My name is Sean Armenta and I am a professional fashion photographer based in Southern California. You may have seen a few of my videos posted on Fstoppers in the past but this will be the first video in a series called Fstoppers PPT (post production tutorials) that I will be producing exclusively for Fstoppers.
Kevin Reed is a fantastic fashion photographer based out in LA and also NYC. He also has an excellent blog called Exposing Fashion where he has posted lots of tips, BTS, and bits of inspiration. Each year Kevin creates a new image to include in his holiday newsletter and this year he even filmed a fast behind the scenes video outlining the entire shoot.
If you were an Fstoppers reader back when we launched then you probably saw Lee Morris's humble attempt at how to photograph a Rolex watch. It wasn't perfect but I think it was helpful in shedding some light on how meticulous product photography can be. Well now Alex Koloskov has made an extremely detailed video on how he created his latest hero shot of a men's Marine Star Bulova watch.
As many of you know, Patrick and I are in NYC shooting Peter Hurley's DVD. We have spent every second awake at his studio in Manhattan or on the train coming to and from Brooklyn. We have not had a second to read all of the emails coming in and so we are very behind on keeping up with the current BTSVs. We will get to them after this weekend.
I know many of our readers do not like being told how to shoot their images and many more even hate watching promotional videos for companies trying to sell them on a new way adjust their workflow.
I enjoy playing some video games but I actually enjoy the technology that goes into creating them even more. Check out the video below where Rockstar Games takes us behind the scenes of their new technology called "MotionScan". I am so excited to see this implemented in all of the games that are produced in the future.
We have all seen it before, you may have just not known what it was called. I think the first time I saw this was years ago in a Gatorade commercial and it really stood out to me. Today, 2.5D animations or "animated photos" are starting to pop up all over the place.
Remember Sean Armenta? He created this BTSV for our contest a few months ago. His previous video did a great job of showing us how he actually lit the shot but not much on retouching. Learn the other half of the story below in this top notch tutorial.
Sean Armenta | Dodge & Burn Technique from Sean Armenta on Vimeo.
As a photographer getting into DSLR video, I love it when a reader of ours emails us with a question we can answer or better yet a question we have not thought of before. Well FS reader Christian emailed us about how we sync our DSLR audio with audio we may have recorded in a separate unit (zoom, iphone, computer, etc).
Every now and then we come across a behind the scenes video that falls somewhere between the scope of photo/video production and computer graphics/animation. As creative artists, we need to be able to pull from a library of visual inspiration regardless of its original context.
Dave Dugdale has been an Fstoppers reader for a while now but I had not come across his own useful site Learning DSLR Video until yesterday. He left a comment on one of our videos and I clicked on his site to check it out (yes we actually check out our reader's sites). When I saw one of his videos I immediately emailed him and asked if he would teach me how to colorkey footage in Premiere.
This video is already a year old but that doesn't mean it's not worth posting again. I was really impressed with the cinematography work and the amazing detail in the composition...and then I realized it was all completely fake! That's right, Alex Roman doesn't create that horrible Transformers CGI; his computer graphic designs are true works of art.
Fstoppers reader Marcin from Poland sent me an email with one of the coolest BTS videos I've seen in a while. If you were like me, you might not have heard of Batelco before. Batelco is a major telecommunications company based out of Bahrain.
One of our forum members recently posted this and I am so glad that he did. Arev Manoukian create "Nuit Blanche" about 9 months ago and I am shocked that I had never seen it. This may very well be my favorite short film of all time. View the incredible finished product below and then the BTS below that.
Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.
This video might be on the fringe of what most photographers and videographers are faced with in their own field but I found it really interesting.
Warning: If you think using Photoshop is cheating then you should probably just ignore this post! I just saw the most amazing video demonstration of a new video editing software called MovieReshape. Basically it's like an automated Photoshop liquify tool for video.
If you have ever watched an action movie or fantasy movie, you have probably heard people taking about how anything can be done with CGI. But how many times have you stopped to consider what was actually real and what was computer graphics?
I am a huge fan of the technology behind movie special effects. Here is a quick look behind the scenes of the movie John Adams. It's amazing what is possible these days.
I was just introduced to Freddie's youtube channel and I am blown away. Freddie and his friends keep creating fantastic videos with some impressive homemade CGI and then they explain how they did it. Watch this BTS below and the finished product in the full post.
We knew there were going to be a lot of last minute contest videos submitted but never would we have thought this many of you would have waited until the last minute. I want to thank everyone for participating but I'll give no sympathy to those who lost lots of sleep this weekend trying to meet deadlines since you had 90 days to do this!
The bar has officially been raised. Thomas Woodson and Grant Lankford just submitted an amazing BTSV for the contest. This video has it all; it is fun to watch, it is informative, and it has fantastic final images. The most exciting part to me though is that they did all of this with just 1 strobe and a bed sheet!
The BTSV for this music video isn't very technical and normally I wouldn't post it but the final product is so good that I made an exception. Watch the music video below first and then try to guess how they filmed it, then check out the BTS. I was shocked when I saw the simplicity of the shoot.
A few weeks ago I did a full fashion photo shoot with my iPhone 3gs. I posted a few of the images and asked people to critique them (never exposing that they were shot on my cell phone). I couldn't help but laugh when a few of our readers claimed that these were "the best images I had ever taken." Nobody ever claimed that they were too grainy, too soft, or lacked detail.
Aaron Nace is known for his incredibility imaginative photography and post production. Check out his shoot "torn" and then head over to his website here.
Behind the scenes Torn from Aaron Nace on Vimeo.
Here is a quick video showing some of his Photoshop skills
When I first saw this video I was completely blown away. Using timelapse and high speed photography, Tim Shepherd and David Attenborough produce some stunning footage of plants growing over the course of 2 years. Check out this crazy video produced by the BBC
Joel Grimes has an amazing portfolio and in this video we get a glimpse of what it takes to shoot and then edit one of his images. Check out Joel's website at www.joelgrimes.com and visit www.joelgrimesworkshops.com for more tutorials.
Sam O’Hare is an aero director/ VFX artist who likes playing around with his camera from time to time. When I first saw this video, I thought it was a cool little video that featured a tilt shift lens and some solid Nikon video work. It was not until I read his blog that I found out I was wrong on both accounts: no tilt shift lens and no video!
I just recieved a tip from one of our readers to check out Aaron's blog. I am so glad I did because not only is his photography fantastic; his behind the scenes videos are also interesting and informative. Check out his last shoot in the woods and then head on over to his website here. Behind the Scenes - Baxter from Aaron Nace on Vimeo.
I have been following Dave Hill for years now and recently he was hired to shoot a picture series for the March issue of Digital SLR Photography Magazine. Dave has an amazing style to his photography; it almost looks like an illustration. Check out Dave's website here and check out snapshots from this shoot right out of the magazine on his blog here.