Using Aerial Video To Re-Create A Classic Videogame Look

If you've played a few shooter video games in the last two decades, chances are you've seen at least one with a point of view that is looking from the top-down. The team over at Corridor Digital wanted to recreate this style in a video short (which also meant doing it all in a single take!) so they partnered with DJI to make it happen. This video takes you behind the scenes on their shoot, but check the full post for the final video and a second BTS piece.

Fujifilm and Elia Locardi Team up in New Webseries

Elia Locardi, famous for taking beautiful landscapes and cityscapes, and refusing to go skydiving, has recently teamed up with Fujifilm, Smugmug, and Flickr to create "Moments in Time", a new webseries following Elia around the world on his photographic journey.

New Rumors on Canon T4i Touchscreen Info and Specs

A boatload of new unconfirmed information has been leaked through Canon Rumors regarding the new Canon T4i/650D slated for release this year. Many of you expressed concern over how you thought the touchscreen would perform, and now we are beginning to see all the pieces fall together. Select focus points, zoom and crop, and select your settings from the Q menu that, honestly, was yearning for touch since its introduction.

Have the Google Pixel 5 Specs Been Leaked?

Building on the success of the Google Pixel 4, the new Pixel 5 is rumored to launch on September 30 likely along with the Pixel 4a 5G, and now some new specs look to have been leaked ahead of the launch,

Chopper With 5DM2 Automatically Follows Wakeboarder With "FollowMe" Transmitter

If you like gadgets as much as me then you will probably find this really interesting, and probably a little scary as well. The guys over at Mikrokopter put a "FollowMe" transmitter on a wakeboarder's head and the chopper automatically follows and films him around the lake. The chopper was at a very high (and safe) altitude but I can see these getting a lot closer as the technology improves. The concept is really remarkable but I'm not sure I want a flying machine with 6 blades following something attached to my head.
No Photography Allowed: Has Photography Ever Ruined Your Experience?

As photographers we often see the world through our cameras — literally. If we aren't holding a camera, we're often planning or imagining a photo. The drive to compose and take photos shapes the way we interact with the world. Has this compulsion ever ruined an experience for you?

Profiting Multiple Ways with Adobe Stock Images

I am always on the hunt for new stock images to incorporate into my photography and find that stock enhances my photography business in several ways. Stock provides me with the ability to incorporate different locations and textures into my images that I am not able to easily shoot. As a result, I have not only seen improvements in my own work, I have also gained an eye for spotting opportunities to take extra images to sell.


The Wednesday Rundown 4.4.12

Howdy and welcome to the Wednesday Rundown. This week we have a great group of videos. We have a BTS video on shooting hockey legend Trevor Linden and an amazing Vanity Fair shoot done on a whim in the middle of a NYC street. Check out the final product on both these shoots and see if you can learn something from these great photographers. If you have a video that you think we might like to post, please click on "submit content" above.

NASA’s Global Selfie: A 3.2 Gigapixel Image of Earth

In celebration of Earth Day, NASA asked people, “Where are you on Earth Right Now?” and had them respond through social media outlets: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+ and Flickr with a photo tagged "#globalselfie". One-hundred-thirteen countries/regions and thousands of photo submissions (approximately 50,000), gave NASA all that it needed to create a “Global Selfie”. Each photo acts as a pixel in a giant, zoomable 3.2 gigapixel mosaic, depicting our planet as it was on Earth Day.

The Phantom Flex: High Speed Video at 2,564 FPS

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 enjoy watching and learning about high speed videography, check out Tom's website or check out the other Fstoppers Tom Guilmette posts we have featured.

Locked in a Vegas Hotel Room with a Phantom Flex from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.

Rethinking Photo Composition: What Are You Saying?

We spend years at school learning to read and write text: the meanings of words, what happens when you put them together, how to make yourself more easily understood, methods for convincing others of your point of view, etc. But for many of us, images and visual language are left for us to work out for ourselves. If a picture is worth a thousand words, why do we neglect visual language so much?

Fstoppers Reviews the Godox ML60 Handheld LED Light

The Godox ML60 light gives you a whole lot of features that can really improve your lighting when you’re a run and gun type of shooter, or want constant light on location. I mean, it can run on a battery, and has a handle.

[Contest] Enter To Win A Nikon D3x Camera

Hey guys! Creative Motion Design is in their final month of the Nikon D3x Camera giveaway which means you've still got a chance to enter and win big! All you have to do is log onto Creative Motion Design's Facebook page and enter an image that correlates with this month's theme, "water". If you win March's theme, you'll automatically be entered into the final contest to win a Nikon D3x.

