Videography

Growing up, I have been entranced by Jackie Chan films for their insane stunts, beautifully choreographed action sequences and hilarious physical comedy. His action scenes are both visually stunning and involving, playing underdog characters fighting against impossible odds. Chan’s dedication to his craft is unquestionable but perhaps he has not been given enough credit as an action director. In this video, filmmaker Tony Zhou breaks down the framing and editing techniques that Hong Kong directors use to create engaging fighting scenes, highlighting how many of these techniques are absent in Hollywood films of today. If you are interested in becoming a filmmaker, you need to watch this.

It seems you can’t go a day or two without seeing a new time-lapse film of the Northern Lights. And while beautiful, it has become incredibly difficult for photographers and filmmakers to raise the bar on this much captured phenomenon. That was until Ole C. Salomonsen threw his hat in the ring.

Patrick Rochon is a world-reknowned light painting photographer who recently produced a project with Infiniti, where he used their cars as paintbrushes themselves, in a manner of speaking. This video shows off what is possible when a skilled artist is given the reigns to create compelling images of vehicles, and has the support of a technical and creative team. And to top it all off, the really cool part is that everything was done in camera– there was nothing digitally added.

The current issue of Resource Magazine features YouTuber and filmmaker, Casey Neistat on the cover. In this video you get a look behind the scenes at the high-energy shoot featuring several different looks with the always-entertaining Neistat, a team of photographers, food stylists, and more. You're not going to want to miss this one.

Patrick and I have been in Iceland for 2 weeks with Elia Locardi filming our next tutorial on landscape/travel photography. We brought a truck-load of gear with us but our favorite piece has been our DJI phantom quadcopter. Here's a quick cut of our best drone footage in Iceland.

Keisuke Iwaya is an amateur Japanese astrophysicist. On July 20th, 2014, he sent a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera into the Earth’s stratosphere from Obihiro, Japan for the first time ever. The video captures a time-lapse view of the amazing voyage into the heavens as well as some behind-the-scenes views of the lift off and finding it after its free fall back down. If you've ever day dreamed of flying around the planet like Superman as a kid, this video will rekindle that fantastic flame from your youth! – check it out!

If you've been reading Fstoppers, then surely you have already seen your fair share of high-speed videos. With the iPhone 6 now shooting glorious 240fps HD footage, you will undoubtedly be seeing a whole lot more of it, too. High-speed photography isn't just for making explosions or slapping your friend in the face look awesome, it also has many scientific uses. One such development now underway is the ability to capture light in motion. Really.

As part of Universal’s 100th anniversary, a team of restoration experts took on the task of digitally remastering the classic film “Jaws.” The fully restored feature required intense labor from colorists, digital artists, audio engineers, preservation experts, and everyone in between. In this fascinating documentary, we get a look at all the various complex efforts taken in order to bring the ‘70s blockbuster in to the digital age.

Sainsbury's produced a stunning, almost four-minute video commercial for this holiday season. The cinematic spot recreates a historical World War I moment in which, for a day or two in several spots along the front lines, the war paused for Christmas. Both sides were able to meet, play games, talk (as much as they could) and forget, for just a few hours, about why they were there.

Capturing the launch of a space shuttle is undoubtedly a tremendous task to take on. Add to that the pressure of capturing the last space shuttle launch and you may have one of the most immense photographic endeavours of your career. In a very passionate and insightful video talk, Dan Winters takes us through the process of accomplishing said task. From his emotional relationship with capturing launches, to diagrams of his camera setups, Winters not only shows us how he captured his incredible photos, but conveys what doing so meant to him as a photographer as well as a human being.

Mark Seliger is, without a doubt, one of the great photographers of our generation. Seliger's prolific portraiture, out-of-this-world conceptual work, and his dedication to furthering photography has earned him a place in the ranks of master photographers such as W. Eugene Smith, Ralph Gibson, Richard Avedon, and Walker Evans. In this two-part video produced by Profoto, Seliger takes us behind the scenes of a recent shoot with rock icon, Lenny Kravitz.

In what surely must be one of the highest budget-to-film-length ratios in history, Airbus put five of its brand-new 300 million dollar A350 XWB planes together for a photoshoot. While most of the clips last only a few seconds, the amount of planning and preparation to pull something like this off is just staggering. With two chase planes, five hero planes, and the stakes as high as ever, watch how Airbus plans and pulls off this truly epic feat of filming and aviation.

The Panasonic Varicam 35 was announced earlier this year along with what feels like a million other 4K cameras claiming to better than one another. With this much competition it is hard to stay a head of the pack. RED has been attempting to do this for years with the resolution game, but recently there has been a shift towards low-light performance. This is where the Varicam 35 shines.

The recently released Samsung NX1 totes a promising list of specs: 4K video at 24fps recorded to the new H265 codec, 1080p at 60fps, 28MP stills, 205 phase detection AF points, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. However, none of that matters if what comes out of the camera looks like crap. Fortunately, Andrew Reid over at EOSHD got his hands on the new camera to put it through its paces and the NX1 turns out to be quite the performer. In his tests he compares footage from Samsung’s newest flagship body to other heavy-hitting video-shooters such as the Panasonic GH4 and Canon 5D Mark III, and the Samsung proved that it can hold its own with the big boys. Take a look at the footage and see for yourself.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a web series of invented words with the self-described mission to “fill all the holes left in the language and give them each a name.” If it sounds poetic, that’s because it is. The videos produced by author, designer and “video guy” John Koening are narrated with somber poetry that aims to “capture the aches, demons, vibes, joys and urges that roam the wilderness of the psychological interior.” One recent entry into The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is especially relevant to photographers and videographers. Vemödalen: The fear that everything has already been done.

