The use of Photoshop by companies is changing and it’s indicative of a much deeper trend. Earlier his year, American Eagle stopped retouching the models in their 'Aerie' lingerie shoots. They claim that the 9% sales increase last quarter is directly related to this position. This is an unprecedented commercial statement, and has wide implications for photographers, videographers and post production specialists everywhere.
With one hundred and fifty pages brimming his passport book, adventure photographer and professional climber Jimmy Chin has traveled the world shooting for The North Face and National Geographic. As a man who radiates both inspiration and motivation, it’s worth taking a look at this day in the life of Jimmy.
U.K. based cosmetic firm Molton Brown is known for spectacular, over-the-top photography particularly in their annual Christmas catalog. This recently released video takes us behind the scenes on the set of their 2014 holiday catalog with photographer Tom van Schelven as he and his crew transform a forest into an enchanted outdoor holiday banquet.
If you've ever thought about trying out a drone, you probably have heard how complicated it is. Sure, there are easier systems to use like the DJI Phantom, but there is still a learning curve that you need to overcome before you should fly and shoot with a drone on your own, especially before an important shoot... and also before any situation where you may possibly LOSE the drone. Watch the video and learn more below.
What happens when you dream of a surreal image that beckons you to recreate it as a photograph? For Canon Explorer of Light, Tyler Stableford, it meant heading to Mexico in search of whale sharks, with an underwater model, ready to face the challenges that laid ahead of them them in an effort to create an image that was as compelling as it was personally rewarding.
Whether it's capturing a close encounter with a great white, documenting an Eiger ascent or riding the dash of an F-16 the GoPro has been used for some pretty amazing things. Here is one recording I don't see any of us re-creating anytime soon though.
When learning a new photographic technique, it typically takes quite a bit of practice time before you achieve pleasing results. With long-exposure photography, that learning time is extended because every frame can take minutes to complete. In this video from B&H, photographer Deborah Sandidge does an excellent job of accelerating the learning process thanks to in-depth explanations of strategy and set-up behind each photo presented.
If you're looking for a great movie this weekend - and you don't want to fight the crowds to see Interstellar - check out Time Zero, a film about the last days of Polaroid, the people who loved it and the few who set out to save it. It's truly a beautiful documentary that will make you fall in love with instant film all over again.
It seems like everyone is asking for money these days. The guy starting a fundraiser for his UBER ride home from the bar to the model wanting to start a photography career by creating a GoFundMe page asking fans to buy her a $2500 camera. With campaigns like these going around, it's sometimes discouraging to donate to some of today's fundraisers for creative projects...until today. Behold the movie awesome POV "Hardcore", which has already been filmed, but needs some additional funds to finish post production. Learn more below.
Go behind the scenes with one of the worlds top high-end retouchers, Pratik Naik, in this two part video as he walks us through his process of working with a model shot by David Geffin. Exploring the fine line between retoucher and photographer you can see his passion for what he does and the understanding it takes to capture the photographers vision perfectly.
San Francisco based photographer, Jeff Cable, is perhaps best known for his work with the US Olympic Committee, photographing the last four Olympic Games though his list of offered services includes Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, weddings, nature, sports, and senior portraits. In this video produced by B&H Photo's learning studio Jeff walks you through getting started in the senior portrait game from location scouting and preproduction to shooting and workflow.
Excuse me a moment while I try and reassemble my brain, it’s kind of just been blown by the video reel I’m about to talk about. While I collect my senses, feel free to join me as I showcase this piece of artistic genius and the talent of the young lady who put it together. This might just be the most insane, joyous 50 second video you’ve ever seen.
Filmmaker Michael Tapp recently hit me up to share his latest experience with the people you typically find in New York City's Times Square and the Sony A7s. If you haven't spent an evening there, this short documentary (co-produced by Bill Novak) gives you a good sense of what draws 26 million people per year and how the A7s performs under noisy, bright conditions.