Google and VFX Studio The Mill Release 360-Degree Film 'HELP' for Mobile

The era of 360-degree filmmaking is upon us. Google, in collaboration with The Mill and production company Bullitt, has released the 360-degree short film "HELP" for free on Google's mobile storytelling platform Spotlight Stories. The film is full of explosions, aliens, and action all within a beautiful 360-degree world.

Could Lost Photo Opportunities Actually Be Good For You?

I took a two-week trip to Hawaii last month with the intentions of not bringing along a bunch of camera gear. That was a fine thought in and of itself, but now I’m wondering if I could have mustered the courage to take an extended trip to a picturesque location without bringing a real camera at all?

Fstoppers Reviews the Medium Format of Battery Powered Flashes: The Broncolor Move L

Broncolor is often thought as one the most exclusive flash manufacturers. Its studio units are renowned to be built like tanks and to be remarkably consistent in terms of color and exposure. The Move L is no exception even though it’s meant to be used outdoors. Solid, well designed, and powerful, it will match any sport and action photographer’s needs, even more so now that it can sync up to 1/8,000s with compatible cameras, thanks to HS.

Pye Jirsa VS Lee Morris Round 2: Vote now!

Yep you read that right! After Pye Jirsa completely destroyed Lee Morris in our last Puerto Rican Photo Challenge, Lee is back for revenge. We need your help deciding the winner so please vote in the full article.

Has Image Stabilization Become a Necessity Today?

Every new camera incorporates some form of stabilization system. While much of photography doesn’t necessarily require image stabilization, on some occasions, it may have become a necessity, especially with today's high-resolution cameras.

SnipBack for iOS and Android Gives You a Second Chance at Photos

How often is it that you miss that great selfie expression, kid photo, or sports play because you didn't have your camera running at the right time? It happens to me a lot, but a new app for iOS and very soon coming to Android called SnipBack has some good ideas to fix this issue, and it makes me think that our pro gear could learn a few lessons here.

Jason-Lau-Androgyny-boxer-fstoppers

There are many ways we can find new inspirations and ideas. From researching new work, doing workshops or experimenting with new techniques, most of us have these regular go to methods of getting ourselves out of a photographic funk. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi proposes that thinking more like the opposite gender can expand our creativity and essentially give us more scope in the ways we express ourselves in our work.

Does Being Too Late Ruin Your Photo Day?

As landscape photographers, we are used to leaving our warm bed in the early morning, being on location, and also having a composition before the sun starts to rise. But what if we arrive after the sun has come up? Is there still a way to go home with strong photographs?

How Google Creates Insanely Detailed 3D Worlds from Photographs

Ever wonder how Google manages to render everything from bushes and boulders to bridge trusses and skyscrapers in amazing three-dimensional detail? In this article, we’ll find out how. It involves a high-tech lawnmower, a lot of computing power, and thousands of terabytes of data.

The Wednesday Rundown 2.1.12

Howdy and welcome to the Wednesday Rundown. Another week of videos created for our yearly contest and great videos to learn from keep popping up. Glenn shows us a very detailed behind the scenes shoot of a recent magazine shoot. See his light setup to get these photos. If you have a video that you think we might like to post, please click on "submit content" above.
Thinking of Doing Some Front Porch Photoshoots? Try This Instead

Photographing people on their porches and front doorsteps has proven a controversial topic, raising money for charity and keeping families entertained while creating questions about whether such practices qualify as “essential.” By contrast, one photographer undertook a different doorstep photoshoot that feels much more viable as a lockdown-inspired project.

The Ultimate Backup: Insurance for Photographers

The Oxford English Dictionary defines accident as “an unpleasant event that happens unexpectedly and causes injury or damage.” Accidents happen. It doesn’t matter how careful you are or how much common sense you have. That’s why they’re called accidents.

A Technical Explanation On How Film And Digital Films Differ

One of our trusted Fstoppers readers sent us this video, and I found it really interesting. Digital cinema specialist Rob Hummel recently gave a lecture at Cine Gear Expo 2011. In his lecture he described exactly what is going on when both film and digital mediums capture light to form an image. The graphics in his presentation help explain why old fashion film can still produce more aesthetically pleasing images than digital. He also describes a little known secret about how gamma rays present at high altitudes can actually destroy camera sensor's pixels. I've personally flown with a bunch of cameras dozens of times with no pixel problems but maybe my cameras are able to mask the destroyed pixels through software? Either way, the exciting news I took from this video is that digital sensors still have a lot of potential gains that can make our images even better in years to come.