Videography

A relatively new 'sky sport' out there makes use of a wing suit. Want one yourself? You'll first have to log at least 200 sky-diving jumps just to buy one. Here, via Gizmodo, Jeb Corliss jumps on a beautiful day, but cuts it just a little too close... Luckily, for those that have the stomach for it, we have a first-person view thanks to a helmet-mounted GoPro.

This has to be one of the most awesome opportunities that could be granted to a photographer. Last fall, Ed Darack was asked to shoot a cover for The Smithsonian's Air & Space Magazine, and decided to show the world how he did it.

JESS3 is a creative agency that specializes in data visualization that is based out of Washington DC. They do some pretty awesome stop animation videos and here I have their latest Gmail ad, including a BTS look at how they did what they do so well. Be sure to check JESS3's site for more of their projects and quirky videos. Enjoy!

BTS Video

"Public Domaine" was the name of a skateboarding themed art exhibition that took place at The Gaîté Art Museum in Paris last summer. To celebrate their 25th Anniversary, shoemaker Etnies commissioned award-winning skateboard filmmaker Mike Manzoori to create a unique piece of video art for the exhibit.

Greetings Comrads, I hope you've brushed up on your Russian because today we take a little journey via the world wide web to motherland Russia. We'll be watching a BTS video from PP Productions as they shoot three 30-second TV spots for Elitech Tools. It's a pretty big production that goes into the making of spots like these, especially when your doing 3 in one day.

Prior to the official launch of the Canon C300, Canon sent pre-production samples to a bunch of cinematographers for real-world testing. Mario Feil was one of those film makers and once he got the call from Canon confirming his sample was on the way, he only had one day for pre-production, 2 days to shoot, and 2 days of post-production to get his film done on time.

This fantastic mini-doc explores the history behind intellectual property, ideas, creativity, and the laws that have been put in to place to control them. If you enjoyed Noam Galai’s Stolen Scream doc, you’ll get a kick out of the commentary provided in this video by Kirby Ferguson. What do you think? Is creativity derivative?

As a music lover myself, the Grammys is one of the few awards shows I sit down to watch year after year. This something interesting happened I had never seen before; a commercial featuring Willie Nelson singing Coldplay's The Scientist actually outshined the live performance from Coldplay moments before. Twitter was ablaze with comments about "that cute Chipotle" commercial.

Here's a nice little BTS from Moxie Pictures showing what kind of work goes into the making of a 30-second spot for Samsonite. The purpose was to show off Samsonite's spinners, a series of travel luggage featuring 4 independent wheels that can swivel in any direction to maximize maneuverability.

In this series of videos aimed towards novices, Vincent Laforet and Blake Whitman from Vimeo Video School give you a breakdown on the commonly used lenses in video production and their specific characteristics.

It takes more than a nice a camera and an amazing landscape to make stunning images. Vimeo user Dana Saint traveled with his girlfriend for 5 weeks and didn’t just capture great footage, but he also wrote a wonderful voiceover to go with it. It starts a bit slow but picks up in the last few minutes, with shots going by so fast I had to re-watch it several times over again.

Even though most of you have shot models before, you may never come across one this thin. Ioana Spangenberg is a Romanian born model that has a 20 inch waist. Not only is she unnaturally thin, but she eats 3 meals a day and snacks in between.

By now most of you have probably seen OK Go's music video for "Needing/Getting", either during the Superbowl or from the millions of people who circulated it across the web right after. They just released the first in a series of behind the scenes videos that show how they made this awesome ad, check it out!

From their YouTube page description:

London Fashion Week is fast approaching and GQ magazine in the UK decided to put together a shoot sponsored by Mercedes-Benz. Instead of the "usual" shoot that includes models and luxury cars (think of every music video ever made), GQ chose to go in a slightly different direction.

Here is another video that shows the HDSLR capabilities of Nikon's recently announced D800. Although the plot may be quite corny, this short film shows some incredible examples of the D800's HD image quality. Need more D800 info? Then click here for everything else D800 on Fstoppers. Enjoy!

Curious to see what video looks like on the new Nikon D800? Photographer, Sandro Miller gives us a sneak peak in this short-film he created using only the Nikon D800. See how he tackles all the different lighting and motion challenges in the video below.

