How Camp 4 Collective Creates Cinematic Aerial Video With The Cineflex

Camp 4 Collective is an adventure film production group with clients like RedBull, The North Face, and National Geographic, so they are often found at the edge of the world, camera equipment in tow. Recently, some of the Camp 4 team traveled to Alaska to shoot some aerial footage. In this video, Anson Fogel explains the Cineflex helicopter camera system, and in the full post he and Tim Kemple answer my questions about its controls, production costs, and what it's like to play in helicopters.

Multiple Ways To Use A Reflector To Light Your Subject

A few weeks ago we posted a video by SLR Lounge that we called "The New iPhone Fashion Shoot." In that video a reflector was used to light a model and the results were fantastic. In the video below Pye takes us through a few of the ways that you can use a reflector to get similar results.
Here Come The Halloween Zombies - Photoshoot With Lighting Diagram

I love zombies and wanted to commemorate them in a holiday e-card I created to send to my client mailing list. I did this a couple of years back, but never really promoted on other sites until now. I called on some friends for props, extras, zombie makeup, and styling. My total expense was probably around $150-200 to pay for zombie clothing and rent a big industrial fog machine. I used 4 lights, including one behind the fog machine to create that great glow.

Five Tips to Start Making Time-Lapses

One of the greatest ways to show the passage of time is with a time-lapse. A time-lapse is essentially a series of still images taken of a single subject over any given period of time (minutes, to hours, to even days), and then played back quickly to form a video. The usage of stills is really important. A common misconception is that a time-lapse is just sped-up video. While you could do this, there are issues with battery life, overheating, and storage space. With stills, you have the advantage of raw recording, better battery life, and far more storage space.

3 Photography Business Tips I Learned Consulting $1,000,000 Companies

As photographers, we just want to photograph. But if you want to make a living in the world of photography, you need to know how to work the business side of things as well. This often means dealing with clients, understanding marketing concepts, and learning how to create and optimize websites.

This Photographer Lit up a Photoshoot with 18 Pounds of Fireworks

When Nashville-based photographer Jake Harsh was tasked with coming up with an original photoshoot where he could flex his artistic freedoms, things turned slightly dangerous. His brave subjects for this shoot, the electro-pop band Hand of Hearts, would stand in a room with 18 pounds of fireworks being ignited and what transpired after that would be unpredictable. Here’s a behind-the-scenes video of what happened and the resulting images.

Why Do We Still Love Black and White Photography?

At first, black and white photography was a necessity due to limitations with technology, but even now in our digital age, we still enjoy creating without color. So, what really gives the relevancy, intrigue, and desire for black and white photographs?

Adding Stars to Your Nighttime Photography

Taking photos at night can be an incredibly creative and rewarding experience. Unfortunately, increasing levels of light pollution in cities and urban areas makes it virtually impossible to include any detail in your sky which is often a major aspect of your composition. Adding stars is an easy and effective answer to this problem. With simple masking and blending techniques you can add interest to your background and give the impression of being in a secluded, faraway place. The most common error is overdoing it by adding too many stars or trying to integrate them into a scene that simply does not look natural. Here are two quick techniques which aim to avoid these pitfalls.

Alien Skin Reveals Huge Upgrade to Upcoming Exposure X3

Alien Skin, creator of the award-winning photo editing software Exposure, recently announced the upcoming release of the newest version of its popular product, Exposure X3. If you are unfamiliar with Exposure, it is a non-destructive raw photo editor designed to be an all-in-one software for editing and organizing your photos. It is probably most well known for the hundreds of presets included in the software that can emulate analog film, as well as dozens of other modern styles.

Fstoppers Reviews the Peak Design Field Pouch

Here at Fstoppers, we will get you information on the newest announcements, the most exciting technological developments, the most jaw-dropping photo shoots. But you're not just on this site for that. You also come here for a host of perspectives on anything that has to do anything with the art of photography and things related. You come here for news, gear, pictures, and stories about how photos are made. And you come here for the little things. We do care about the little things. Here's a review of a little thing, The Peak Design Field Pouch.

[Gear] The Pursuit Camera Car

So this is really just a promo that Mercedes put out, but it has a lot of information on how filmmakers shoot those insane camera moves you see in car ads. The rig on top of that Mercedes is incredible, and considering they are doing these crazy moves while the camera is going fairly fast, it really makes you appreciate the car ads you see on TV.

Hard vs Soft Light: Which Is Right For You?

Is there a perfect light for your food photography? In past posts, I have mainly talked about using large lighting modifiers to create a soft light over my subject. I tend to choose softer light, because I think it looks better on my food. Is this the only lighting option? No. Like fashion photography, there are many different types of lighting that you can use on a subject. To get a better understanding of what will fit your style, let's take a closer look at the characteristics of hard and soft light and how they affect your food shot.