If you've played a few shooter video games in the last two decades, chances are you've seen at least one with a point of view that is looking from the top-down. The team over at Corridor Digital wanted to recreate this style in a video short (which also meant doing it all in a single take!) so they partnered with DJI to make it happen. This video takes you behind the scenes on their shoot, but check the full post for the final video and a second BTS piece.
Atomos, known for their field recorders, has recently announced a new portable power solution. The Power Station, as it is called, has the ability to power up to 3 devices simultaneously and features hot swapping. The device is powered by Sony L-series batteries, but adapters for Canon LP-6 and Nikon EN-EL15 battieries will be available.
Up next on the TogTools series featuring your very own Fstoppers writers and contributors hosts Jess and Stephen talk with award winning photographer David Bickley. If you are not familiar with the series or David's work be sure to tune in and gain some great knowledge as he talks through starting up, pricing and how some key mistakes taught him valuable lessons in the industry.
Having had a small wedding myself, one in which I invited 72 of my closest friends and family and 72 people arrived ready to celebrate the biggest day of my life together. Three years since that magnificent day but not one regret in the small nature of the day, it was the photos and memories that I hold most dear to me to this day. This is one memory though I would love to have recreated with my GoPro.
OK Go has developed a name for themselves as making some of the most iconic and creative music videos over the last ten years. In their latest music video, released today, OK Go shows off a cleverly scripted video using motorized unicycles, umbrellas, and a single take video mounted on a drone. You need to watch this deliciously clever video with an equally catchy song to back it.
Sean Goebel might only do photography in his spare time while working on his PhD in Astronomy, but that hasn't stopped him from licensing work to the likes of Canon, the Discovery Channel, and others. A quick watch of his timelapse works, including Epochs and Mauna Kea Heavens and it is easy to see why. His latest timelapse project is included here, along with a brief look into its creation.
In this World War II period piece a steeled tank commander (Brad Pitt) and his crew of five men trek past enemy lines to attack the Germans when they least expect it. Fury was shot on Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 cameras using Panavision lenses. What I do love about this particular b-roll is that they show you what the raw footage looks like on the monitors that the director reviews before any post processing is done to it. You can catch Fury in theaters now.
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.
YouTuber, Casey Neistat is known for his over-the-top viral videos, his sometimes eccentric working and organizational methods, and countless little DIY studio and life hacks. Rather than working with dedicated cine gear or even DSLR kits, Neistat typically uses $100 point-and-shoot cameras for their compactness, accessibility, cost, and their innocuous appearance. For these reasons, it's pretty easy to see why he'd be interested in taking Google Glass for a spin.
With hopes of saving at-risk environments and capturing them before they are gone forever, a team of 15 timelapse artists have decided to join forces and create a feature film. Eric Hines, Michael Shainblum, Drew Geraci, and Joe Capra are just a few of the names on the "CodeX" roster. They are crowdfunding to try and make this project a reality, and I spoke with team member Ben Canales on why this project matters.
About two years ago, Blackmagic made enormous waves in the cinema industry with their original cinema camera. A year later, they packed that camera into a preposterously small package, giving filmmakers the ability to take high quality video with them virtually anywhere. With numerous highly desired firmware updates since then, we wanted to see how the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera has handled the test of time.
Benjamin Von Wong is at it again. He teamed up with the team at SmugMug on yet another collaborative masterpiece. This time, he left the cold, foggy San Francisco forest, and retreated to the warm, sunny outdoor confines of the SmugMug campus in Mountain View, California. With only $20, a couple lights, and a lot of creativity, he turned everyday tech employees into athletic specimens.
Through the Ground Glass is a beautiful short film by Taylor Hawkins that features large-format photographer, Joseph Allen Freeman as he — very candidly — talks about the process, frustrations, difficulties, and joys of shooting with large-format film. Even if this type of photography isn't your cup of tea, this video is worth a watch.
