Bruce Dale is a veteran commercial and advertising photographer who has also taken some amazing nature and photo journalistic images over the years too. He's worked for National Geographic as well as the White House and companies like Nikon, Southwest Airlines, Caterpillar, and Acura.
Do you guys remember that show The Shot that was on VH1 maybe 3 years ago? If you do then you probably remember 1st runner up Dean Zulich. Dean has released a great behind the scenes video that outlines everything involved with two of his shot setups. The results are great, and I think this video has something for both the beginner photographer and the experienced photographer.
Here at Fstoppers we are all about INFORMATIVE BTS videos. Although this video does lack a few of the technical details I usually look for, there are a ton of great bits of inspiration to take away from it. Ty Michael's lighting schematics, clothing design, and especially his location and sets stand out to me.
Even if you have never shot pictures underwater before, I bet it has crossed your mind. I know I've tried it a few times and failed miserably. Luckily there are talented guys out there like Cal Mero who are masters at shooting below the surface. Check out his latest BTSV which is packed full of priceless underwater shooting tips. Do you want more info on shooting underwater?
Pirelli is constantly pushing the envelope with their sexy Calendars. This year, mega fashion designer/photographer Karl Lagerfeld was in charge of shooting this Greek Goddess themed photoshoot. Karl seems to shoot most of the shots with 1 single bare bulb flash and his images are stunning. Once again this video is NSFW and does have lots of nudity. View with caution.
Jay P. Morgan is a commercial and advertising photographer based out in Los Angeles, California. We have featured his work before and this time Jay is using a three light setup to make some portraits of a jazz player. If you are still uncomfortable with your lighting skills, Jay does a really good job explaining exactly what each light does and why he placed them where he did.
Our cameras sync at a maximum of 200-250th of a second but in this video Chris OConnell strobes at 1/500th of a second with his Broncolors. How does he do it? Well the new Pocket Wizard TT1 and TT5s are the secret. Instead of trying to explain it all here, watch the second video with more details.
Many of you have probably seen this beautiful portrait of Tyra Banks before. In this video Matthew Jordan Smith takes us through the details of his lighting and gives us a reality check on the nature of fashion and beauty photography.
Have you ever watched a scary movie where the only part of the scene you can see is being lit by a small flash light or candle from five feet away? Well those are the conditions cave photographer Stephen Alvarez regularly works in when he climbs below the earth's surface.
Over the holiday we received a few emails about a video we shot where we used a ringflash as the key light (SB-800 Flash Mod). Obviously you can't shoot video with the ringflash look unless you have an expensive flash with a modeling light. But what if you want to shoot stills and get that hard yet even lighting that is common in macro and fashion photographs?
Fstoppers Forum member DPC shared this teaser video about a new BTS series PBS is doing on US Presidental photographer Pete Souza. It's pretty interesting to hear the issues Pete faces day in and day out shooting one of the most well known figures in the world. If you are able to tune into PBS, you can check the schedule for The President's Photographer: Fifty Years Inside the Oval Office.
Andreas Sjodin is a commercial and catalog photographer who has basically shot for everyone under the sun. Right after you watch this video you need to head over to his website and check out his amazing portfolio! I've said this so many times I hope you guys aren't sick of hearing me say this: Great and interesting photographs are almost never about technical lighting.
Our good friend Peter Hurley has been tearing up Twitter the last few days which can only mean one thing: He's done something pretty exciting! Peter loves to film his own videos on his Flip HD camera while in the middle of his shoots so the footage is always a bit spontaneous.
When I first saw Gregory Heisler, I thought he was a college professor not a professional photographer. I guess in reality he is both since this is one of the most indepth BTS videos I've seen explaining how to construct lighting that doesn't call too much attention to itself.
Here is an interesting photoshoot where Marie-Louise Cadosch lights her model inside an old bus. Instead of trying to fit the lights inside, they decide to light through the glass and the results speak for themselves. Check out the final images and more info from this Fashion Breakdown shoot here and more on the toning of these images here.
