The Wednesday Rundown 12.01.10

Howdy, and welcome to the Wednesday Rundown. For those who may be new to the site, my name is Jerrit, and I help Lee and Patrick go through all of the videos sent in to us by you, the readers. Not every video can make the front of FS but many videos do have a lot to offer. Instead of throwing all of these extra videos out, I compile my favorites (which are usually the most informative) each Wednesday so you can learn from them as well. If you have a video that you think we might like to post, please click on "submit content" above.
How These 3-Minute Short Social Documentary Films Are Changing Lives

The power of visual storytelling to create an impact in the real world is plentiful. Of late, there is this new format of social short films that are catching up and seeding change in its own ways. How strong is the impact that these short social documentary films make?

Sony World Photography Awards 2023 Winners and One Refused Prize

During a special gala ceremony in London, the World Photography Organization announced the winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2023. After the ceremony, German photographer Boris Eldagsen refused his prize, trying to discuss the role of AI in photography.

How to Retouch a Portrait From Start to Finish With ACDSee Ultimate 10

The traditional workflow to edit a portrait from start to finish usually requires a few different apps. But why complicate things and not just try and rely on one single software to get to the final result? Last month I reviewed ACDSee Ultimate 10 and thought it’d be a good idea to follow up with a tutorial showing how far you can go by using exclusively this photo editing solution to retouch a portrait. Discover all my steps and see how this alternative could perhaps suits your workflow better than your current one.

A to Z of Photography: Panoramic Photography and the Pillars of Creation

With this installment we revisit the whole sub-genre of panoramic photography. Literally(!) a wide subject, discover the history behind it, the software to create it, and the competitions to enter. Once you've scrambled your way through the panoramas, discover one of the most beautiful photos in the universe. Read on.

Two New RF Lenses from Canon: a Nifty Fifty and a 70-200mm f/4 L IS

Canon has announced two new lenses to add to its line up of glass for its mirrorless full frame cameras: a 50mm f/1.8 STM and the 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM. These are two fascinating additions to the range of RF lenses as both have interesting details which make them special.

How I Spent My COVID-19 Vacation

Like most of you, I'm cooped up at home other than occasional forage for groceries. As a landscape photographer in Arizona, there's plenty of landscape, but I'm doing my best to abide by the stay at home rules. So basically, the landscapes are in one place, I'm looking at 4 walls.

Using the Loupedeck+ With Capture One Pro

Loupedeck have released a version of their software that plays (somewhat) nicely with Capture One Pro. Today we’ll take a look at what you can expect and what we think could be improved.

Nikon Falls Short of Financial Projections, To Restructure Leadership

Sony posted some pretty staggering losses last week, and Nikon is apparently not faring much better as the company stock value fell "4 percent to 1,567 yen, its lowest close since March 2011. The company announced net income of 46.8 billion yen for last fiscal year, missing its own forecast of 50 billion yen.*" When peering at the chart of stock value over the last year, it's not a great outlook.

The New Edelkrone SliderONE PRO: The App-Controlled Slider for Run and Gun Shooters

Edelkrone has a knack for creating technology that captures the imagination in ways that other brands don’t. With the release of the original Edelkrone SliderONE, we saw that ingenuity manifest itself in what looks like the future of video camera support. That same ingenuity has guided the development of the new SliderONE PRO.

The Fstoppers Photo Plus Party Pictures Are Live

On Friday we threw a party at Peter Hurley's studio and opened it up to the public to celebrate Photo Plus in NYC. Over 400 people showed up and luckily we never ran out of drinks (in other words it was a big success). Peter built a wacky photobooth out of some AstroTurf he "found" and the characters that showed up for the party knew exactly what to do with it. These photobooth pictures are finally available here. Now that we know we can draw a crowd we will plan to do it even bigger next year.

Flickr Spotlight - Striking Images Of Rainbows Around The World

Photos of rainbows tend to look cheesy and kitschy, and people usually "abuse" the pictures with tons of crazy editing and heavy HDR effects to make it look cooler (and fail). But - when doing it tastefully, the results can be breath-taking - and breath-taking are exactly the kind of images we collected here for you. Check out all these amazing photos from all around the world and let us know which you liked the best in the comments!

