We have all seen stuff like this done before but it's usually some sort of huge production team. All of my friends seem to own at least 2 cameras each so I could easily pull this off if I could get 12 of them together :).
I remember seeing this video a long time ago and really enjoyed it. Maybe we thought it was not educational enough to post it but after watching it again I think it's worth sharing. For those of you who have not already seen this short story, the Dark Side Of The Lens is a poetic journey into mind of surf photographer Mickey Smith.
Have you ever seen those commercials where old footage appears to come back to life with added scenes or impossible revelations are revealed years after the initial filming?
Lately there has been a trend of showing super slow motion videos slowed beyond the native frames per second the original footage was shot on. We love the results of Twixter but nothing can compare to seeing the real thing especially when combined with an extreme sport.
We have been getting a lot of emails about this movie called The Bang Bang Club which is based on real accounts of photojournalists during the South Africa apartheid. I'm sure the movie is going to be a big Hollywood blockbuster type of flick but it should be an interesting watch once it hits the screens on April 22nd. Check out the trailer below and read up on their story here.
When I shoot video I like keeping things simple but after watching this tutorial, I feel like I may have to use this technique in my next production.
Instead of lighting a stationary background to perfection, why not take a few RAW images and create the perfect setting in Photoshop.
When I tell people that I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, everyone always asks me what it's like to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). I always try to explain how it looks by relating it to a laser show or smoke streams but I've never found a way to describe it to someone who hasn't seen it for themselves.
Yesterday I got an email from one of the Red Bull brand managers inviting me out to 2010 Illume Photo Exhibit here in Charleston, South Carolina. Illume is a traveling exhibit where dozens of images from the world's best action and extreme sports photographers are displayed on huge 6'x6' backlit panels.
If you've followed Fstoppers for any length of time then you know we are huge fans of Freddie Wong and his crazy hilarious Youtube Channel. What's so great about Freddie's work is that it's not big budget at all and he mixes his great sense of humor with relatively simple After Effects to create one of the most watched channels on the internet.
Now we don't usually post product review videos on Fstoppers, especially for gear that we don't currently use, but in this case I have to make an exception. Although I may never get my hands on a Red camera, I can dream can't I? Honestly this video isn't even really a review but by the end you will know that this camera is "pretty coo'". But hey, it still got me all excited.
If you were a film student and your professor gave you an assignment requiring you to show a series of different lighting setups, what would you do? John Note and his fellow classmates created a pretty funny video tutorial that shows 10 different lighting setups that you could use in both your films and your still images.
One of my favorite directors is Robert Rodriquez, and I was about to post another great BTS video showcasing his directing skills when I came across this video. Most of this short Nike commercial is shot on green screen but that doesn't mean that you as a photographer can't take away something from this big production.
While browsing Creative Motion Design's blog I came across an eye catching ad for Sony's Bravia series of HDTVs. The complete video directed by Superfad had elements of slow motion, CGI effects, graphic design, animation, and photography.
Okay I admit there is nothing really "behind the scenes" in this video but it is just too cool not to post. On Feb 24th, NASA's Discovery space shuttle launched for the final time and created a lot of media buzz.
Thank goodness for the GoPro HD or else this viral video wouldn't exist. If you are ever near a cliff, make sure yours is recording too.
Many of the posts we have seen here lately on Fstoppers have been heavily influenced by Freddy Wong and the amazing special effects videos on his YouTube channel. Now Freddy has tackled something very sacred to us all: something that might still keep some die hards up late in to the morning.
The workshop started like any other; 22 photographers and 20 models (with guns) pile into a room and begin shooting at each other. Then the guys at Blown Apart Studios have an idea. How about a bullet time video shot in 1 take with a Steadicam?
With absolutely no planning they yelled for everyone to freeze and they filmed the frozen scene for 2 minutes.
Wedding videography is no longer the boring handycam crap it was a few years ago. Visual Masterpiece takes us behind the scenes on their latest wedding video and gives us fantastic details into what it really takes to produce a video at this level. Shooting the footage itself is hard, but the editing is really what makes their videos shine.
One thing I love about having an Vimeo account is the great videos they recommend checking out. Back in Oct 2010, the first ever Vimeo Awards was held, and the winners for over 9 categories were announced. None of the winning videos are directly related to photography but the winning narrative Thrush by Gabriel Bisset-Smith was created entirely from still images.
I'm not a huge fan their style of movies but I can totally appreciate the talent that Pixar puts into each of their projects. If you are at all interested in 3D animation, movie production, or incredible offices, this video is for you.
Every now and then someone comes out with a product that really makes me say, "why didn't I think of that?" If you've ever been on the set of a serious movie production, you know that the camera operator or steadicam operator hardly ever focuses the lens himself.
Last year Zacuto started a great series called The Great Camera Shootout where they compared film cameras with digital cameras and DSLRs. We featured the first two episodes but somehow overlooked the final show in the series. Some of these tests seem a bit excessive to me but it's good to know that there is a discussion going on with the top professionals in the field.
We've featured Tom Guilmette several times on our website and each time he never ceases to amazing me. Today Tom released a fun video that he shot on the Phantom Flex while he was staying in Las Vegas. We've all seen super slow motion videos before but what really grabbed my attention was Tom's editing skills and his brilliant use of audio to help bring this video to life.
If you are not already subscribed to Freddie Wong's YouTube channel, you should go there right now and watch one of Youtube's most popular animators. Well this week he has created a really simple video called The Freeze Shootout and has provided a quick behind the scenes video on how he did it.
Just ran across this quick BTS of a commercial Lucas Zanotto made. Check out the 40 second BTS below and then view the amazing finished product below that.