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Dave Black is a professional photographer who shoots some of the most stylized sports images I have ever seen. In this BTS video, Dave is pairing up 8 SB900 flashes with two Radio Popper PX triggers on two Lightware Foursquare brackets. Why does he use such a crazy setup when shooting motorcross? Often times with fast action sports you need to shoot with quick shutter speeds b
Melissa Rodwell is back with Fashion Photography Blog shooting a Harper's Bazaar Cover. I'll let the video and pictures speak for themselves but I do have to say that I am huge fan of this simple single hard light. Easy setup, great results!
Update: Woops, I just realized that Strobist posted yesterday. Just wanted to give David credit as well.
I've taken small strobes out into the ocean to shoot kiteboarders in the past and it wasn't a huge success. My assistants were getting bashed by waves and the small strobes just aren't powerful enough to really show up in the day.
As a commercial wedding photographer, I know very little about how to take compelling underwater images. Luckily underwater photographer Brian Skerry and National Geographic have shared this short BTS video on what it's like diving with fish and swimming over coral reefs.
Have you ever seen "How To" photography videos from the 80's and 90's? Most of these videos are so cheesy that it's hard to take anything of value away from them. In the video below Dean Collins teaches a workshop on the properties of light and instead of focusing on current trends, he sticks to the fundamentals. This video was shot in 91 but it is still completely relevant today.
I just ran across this quick BTS of a Land Rover photoshoot. The video itself isn't that impressive but the photography sure is. It's really interesting to see how Tim Wallace determined his lighting. First he focused on the ambient light for the background and then after he had that locked in he added 3 strobes to fill in the car but keep the sky dark.
So many times we photographers think we need to use every single strobe light we own just because they are there in our bag. I've been a victim of it and I'm sure you have too. Instructional photographer Tony Corbell has an old video he made for the folks at Profoto which really showcases the variety of light you can get from just one single light source.
This video was just sent over to us by a reader and I am so glad it was because I am now a huge fan of Alexia Sinclair. In this video Sinclair was hired to shoot the campaign imagery for the New Zealand Opera's performance of "Macbeth". The production value of the shoot alone is amazing and her retouching is amazing to watch as well.
Some musicians release a new album with a mediocre CD booklet or no booklet at all. But when country star Taylor Swift releases an album she sets out to create photographs that depict her songs in cinematic fashion.
My good friend Diana Deaver just sent this video over that she recently helped created and I really love it. 8 of the top photographers in the area got together to shoot portraits of US veterans in Charleston and listen to their incredible stories. I believe Diana shot this video and her stills using the 5D Mark II. This photography exhibit will be open to the public on November 5th.
FashionPhotographyBlog.com brings us a great BTSV of Melissa Rodwell. Check it out to see what goes into large set design. Correct me I am wrong but she appears be shooting with a Nikon D3X and 85mm 1.4.
Kelly Kline is a commercial and editorial photographer based out of NYC and Atlanta who has a fantastic portfolio full of top professional atheletes. In this behind the scenes video she has teamed up with MMA fighter Matthew Polly for his new book Tapped Out.
Beauty Confessional is a fashion based blog out of the UK but that doesn't mean that their tough motion photos shouldn't be appreciated world wide! I love what photographer Piers Vernon Kell has done with these images and the editing reminds me of something you'd see in a Hitchcock or Woody Allen opener.
Stefan Segers is a commercial photographer from the Netherlands. Although all of his website is in Dutch, he was nice enough to produce a behind the scenes video in English just for Fstoppers. Stefan explains from start to finish how he created the artistic look for the lastest Pajar campaign.
FS reader Luke Avery just sent this video over to us and it's a great one. Check out all the work that goes into creating this 1 minute ad. The second video is the finished product.
Lighting products can be extremely tricky. Especially if that product happens to be reflective. Check out this video from LearnMyShot.com and see how they choose to light 7 wine bottles. The video itself isn't a large production but there is a boat load of good info to be learned.