Small Town, Big Sales: How to Profit in a Podunk Market

In a small town in West Texas, one photographer has established a thriving business that rivals big city photography studios. “We’re in podunk Texas,” Kaleigh Horelica says with a spirited, self-deprecating laugh. Although Abilene isn’t an affluent market, it has been the perfect place for Kaleigh to grow a successful studio that earns over six figures in annual revenue.

How To Back Up Your Digital Photos... To Film

Backing up is easy, right? You import your photos from a memory card, then everything is safe and sound on your hard drive. Wrong. Norwegian startup — Piql — believes the answer is to back up your files to film.

[News] Canon Cinema EOS 1D, C100, and C500 Coming Soon?

EOSHD.com reports that Canon is working on both lower- and higher-end versions of the C300, the C100 and C500. While we're unsure about the C100, new rumors indicate that Canon could be ready to announce the C500 along with the previously rumored Cinema EOS 1D DSLR made specifically for video! And all this could happen before the weekend, when NAB 2012 is set to kick off. Read on for some specs!

Make Your Videos More Cinematic With Letterbox Templates

Whether you realize it or not, most videos produced for cinema or even high-end marketing campaigns have some sort of cropping on it, be it by design or with a specific purpose in mind. It's a common occurrence, and for the most part, when you wanted to use this kind of cropping you either had to make your own templates or scour the web in order to find what you were looking for. Well thanks to the folks over at PremiumBeat.com, they have compiled an extensive list of what they claim to be every popular video resolution in the world. All the way from 720 HD to 8K and creating crop ratios from 1:1 to 4:1 Polyvision.

What Gear Do You Need to Photograph Your First Wedding?

A lot of new photographers view weddings as an easy way to break into professional photography while making a lot of money with minimal time, effort, and gear. As a professional wedding and portrait photographer, I can tell you part of that is true.

Cherry Blossom Peak in D.C. Delayed

Once a year over a million people head to the tidal basin area of Washington D.C. in hopes of catching a glimpse of the thousands of beautiful cherry blossoms lining the streets. This year you may need to adjust your schedule to catch the peak bloom.

Jellyfish Soup: Combining Photography and Conservation

After changing careers from 12 years in the scientific field into the photography industry, I often wondered about merging the two together; science and art. I started shooting underwater photography a few years back in hopes of bringing a new light on the waters with my background. So when I came across the work of Christine Beggs and Brett Stanley I was intrigued to learn about their collaborations. They have created a way to bring critical issues of the oceans to light with their underwater art work.

[Video] Gotye's "Easy Way Out": An Elaborate Stop Motion Animation

In an earlier post, Prime vs Prime and Other Lessons in Stop Motion Animation I tried to show you where homegrown stop motion animation is in it's evolution and offered a couple links to get you motivated. But compared to this video, for Gotye's "Easy Way out", directed by Darcy Prendergast, those other videos with their hours and hours of painstaking meticulous work will seem down right simple.

Nikon D810 Available for Pre-Order

If you've been holding out for the D800/D800E replacement, today's you're lucky day: it's finally here. Featuring a new 36-megapixel sensor, better ISO range, and shutter and AF technologies from the D4s, the D810 is now available for pre-order from B&H, or you can also pre-order from Amazon, too.

A Simplified Round-Trip Workflow for Davinci Resolve and Your NLE Program

In the world of film and commercial video work, there are so many working components that need to come together in order to have a successful production. So when it comes to bringing all those components together, you want it to be as smooth and simple as possible to minimize stress and streamline efficiency so that production does not fall behind schedule. One of those components that is insanely critical for a finished product is the coloring — not an area you want to skip on.

Choosing the Right Tour Guide or Fixer for an International Project

Over the last two years, I have been traveling quite a few times for a personal project involving the last remaining tribal-tattooed faces of Asia. The results of that project are finding a home at Tattoos of Asia. I still have five or six more trips to make before I can consider the project complete, and I wanted to share my experience so far with finding help for a project like this. Finding the right guide or fixer for your project isn't easy, and can be a lot like hiring a new employee. Let's go through my process for finding and hiring the right person for the job.