Warning: NSFW for language.
Do you have an eye for editing video? The editor often wields the power and ability to breathe life into a piece of motion work, or to kill it off. But where do you go to learn how to edit? Inside The Edit recently launched the world’s first end-to-end online program, and while it’s not without it’s considerations, it represents a giant leap forward for anyone who wants to get hands-on experience in the world of motion storytelling.
Chicago based photographer and timelapser Eric Hines returns with a brilliant follow-up to his acclaimed Cityscape Chicago timelapse released over a year ago with the debut of Cityscape Chicago II. His first timelapse won him a Vimeo Staff Pick along with nearly 1 million views and part 2 surely doesn't disappoint.
Everyone gather around and learn how Lee Morris got our San Franciscan features editor, Jaron Schneider, fired from his previous job. In the latest installment of the TogTools Fstoppers series, Jess and Stephen have an engaging chat with Jaron where we learn the interesting tale of how he got started at Fstoppers. More intriguing perhaps are the insights on how he deliberately made his work go viral and how you can do it, too.
Earlier this summer we saw the release of Brett Ratner's "Hercules". The movie was a mild success despite critics' anticipations. Recently Milk VFX and Double Negative VFX houses have both released breakdowns of how they created the visual effects for the movie. Mike Seymour of Wired walks you through a detailed featurette on how Double Negative created the numerous creature effects for the film. In the second breakdown we get to see how Milk expanded the world in the movie with set expansions, matte paintings and other special effect touches.
Philip Lee Harvey recently went to Ethiopia for Lonely Planet to photograph the world's most inaccessible church... 2,500 feet up and carved into the side of a mountain. The view from the top? Nothing short of spectacular. Amazingly, the Abuna Yemata Guh Church in Tigray, Ethiopia was carved by hand, and the art inside becomes even more incredible when one takes into account that the artist (and anyone who visits) had to make the climb to do it. Talk about devotion.
The team from Modest (a Buford, Georgia-based production company) recently shot a commercial for Glock, featuring the G41 tactical .45 caliber pistol. The commercial itself is a gorgeous-looking short film of a special ops unit swarming a plane out on an airport tarmac. The BTS video above shows how they pulled off an impressive continuous shot passed down a pulley on crane, to car, to golf cart, to ground – all what looks to be shot with a Blackmagic Cinema camera stabilized on a Movi M10 3-axis gimbal. It’s really freaking sweet.
Alex Buono, member of the SNL's film unit, helped produce one of the coolest title sequences ever using time-lapsing, light writing, freelensing, and other effects. The show is celebrating their 40th season so they wanted this sequence to be classic and iconic, a little dressed-up, and typography integrated into the cityscape.
Photo Throwdown returns for their second episode! Last time we were with them in New York City for their premiere episode. Now the gang are tearing it up in San Diego with challenges pitting two of their own very talented crew against each other! Both competitors will have to scramble to win the mini-challenge in hopes of getting a leg up on their compeitition for the main challenge!
Photographer Tyler Shields is known to be one of the craziest photographers in the world. Just few months ago we posted about how he fed a $100k purse to an alligator, all in the name of art. That seemed to be a bold move that can take years to recover from (financially). This week Tyler proved once again that money doesn't mean much to him and that he'll do anything for art, even if that means blowing up his own Rolls Royce Silver Shadow car he got just few months earlier. Check out the BTS video explaining the idea behind it, and of course the final slow-mo video.
Going back to that moment when Easter morning comes and my mother, the "Easter Bunny" at the time, had purchased two of every single X-Men character on the market for my older brother and I. Since then I have had an extreme passion for super heroes and all that comes with it, especially when in movies!
When my friend and filmmaker Marc Donahue of Permagrin Films told me about the idea behind his "GoPro Array", I was speechless. Place 20 GoPro Cameras side by side in a slightly curved custom holder, set them all to film in super slow motion, and then use the footage to create a "bullet-time" look at break dancers performing some super cool moves. The results are a unique and exciting look at one of America's coolest dance forms.