Cinematographer Danny Cooke spent a week with his guide Yevgein, known as the Stalker, exploring Chernobyl and the city of Prypiat, Ukraine. He came back with a haunting and beautiful video which is essentially a time capsule of the city, frozen by a devastating nuclear disaster that occurred nearly 30 years ago. His aerial shots are especially quite stunning.

If you’re interested in getting big budget looks in your low budget indie film, then you should be very familiar with the Shanks FX channel on YouTube. If you’re not, you should get acquainted with it… like now! Joe Schenkenberg aka Joey Shanks is the man with the know-how when it comes to creating Hollywood effects out of simple household items. He teamed up with PBS Digital Studios to bring you quality behind-the-scenes content online and has recently partnered with Red Giant to explain how he created a black hole effect very similar looking to the one in the recent movie Interstellar – all captured in-camera.

Before you blindly answer this question, you should know that fast memory cards are not only for sport and wildlife photographers. Wedding, event, and portrait photographers all benefit from having cards with fast write speeds to capture that unexpected moment. Even landscape photographers who take far less images can benefit. Cards with fast read speeds can download large image files to computers much faster. Memory card speed is just as important to your camera as it is to you in order to perform your best on the job. With this in mind, the folks over at Photoshelter have documented a series of tests to help determine which card is the fastest for your camera.

Drone technology and camera technology are on converging courses. Photography and flight actually share a twin history of development dating to the turn of the twentieth century, with the Wright brothers’ first flight on the heels of the proliferation of Kodak’s “Brownie” box camera. But thanks largely to the smartphone revolution this convergence is now advancing at a remarkable rate, as core components for both drones and cameras become increasingly smaller and more powerful. It’s easier than ever—and with 3DR’s open copter platforms

Sony seems to be stealing the show this week, first with the US release of their new 16-35mm f4 and then the announcement of the world’s first stacked CMOS sensor, they just keep bringing the fire with today’s announcement of the a7II by Sony Japan. The a7II builds upon the already stunning a7 lineup with a plethora of upgrades, most notably its in-body 5-axis image stabilization, the first of its kind in a full frame body.

Accomplished photographer Richard Mosse has taken an incredibly unique approach to capture both the beauty and tragedy associated with conflict. In his most recent series, Infra, Mosse uses an antiquated film to bring new light to the humanitarian struggle faced by the Congolese people. Currently on display at the Portland Museum of Art as The Enclave, Mosse's newest exhibit features a six screen video instillation in addition to his dramatic Kodak Aerochrome imagery. Capturing the suffering of war between The Congolese National Army and rebel factions in poignant beauty, this exhibit of infrared film leaves an eerie perspective of the overwhelming harshness of war.

Smooth video is critical for a professional touch on any video shoot. Currently, there are a number of stabilization options from traditional and expensive Steadicam systems to simple weight-balanced gimbal-based rigs like the Steadicam Merlin. Arguably, none do the job more intuitively, however, than the BeeWorks 5 Camera Stabilization and BeeWorks' special sauce, the Kinetic Remote.

Sony has been on fire as of lately and has shown no signs of slowing down anytime soon. They have pushed the boundaries of a mirrorless camera system with their highly regarded a7, a7R, and a7S, and now seem to be pushing the limits of mobile photography. Yesterday Sony announced the Exmor RS, the world’s first stacked CMOS image sensor. Boasting an impressive 21 effective megapixels as well as 192 autofocus points and 4k video capture, Sony’s new sensor may be a gamechanger in the mobile photography market.

Being a native of the Pacific Northwest, photographer and filmmaker Ben Canales of Uncage The Soul was deeply concerned about the rapid melting of the Sandy Glacier Ice Cave. Wanting to create widespread awareness for this issue, Ben and his team spent over a year filming in the cave system. The resulting film is both visually beautiful as well as eye opening.

Known for their well-built camera backpacks that cater to photographers and videographers who take their kit on outdoor adventures, F-Stop Gear is unveiling the "Shinn," a backpack that has an impressive 80 liter capacity. Made specifically for cinematographers with large camera kits, it's been field tested on expeditions around the world, and is now ready to be made available for everyone else.

Visualization of sound frequencies using physical media is nothing new. We’ve seen it done by Martin Kilmas with his “Sonic Sculptures,” and we have seen videos in which a stream of water appears to be frozen in space (done by matching the sound frequency to the camera’s frame rate.) However, this is the first time I have seen so many of these tricks put together in such a high quality and artistically filmed video.

You may have the newest DSLR or the fastest lenses known to man, but without even a basic understanding of light, it is going to be an uphill battle to create the images you envision. While this tutorial is directed primarily toward animators, the ideas and concepts within it are applicable to anyone who wants a better understanding of some basic lighting fundamentals.

Our lives as photographers and videographers can be tough, but let's be honest - it's fun to be creative! We get to work with amazing gear and produce compelling visual content for the world to enjoy. However hard we work in our creative fields, I feel it's best to never really take ourselves too seriously. If we do, let's hope that one of our peers will put together a parody response like the one Adam Khamis created above to help check our egos and bring us back down to Earth.

Here's another adventure video from Devin Super Tramp involving people doing things that will make your hands sweat! How about swinging from the sky with a GoPro? Making use of the Hero 4 and its 4K resolution, these daredevils risk it all over the desert as they swing between two hot air balloons.

When I first attempted to retouch the photographs I took in 2006, I had no idea what I needed to do and how. Today there are thousands of video tutorials on the web on how to retouch, but nobody explains what it is that needs to be retouched to make a female face look more youthful, healthy and beautiful. It took me some time to figure out what the common problems that I needed to remove from my subjects' faces and bodies were, and what I had to alter to make them look more attractive.