How BTS Videos Should Be Made | Martin Schoeller

Martin Schoeller is one of my all time favorite portrait photographers. In this behind the scenes video we go on a journey with Martin in one of his campaigns for one of my favorite Italian coffees, Lavazza. I'll go so far as to say this is my favorite BTS video of the last six months. Below is another BTS video from Lavazza and a link to more.

Refine Your Images Contrast With This Simple Capture One Pro Tool

Capture One offers quite a few tools to adjust your raw files. It’s best known for its color editing capabilities, but luminosity adjustments are also very well designed. One of them was introduced last year with Capture One Pro 9, and it’s called the Luma Curve. It’s a powerful feature to adjust contrast manually while avoiding any color shift. Let’s see how it works and how it compares to an RGB curve.

Our DJI Action 2 Review: Good but Not Great

For the last week, I've been playing with the new DJI's completely reimagined modular action camera system, the Action 2. Aspects of this new system are ingenious, but it is far from perfect.

[Gear] Canon Releases 24-70mm f2.8 L II, New Wide Angle Primes

After many years of speculation and countless false rumors, Canon has released a replacement for the venerable 24-70mm 2.8 L, along with a few new wide-angle primes: the 24mm f2.8 IS and the 24mm f2.8 IS. Get all the specs and my thoughts in the full post.
Citizen Journalism Ethics: Bystander Who Filmed Walter Scott Shooting Seeks Payout

A gut-wrenching mobile video clip depicting South Carolina police officer Michael Slager killing Walter Scott went viral earlier this month. The bystander behind the footage, Feidin Santana, has partnered with celebrity publicity agency Markson Sparks to license the footage, causing a stir among those who claim he's profiting from a death.

Create Quick and Easy Backups While on the Go or Tethering

Backing up files is always easiest at home or at the office, but it's when we're on the go that data is the most vulnerable. Whether it's image or video files, documents or other projects you are working on, or even photographing tethered to a computer, backing up data can often be an afterthought. Here's a quick and easy strategy to help you maintain backups of your files on a notebook computer while you're at work or on the go.

Six Steps to Sharper Selfies

So, you want to photograph yourself but don’t have anyone to stand in to get your focus set? No problem, all you need is a tripod and a coin for sharp selfies, every time.

BTS Look At The Closing Steadicam Shot in "Hugo"

In case you missed "Hugo", the Oscar winning film from last year, the last cut of the movie is about 2 minutes long, and is seemingly a single steadicam shot. In this behind the scenes video, we see the point of view from a small wide angle camera mounted on top of the steadicam itself, and you can see how something like this is pulled off. You can even hear Larry McConkey take a sigh of relief when he finishes the move. Hit the jump for the scene from the movie.

Fstoppers Reviews Moment Mobile Lenses

Pictured above are the two lenses currently available from Moment that I stumbled across while browsing Kickstarter and immediately knew I had to have. The 60mm Tele and 18mm Wide are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, while maintaining the sturdiness and incredible optics of products ten times their size. The following are my first impressions after they landed on my porch.

It's Work, Not Talent That Makes Photographs

I would hazard a guess that most working photographers will tell you that talent has very little to do with a successful photograph. Somewhere along the way, you've probably heard the words “Genius is one per cent talent and ninety-nine per cent hard work.” It's that hard work that brings about good photography. Let's explore the roles that effort and perseverance play in our photography today.

Picktorial 3 Makes Raw Editing Fast and Easy With a Minimalist Workflow

While most photographers and retouchers use Capture One and Lightroom, the raw processing software market is actually much larger than just two options. One incredibly appealing alternative to the big names is Picktorial. Its third version is being released today, and it comes with quite a few exciting features and is available at a very reasonable price. I’d almost be tempted to say that it’s to Lightroom what Affinity Photo is to Photoshop.