The Canon C300 can utilize a Gamma Curve called Canon Log to increase it’s usable dynamic range to a remarkable 12 stops (explained in detail here). Kevin Ritchie spent a day at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly just testing it out, and I think the results are a great real world example of the power of the C300/Log Gamma combination. Shots look clean at 6400 ISO!

In this behind the scenes video from Vimeo (say that five times fast!), we get a look at the wide variety of gear that is used to capture the action at Winter X. From freelance photographers and videographers to full-scale production efforts, this video has a little bit of everything.

Photographer Lewis Carlyle at Sun Gallery Photography has been exploring some amazing landscapes and sharing their beauty in his series American Photographic. This video explores Garden of the Gods in Colorado, including info on the challenges of shooting there, as well as a history lesson. What landscape destinations are on your list to visit?

We haven't posted a deal here recently because, well, there really hasn't been many deals since the holidays. One of our favorite crop lenses, the Sigma 17 -50 2.8 OS, is currently under $600 (retails $669) for the first time in a long while. Click the full post to hear why like like it so much.

Remember when Apple released the new version of its flagship video editing program Final Cut X? If not, you might want a refresher course with Conan O'brien. Basically the backlash was almost unanimous, and it made many of us thankful we chose Adobe's Premiere as our editing software of choice.

We’ve featured slow motion videos before, and this one is right up there with the best in terms of it’s motion rendering. Shooting with a $500 Canon 550D/T2i, Sacha Powell put together this powerful video using Twixtor to slow down some of his shots. It really goes to show that you don’t need the most expensive gear to make amazing visuals.

Whether its working on the latest screencast on how to remove your ex from that photo of last nights party, or creating a masterpiece for the world to see with a 1,000 picture composited image. Maybe it's even pixel pushing late nights to get that rounded corner perfect on a login tab for your clients website, we all are addicted to PHOTOSHOP.

There’s something to be said for painstakingly creating an entire scene by hand, out of nothing but paper. The thing you say is WOW! British production company Blink, with direction by Joseph Mann, worked with a team of paper artists to create elements for this Peugeot ad.

This viral video is not as boring as the title of it leads you to believe. With over 3 million views and growing, videographer Juuso Mettälärecords records two fishermen fishing under ice, upside down. This was shot in a beautiful lake in Saarijärvi in Vaala, Finland. The effect is visually impressive.

A lot of us are photographers because it puts food on the table, but the best of us never forget that we chose this profession because we love what we do. Darrel from BGS Studios is a fantasy and sci-fan photographer who makes the fantasy just a little closer to reality.

Photographer Tim Mantoani has been working on a 5-year project called “Behind Photographs”, where he has been capturing the artists that were responsible for some of the iconic images that have shaped our culture. In this video he talks about his process a bit more, and shows the rare 20x24 Polaroid camera he used.

How would you react if security officers told you that you were breaking the law by photographing a building from public property? One British photographer was faced with just that question, and here is how he reacted.

The filmmakers at Louder Than 11 shot this documentary in Yosemite Valley and have made it freely available for anyone. While most of this visually-rich film shows bouldering, it’s all about the stories of the climbers, including the filmmakers themselves, who talk about balancing their passions for climbing and filmmaking.

French outdoorsman Sebastien Montaz-Rosset likes to play in the mountains. He discovered a second passion while there, which was shooting photos and videos. Sebastien has made some amazing pieces, especially for not having any formal training. These videos show his unique approach to getting some creative shots for his adventure films.

When Dwayne's Photo, based in Parsons, Kansas, ceased processing Kodachrome film, it was the end of an era spanning 75 years. This ten minute mini-documentary by Xander Robin affords us a view into the history of Kodachrome, the process used to develop it, and insight from the employees of Dwayne's who worked with the film regularly.

The BBC has produced some of my favorite shows of all time. Their newest program called Earthflight captures amazing HD video from the skies as they put you literally on the wings of wild birds. I really can't imagine how they got these shots of eagles stalking unsuspecting flamingos but it's definitely not filmed on a Gopro Hero.

Why does a group of creative artists take their gear on a 230 mile, 25 day backpacking trip? The Muir Project is why. This team not only creates masterful images in remote places, but they're able to endure rough terrain and heavy packs. Hiking for 25 days with a 75lb pack is crazy, but the images are certainly worth it.