If you have not heard of BMW's nimble new i8 hybrid supercar, you should look it up now. Even if you aren't into cars, you do have to take a moment to marvel at not only its beautifully-futurisitc aesthetics, but it's equally as impressive performance technology. BMW hired director Gus Van Sant to create a trio of gorgeous ads to help introduce the car to the world. Watch the behind the scenes video above and see the final three videos below.
We’ve all seen heat waves rising up from the asphalt of a hot road in the summertime. But did you know that this same effect happens across all types of open area environments? In this informational video, nature and wildlife photographer Steve Perry demonstrates what long lens shooters need to look out for in order to preserve sharpness in their images.
Making a timelapse stand out is getting more and more difficult. I love that making them has become much easier and more approachable, but with hundreds being produced every day it can be hard to filter through to find the really great ones. This "layer timelapse" by Julian Tryba goes in a totally different direction than most lapses, ignoring the general perception of time.
Have you ever seen a photo of a unique place, but could never find exactly where it was located? For years, Justin Majeczky was aware of the existence of the Fly Geyser, but only after research and some smooth talking was he able to locate and document this unique phenomena.
Toby Harriman, founder of the creative collective Planet Unicorn and good friend of mine, just finished a beautiful aerial video featuring my hometown, San Francisco. In just two, one hour flights, Toby was able to masterfully capture the beautiful pink sunrise and signature San Francisco fog out the door of a helicopter. It reminds me how much I love this city.
Sure it's easy to put off watching a video that isn't under five minutes long. Sometimes you just have to make an exception, and the weekend is the perfect time to do it. In this video, David Brommer talks about not only the rules of composition, but the theory behind the rules we all know and how they relate to our way of seeing. He takes us through the history of painting (which is the best possible thing to study for composition) and how it relates to every single image we take.
Trials cyclist Danny Macaskill released a new video featuring a ride through unthinkable terrain in his homeland of Scotland. The daring exploit took place on the Cuillin Ridge in the Isle of Skye, where the spectacular scenery alone is worth the price of admission. The beauty of the Scottish landscape, mixed with the technical and dangerous mountain bike riding is absolutely thrilling to watch. The pinnacle shot, where Danny climbs up a ridge with bike in tow, closes the film and solidifies Danny as a death defying badass. We reached out to the director of the film, Stu Thomson, to ask a few questions about the making of this project.
In a recent article by Jaron Schneider about the Metabones Speedbooster on a Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera, several readers had questions about the model designed for the GH4, whether this one would work with it or not, and other comments. I bought one of these a week ago and wrote this article to tell you what works, and what doesn’t.
In a world filled with videos and tutorials featuring every yahoo with a camera telling us how-to setup, pose, light, and edit, it's hard to know what's just noise and what's worthy of our time. Fortunately, there's experienced instructors like Karl Taylor and Urs Recher who have teamed up to share their techniques in the latest How-To series from Broncolor.
Jeremy Cowart is obviously an incredibly talented photographer. But it's not his skill as a photographer, he says, that gets him the best work - it's his story. In this video from CreativeLive, Jeremy discusses a meeting with an art director at a huge ad agency. Going through his portfolio, the AD commented that his shots were nice, the retouching was good, yadda, yadda - no epic reactions one way or the other. It wasn't until Jeremy began to show and talk about his personal work that the AD completely changed his attitude.
It’s one of those iconic images that makes your camping trip look like an epic experience of a lifetime. In this segment of AdoramaTV’s “Getting the Shot,” Corey Rich takes the mystery out of how to capture your own glowing tent photo. From gear to technique, this video goes over all the basics to have you prepared for your next adventure.
Eric Cheng of DJI recently took his Phantom 2 to Iceland, hoping to get close enough to fly over the erupting Bardabunga volcano. The footage he brought back is spectacular.