Andreas Yannelos just threw his new video up on our forum and I thought it deserved a little time on our front page. Enjoy a quick look at his last photoshoot and then head over to his site and try to figure out Swedish.
Jay P. Morgan sent me this quick video tutorial he created a few weeks ago and I just remembered to post it. It actually works out well because Jay just let me know that he is doing a Photo/Video Seminar in Universal Studios back lot. If you happen to be California around November 6th I highly suggest checking it out. Check out the second video to learn more about the upcoming seminar.
David Jackson is a commercial photographer based out of Appleton, Wisconsin and this week he has released a personal project entitled "Circus". Dave puts a lot of effort into not only every detail of this shoot but also in explaining why it is important to shoot for yourself and not just for clients.
I just got off the phone with Jay P Morgan, a big production photographer out of California. Jay shoots usually entail big concepts and bigger set designs but in this video he keeps it relatively simple. Check out Jay's lighting scheme for this 50's style shoot.
What does a guy have to do to find a high quality, informative BTSV around here? Apparently I have to start looking at videos that were released years ago.
Here is a quick BTS Chase made over 2 years ago. We haven't ever posted it but if you have seen it, don't get mad at us; good BTSVs are hard to come by these days.
Rich Legg is a successful stock photographer, and he goes all out in this video as he tries to make the prefect stock photo of a movie theater audience. If you haven't checked out stock photography, I highly encourage you to sign up and test your skills. Nothing proves whether your photography is marketable or not like putting it up on a site like shutterstock or istockphoto.
Annie Leibovitz is perhaps the most well known photographer in the world and her work always stands out from the crowded world of photography. While her Louis Vuitton campaign with Sean Connery is a few years old now, there is still a lot of great information to be gained from the beach shoot.
Here is a very simple but totally informative video about splash photography. I cannot figure out who this photographer is, if you happen to know please post it in the comments below.
Tomasz Tomaszewski is a photojournalistic photographer who often shoots for National Geographic Poland. It's quite amazing to see the depth of the images he has taken inside the harsh conditions of coal mines that feature dust, moisture, and poisonous gases.
We get a lot of emails from readers pointing us to interesting photoshoots and many times the videos themselves offer very little insight into the mind of the photographer. Unfortunately this video has no such commentary from David Hobby but the good news is he has a complete article outlining how he shot this portrait of cellist Caleb Jones.
As Lee has posted earlier, this week we are going to continue to feature some of our favorite BTS videos from the FS Contest. Austin, TX based photographer Sans Talbot really raised the bar on the contest when he filmed the shooting of his visual concept "Spitfire".
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!
Mark Lebryk decided to try something a bit different for his BTS contest entry and we are glad he did! Mark worked together with his client Ultrasun USA to show what goes into shooting product photos for a website. In a nutshell, Mark takes over 100 photographs of each tanning bed, retouches each one, and then renders them into an interactive 360 degree web presentation.
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!
I am really enjoying this quality images from low quality gear thing that has been going on around here lately. Check out Photo 54 shooting with just 1 light.
BTS - Entry Level Gear from Photo54 on Vimeo.
Let me begin by saying that this BTSV is not very informative. I usually only post videos that will help others learn but I must make an exception. This video is the most beautiful behind the scenes video I have ever seen. As creative professionals this video should be inspiring to us all on so many levels. Who would have thought that you could turn a simple photoshoot into a work of art.
Ok, not REALLY, but that was the concept for the shoot. I like this BTSV for 2 reasons. First, he has a concept. So many photographers just take headshots of girls and forget about coming up with any sort of idea or theme for the pictures. Lorand Peli planned this shoot out before he ever started and it shows.
This week we are going to be featuring some of our favorite BTS videos submitted to our Behind the Scenes Contest that ends this Saturday! When this video from photographer Klaus (if he really even is a photographer) was posted on our Forum, it sparked up a lot of dialog.
Doug Howell just submitted his BTSV for the contest. This video is short but it packs in the technical details! It's great to see the making of a real advertisement from start to finish. Please remember to give Doug some feedback below.