This day at Teahupoo- Aug 27th 2011 during the Billabong Pro waiting period is what many are calling the biggest and gnarliest Teahupoo ever ridden. Chris Bryan was fortunate enough to be there working for Billabong on a day that will go down in the history of big wave surfing.

Talk about a dream assignment for a photo journalist! Photographer Peter Hapak was asked to shoot all the major protests that took place worldwide in 2011 for Time magazine. This year Time chose to go with a group of people instead of an individual for it's prestigious "Time Person Of The Year" award.

A unique behind the scenes look with Joe McNally shooting a cover story, The Sense of Sight (A National Geographic Production - circa 1992). Talk about a blast from the past. It's great seeing his thought process and work ethic through the entire process. It shows that no matter how old this video is, there's still a lot to be learned from watching the master at work.

My buddy Jesse Lash just posted this video on his Facebook and I had to share it with everyone here on Fstoppers. Check out this hilarious video from film maker Jesse Rosten titled "Fotoshop by Adobé". Enjoy!

AND BEHIND THE SCENES BONUS!

31 megapixel? with a wireless interchangeable lens (yes, a wireless lens!)? and all of that inside a phone? at least that's what the guys from WVIL claim. Watch this video from CES 2011 (world's largest consumer technology tradeshow in Las Vegas) and tell us - is it real or is it fake?

The custom firmware developers over at Magic Lantern recently released a new version of their firmware for the Canon 550D, 60D, 500D and 50D which adds an HDR function to video recording. A release for the 5Dm2 is in the works, but only out for beta testing at the moment.

Product photography can get pretty tedious at times, but this shoot for the new Volvo FH 540 is on another level. Photographer Tim Bjorn shows us how to shoot a massive, shiny vehicle all while having an incredible workflow and paying much attention to detail.

We just received another great installment of video comentary with the incredible wedding videographers at Visual Masterpiece. Even if you hate weddings you will be able to appreciate the talent that goes into each of their videos. Below you can see the video with commentary first, then the finished product. Below both videos you will find links to all of the gear used to film this wedding.

The new Nikon D4 has some amazing capabilities on paper, and by now most people have seen the amazing video by Corey Rich. The video below demonstrates many of the D4's new video features, including using an iPhone or iPad to control the camera, clean HDMI out onto an external recorder, and selecting the crop modes.

I thought I'd start at Fstoppers posting about the newest add-on to the RED camera family. The Red Scarlet-X. If you don't know what RED is, take a second, stop reading, open a new tab on your browser, and visit WWW.RED.COM. For those of you that know about RED and their amazing cameras you're fully aware that they released the RED SCARLET-X this past November of 2011.

Justin de Reuck takes us with him on his job of taking photographs of fighter pilots in flight. Though there is no dialogue, the visual element speaks for itself. Photography is difficult enough as it is, but try doing it under excessive g-force and being upside down! This video makes me want to experience this once in my life. You can also check out the final shots from this video here.

The guys over at SLR Lounge created a killer new bag called the "ONE" bag that can be used to hold just about anything you need. A couple weeks back they created a kickstarter project to help raise money to produce the bag and they also created a BTSV that explained how they shot the kickstarter video.

Check out this video from Corridor Digital! I love graffiti and street art, and it's a great lesson to all of us on how mixing and matching media can make an addictive, fun video. The fake door shot reminds me of so many shows and cartoons I saw growing up. If you think about it, they mixed graffiti, acting, and stills for an awesome end product.

If you've watched an american football game, you've seen those cool shots from high up in the air. They come from a camera called the Skycam which was actually invented by the same people who designed the Steadicam used in movie productions. It's basically a remote camera controlled by four computer driven suspension cables.

Have you ever wondered what happens to your checked luggage after you check into your flight and leave it to be loaded on the conveyor belt? Well this video will show you just what happens to your prized belongings when they enter the hands of the airlines and the TSA. Six cameras were mounted in what looks like a pelican case so every angle could be documented.

The ISO sensitivity on today's flagship DSLR cameras is pretty amazing. They are so amazing in fact that for the first time, NASA is able to use Nikon D3 cameras to create night time timelapse videos as the earth sleeps. You've probably seen a bunch of these stunning videos here but now we are able to see who is responsible for capturing the raw images from orbit.