A few months ago, Patryk Kizny with Dito Gear shared a really amazing video called The Chapel with Fstoppers. I was absolutely blown away by the footage but I knew our readers would want to know exactly how he created it. So I was able to persuade Patryk to create a second video that outlined exactly what he did to create the original HDR timelapse images featured in The Chapel.
Back in December of 2009, photographer turned film maker Vincent Laforet teamed up with Canon and Vimeo to start a social experiment in story telling. The idea was to create an short 3 or 4 minute video that would end on a single still frame.
If you haven't checked out Mark Wallace's Adorama TV channel over at youtube you really should. He does a great job creating informative and useful videos on all sorts of digital photography and videography topics.
One of the first early adapters of DSLR video for professional use was Shane Hurlbut of Terminator Salvation, The Guardian, The Last 3 Minutes fame. A few days ago he released a really well shot commercial for the US Marines and decided to make a short contest out of it. The video has over 27 frames shot on various Canon 5D, 7D, and 1D cameras as they do every cinema-graphic move possible.
Our main focus here at Fstoppers is informative BTS content but sometimes as creatives we have the technical skills and we need a little bit of inspiration to get us going. I just ran across Karl X Johan's music video for the song "flames" by director Gustav Johansson and I was so impressed I had to post it.
My brain couldn't comprehend how this was possible I so I told myself it was some how computer generated to keep my head from exploding. I then saw the end of the video, and I still don't quite believe it. All you need is a Segway, a Steadicam system, and an Olympic sprinter to pull focus.
Here is the full song:
Photographer and videographer Patryk Kizny from Poland has been making a lot of noise around the web with his HDR TimeLapse slider videos. I've had a chance to talk to Patryk about his setup and the electronic slider he is using made by DitoGear is quite impressive.
Sometimes you come across a video that just makes you feel good, and this is one of those videos. Brooklyn resident Todd Beiber was out cross country skiing in Prospect Park during the huge blizzard which brought in 2011. During his ski adventure he happened to spot a canister of undeveloped 35mm film.
Never once have I gone to a dealship and asked the saleman "so how strong is the frame of this car?" But that isn't the point is it? Lexus has been doing a great job of pushing their car commercials to the limit and then creating BTSVs of the process. The concept is pretty silly in my opinion, but the finished commercial is entertaining and beautiful to watch.
We have posted our fair share of the newly popular moving time-lapse videos but this one is different. Henry Jun Wah Lee created a beautiful video of some amazing landscapes in Yosemite but unlike the others we have posted, much of this video is played back in real time. If you are a fan of landscape photography, this will be right up your alley.
If you've ever played with an effects lens like the Lens Baby Composer then you are probably aware that you can actually create out of focus areas that have specific shapes by using specially designed apertures. Well Kaleb Wentzel-Fisher took this one step further and actually made his out of focus bokeh spell out words during a recent video shoot.
A few months ago I got a call from one of country star Jamey Johnson's managers asking me to take some photographs of him while he was passing through South Carolina. Since Jamey was born in my hometown of Enterprise Alabama I was pretty excited to work with the real deal country artist (not a pop country bone in this guy for sure). Long story short our schedules weren't able to work.
We have all seen some cool RC chopper videos with dangling DSLRs but AerialPan just took things up a notch. These guys strapped the new Panasonic AF100 to their heli and shot slomo in 1080p. I've always found that these small machines have a hard time keeping the camera steady enough for smooth shots but this looks pretty perfect to me.
Love it or find it overly offensive, rapper M.I.A.'s music video Born Free created a big stir on the internet last year when it was released. I personally thought it was a pretty good video considering what most artists release these days. Regardless of your view of the video, the cinematography is really awesome.
Today is our final day in NYC and we are currently in the studio shooting the next Fstoppers Original on Sam Yocum. I have just a second as the model gets makeup ready for the second look. I just stumbled upon this fantastic NYC timelapse by Josh Owens.
Usually our videos are directed towards advanced amateurs and professionals but if you are new to DSLR video, these videos will help out. Philip Bloom teamed up with Vimeo.com to create 8 great tutorials.
Intro To DSLR
Setting Up Your DSLR For Video
DSLR Lenses
Shooting Video With Your DSLR
DSLR Video Accessories
The holiday season is almost behind us and if you've spent any time watching college football tv then you've probably seen the new holiday Victoria's Secret commercials. The creative team at VS always makes some of the most high intensity commercials year in and year out.
One trend you will find happening in the advertising world is the merging of video and photography in a way that creates something no one has seen before. When it came time to start creating the next ad for Toshiba's new laptops and 3D TVs the team decided to create something completely original.
While many Canon and Nikon users are bickering about whether DSLR cameras should even have HD video capabilities, the company RED is completely changing the game between both photography and motion video. If you have even been slightly interested in video then you have probably heard about their famous RED One camera (District 9, The Social Network) that shot in 4k resolution.
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.
Every single time NASA launches a shuttle into space they film it from every possible angle. The purpose is mainly to give engineers documentation for later analysis but also to make sure everything is going as planned during the event itself.
What if you could shoot 1080p video for just $300 with a camera that was waterproof, basically indestructible, and so small and light it could be mounted anywhere? What if that camera could also shoot 60fps for amazing slow motion? This camera is the GoPro HD and we own 2 of them. Watch this video and then check out the previous post.
In February, Patrick and I flew to Colorado to film Dave Lehl shooting snowboarders. It was an eye opening experience but it was still relatively easy for us because we were simply documenting the event. Warren Miller has a different task; he is in charge of shooting full length ski videos on film and they have to look perfect.
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).
Most people know Vincent Laforet as the guy that got his hands on the 5DM2 before it was released to shoot that amazing promo video. Well he is a full time photographer but in the video below he got to be the DP for a Famous Footwear commercial. The final product is stunning.
BEHIND THE SCENES: Famous Footwear "Neighborhood" from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.