Hasselblad Announces Three New "Stellar" Models Priced at $3,175

Well, I guess Hasselblad is continuing on their path of form-over-function despite critics and general malaise from actual photographers the world over, adding more to their previously announced Stellar line. "The latest Stellar models offer photographers the choice of three new camera body colurs: black, white and orange - and ship with bespoke camera cases in black or white leather with signature stitching and shoulder and wrist straps."

Adobe Sneaks: These Videos Show the Most Exciting Advancements You'll See All Month

Adobe Sneaks is the software company's behind-the-scenes sneak peek into ongoing projects that could eventually — if we're lucky — find their way into one or more products. This year at MAX, Adobe previewed a number of tools that should excite virtual-reality editors, desktop designers, and audio editors working on long-form speech formats.

Why You Should Be Offering Photoshoot Mini-Sessions

The idea of discounting our work is something most of us don’t even want to consider. We’ve spent a ton of time honing our skills and have more invested into our work than the consumer can possibly understand. That’s why mini-sessions are perfect — if you have the time.

Magnum Continued to Sell Photographs of Vulnerable Children, Including Sexually Explicit Images

Three months after announcing an inquiry into its archive, it emerged that Magnum Photos was still selling sexually explicit images of what appear to be children through third-party websites. An image of a half-naked child playing with their genitals was also available for purchase. Further images described as “juvenile prostitutes” were still for sale on the Magnum website itself until they were removed on Friday.

Laowa Launches 'Weird and Genius' 24mm f/14 2x Macro Probe Lens

Calling it the “weirdest and most genius macro lens ever,” lens manufacturer Venus Optics (Laowa) has launched a 24mm macro lens. Not only is it a macro lens, the probe design offers a very different set of possibilities compared to standard macro lenses.

Watch Buzz Feed Attempt to Explain Film Photography to Today's Kids

Last month Buzzfeed took the time to sit the youth of today down and teach them what photography meant when film was involved. Being an adolescent of the 80's my favorite part of this video was a brief Gizmo appearance but you gotta question the wisdom of using a character from 1984 as a comparison, for a group who apperently knows nothing about film. Wait. Is there actually a group who don't know what film photography is? I'm getting old.

Disney Develops an Automatic Editing Tool For Footage From Multiple Cameras

Smartphones have undeniably taken over our lives in the past few years and most of us carry one everywhere we go. One of the most-used features on a modern phone is the camera, and it's being used all the time. In many cases, more than one person is taking photos or videos of what is going on and each person gets different angles and maybe a different part of the action. There has not been an easy way to edit it all together, but Disney Research announced the development of an automatic editing tool that takes the different videos from a scene and intelligently combines them.

How I Photographed and Edited This Motorcycle Shot Inside an Arcade

As a professional wedding photographer, I spend a lot of time with people in front of my camera. But because I grew up racing motocross and driving fast cars, I have always been intrigued by automotive photography. So when I was asked by a friend of mine if I wanted to help shoot a 80s-styled cafe racer motorcycle, I jumped at the opportunity. Add to this that the shoot was going to be inside of an arcade filled with old-school machines, and this shoot sounded like one amazing time.

A YouTuber's Guide to Editing Software

One thing that we love about the YouTube community is that people always show up to help the beginners. There are countless threads from YouTube newcomers who are unsure of how to start out, but plenty of creators with more experience are willing to lend a hand.

PhotoRec: The Free Photo and Digital Asset Recovery App

If you're a Mac user, stop what you're doing and download this. I'm serious. Digital asset management (DAM) isn't everyone's favorite topic but it's an incredibly important part of any professional's workflow. But when things go south, you need to have a recovery plan — that's where PhotoRec, the free text-based app by CG Security, comes in.

Self-Isolation Series, Part One: Product Photography

Many countries around the world are now experiencing social distancing and practicing self-isolation, me (in the U.K) included. So I’m pledging to run a series of photography tutorials for those of us affected by these measures.

The Wednesday Rundown 10.24.12

Howdy everyone and welcome to the Wednesday Rundown. This week we have a Apple accessory line shoot, shot by photographer Taylor Tupy. Taylor uses a cheap DIY trick to give his photos a little extra look for this product shoot. If you have a great and informative video you want to see in the Wednesday Rundown please shoot me an email jerrit@fstoppers.com .

Nikon Unveils World's Lightest 300mm FX Lens

Nikon has announced their new 300mm f/4 telephoto FX lens. With an aperture of f/4 at its widest and up to a 4.5-stop gain via Vibration Reduction (VR), this new edition to Nikon’s 300mm prime series is up to 30 percent shorter and 1.5 pounds lighter than its predecessor. At 147.5 millimeters long and 755 grams, Nikon claims that this is the world’s lightest 300mm full-frame lens.