Blackmagic Has a New 4K Production Camera

In addition to announcing their freakishly tiny cinema camera, Blackmagic Design today announced Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, a new high resolution 4K digital film camera with an innovative large Super 35 size sensor with professional global shutter, combined with precision EF mount optics and high quality Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) file recording for $3,995.

Does Sex Sell in 2022?

Recently, Lewis Capaldi “took his clothes off and traumatized the general public all in the name of shameless self-promotion.” The conclusion was that sex sells. What does this mean for photographers who work in the advertising world? What does this say about the body of work you should have? Read on to find out.

Sony Announces a Smartphone That Shoots 20.7MP Photos and 4K Video

Sony seems to be joining in on the Smartphone camera revolution as they introduced the new Xperia Z2 today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. With a whopping 20.7MP for photo and 4k resolution for video, the little thing seems to pack a punch. Even though there is usually quite the uproar of smartphone hate, this new device is kind of interesting.

Behind the Scenes of Michael Herb's Test With Westcott's Zeppelin: "Desert Warriors"

Las Vegas based commercial photographer Michael Herb recently got his hands on Westcott's 59 inch Zeppelin to test out on location in the Nevada desert. The photoshoot featured three models in an apocalyptic theme at a salt lake bed. In the behind the scenes video he shows just how difficult it can be to put together the Zeppelin on the separately purchased speedring. Even with the problems at set-up Michael still quite enjoyed shooting with the Zeppelin and plans to use it in the future.

Gran Canaria Was so Much Better for Landscape Photography Than I Expected

Gran Canaria is known for parties, booze, and family resort vacations, but this island in the Canary Islands archipelago has some amazing nature worth visiting for any landscape and travel photographer. Not to mention, it is easier to combine this with a family vacation than Iceland, The Faroes, or Norway is.

Von Wong's Incredible Underwater Photo Shoot Part II: How He Did It

Last month we shared a really impressive project of an underwater shoot in Bali done by my friend and conceptual photographer Benjamin Von Wong. He stated then that was only part one and that part two would be coming soon. Well, soon is here and he's sharing more technical aspects of how he made the project come to life.

The Professional Way to Create a Video Time-lapse

There are a ton of different easy ways to create a video time-lapse. Today, I will teach you the hardest and most time-consuming method that professionals are currently using to get the best results possible.

[Deals] Major Photography Rebates Are Coming To An End

Everyone knows that Rebates come and go. Right now however many companies have substantial rebates on some of their top gear. The bad news is apparently a lot of these rebates are coming to an end on April 1st (no joke here). We recently got a phone call from the guys at BH Photo, and I've combined all the major deals into one post. If you are in need of some new lenses, cameras, or computer storage, be sure to check out the full post.

Edit Your Images Faster With Lightroom's AI Masks

Adobe's Lightroom masking feature introduced just under a year ago revolutionized the workflow for many photographers by automating the tedious task of creating individual masks for specific parts of an image. This AI masking feature allows photographers to easily separate the foreground from the background, easily break down the parts of a portrait, and apply various edits to each individual part.

Large Format Film for Corporate Brochure

I teamed up with Luquire George Andrews, an ad agency in Charlotte, NC, to create four images for a corporate brochure for Lincoln Harris, a commercial real estate company with properties in 26 states. LGA wanted to feature b/w photographs of executives in Lincoln Harris' properties.

How To Upgrade Your New iMac's RAM to 32 GB

In this episode of Hardware from PRO EDU, I take you through the super simple steps of upgrading the RAM in your 2013 or later iMac using third party RAM. Upgrading your RAM on your own is easy and can save you $300 in the process as opposed to doing it through Apple at the time of your purchase. Below is second video on how to change the RAM in your 2011 version iMac.

Fstoppers Reviews Masters of Photography: Joel Meyerowitz

The "Masters of Photography" courses are a collection of online lessons provided by, as the name implies, some of the top photographers around today. I tried their Joel Meyerowitz course to see what I could learn about street photography from one of the best in the game.