another. There is so much talent out there but so many of these videos have no details and are so boring. That all changed when I ran across Patrick Boivin's "AT-AT Day Afternoon." The BTS video has no talking but it is still totally informative. The finished video is in the full post and it is AMAZING.

I'm a big fan of Annie Leibovitz's photography (who isn't), and a few weeks ago I was admiring this photograph she did of Keith Richards for Louis Vuitton. I was really happy when I found a short behind the scenes video of it via Strobist even though the quality is really poor. Click the post to view the final image and hopefully you can see how relatively simple this photoshoot was in lighting. It's the overall production and attention to detail that really makes this image so awesome.

BJ and Richielle Formento are a photography team that makes up Revolvershoots, and I must say I really love their moody images. Their project Circumstance combines a lot of unique locations with bits of adversity in the rolls they have their models play. It's definitely interesting stuff, and you can see how studying under Annie Leibovitz has influenced BJ's work.

Circumstance 5 from Peggy Peralta on Vimeo.

It's pretty rare that I come across fine art nude photographs that I find interesting and respect the execution but Thorsten Jankowski has some interesting photographs here. It's nice to hear a black and white photographer talk about when it is most effective to publish a photo in color too.

Behind the Nude: Thorsten Jankowski - "Magnesia" from Bryon Paul McCartney on Vimeo.

This video does not have the most informative behind the scenes video to go along with it but it is so good that I wanted to post it anyway. View the full post to see "the making" of this fantastic short.

Space Chimp from Leo Burnett on Vimeo.

Check out John Chiara's home made camera; it's so big he had to build it inside of a trailer! If you thought it was tough getting out and shooting, you now have no excuse after you watch the amount of effort put into making these images. <