Articles written by Michael Brown

Chances are, if you are at all interested in cinematography, you have heard of Brain Farm. Brain Farm is the entertainment and production company that brought you films like The Art of Flight, Jackass 3D, and View From a Blue Moon as well as tons of other film, TV, commercial, and digital content. With credentials like this as well as commercial clients ranging from Nike to Mercedes-Benz, I think it is safe to say these guys know what they are doing. For years, Brain Farm has been pushing the limits of Cinematography. That's why it comes as no surprise to hear that they recently paired a Phantom Flex4K with an Aerigon UAV to shoot the world's first Ultra High Definition, 4K aerial drone footage.

Have you ever had trouble with too much noise in one of your images? Maybe the shooting conditions forced you to shoot at an ISO that pushed the limits of your camera a little too much. One way to limit this problem is to shoot multiple exposures with the same settings, and then, use post-production to combine the images and reduce the noise. In this tutorial, Travel Photographer Jimmy Mclnyre shows you how to do just that.

Have you ever felt like you were trapped inside of your mind, consumed by a constant flow of anxiety, worry, and fear? Or maybe you have felt this way at a time in your life and realize the power and control you have over your mind. Either way, you need to check out "The Irrational Fear of Nothing," a short film directed by Paul Trillo, that follows a paranoid, neurotic man named Terry as he walks the streets of Manhattan.

In this tutorial, Aaron Nace from Phlearn takes a beautiful nighttime cityscape and shows you how you can create a custom brush to add your own stars to an image in Photoshop. Nace begins the tutorial by showing you how to make a custom brush in a new document. He continues to show you how to save the brush as a preset, use it on your image, and make adjustments that will change the amount and size of the stars you paint in. He goes further, showing how to add a nice glow to the stars and create a slight motion blur to make them look more realistic.

A few years back, I rented the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II and absolutely fell in love. The focus speed, stabilization, and sharpness of this lens are top-notch and make it a truly versatile, high-quality telephoto lens. For a while now, I have been drooling over Nikon's 200mm f/2G ED VR II prime, the type of lens dreams are made of. In this video, Matt Granger does a side-by-side comparison of the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 and the 200mm f/2. So, if you're a Nikon user thinking about getting your hands on either one of these, or just want to learn about a couple of great lenses, check out this video.

When you think of great photos, National Geographic often comes to mind. That's why it comes as no surprise that for their 2015 photo contest, they received over 13,000 entries. Amateur and professional photographers from around the globe were invited to submit photos in three categories: people, places, and nature, with the hope of having their image selected as one of the winners. Check out this video to hear from the judges and get a look at some of what goes into the selection process.

The more time I spend shooting portraits and beauty work, the more I love retouching. There is something about spending hours in front of a computer and paying meticulous attention, all while jamming out to great music that I find super meditative and enjoyable. When it comes to retouching, there really aren’t many shortcuts. Most of the time, it just take good old fashioned attention to detail and time to get near-perfect results. For a look at what goes into the process, check out this time-lapse from Pratik Naik of Solstice Retouch to see 1.5 hours of retouching a photo by Jonas Jensen in seven minutes.

For the seasoned photographer, assistant, or grip, knowing how to use a C-Stand may seem like common sense. However, if you have never used or seen one before, there are a few things you should know about these multi-functional stands. The C-stand or Century stand can be used to hold lighting, cameras, and all sorts of other equipment, all of which are probably very expensive. If you make a mistake setting up one of these stands, it can result in injury to you, your crew, or worst of all your equipment, which may not actually be yours. I can pretty much guarantee that if you break a Photographer's equipment, because you didn't set up a C-Stand correctly, he or she is probably going to be very upset with you. To avoid any common mistakes, check out this video from the guys over at Rocketjump Film School showing you how to properly set up a C-stand.

Have you ever had trouble finding a model, make up artist, or stylist to work with? Maybe the traditional methods of networking aren't working for you, or you are new to the area. Pro Photo Shoot is a new IOS app designed to help photographers find other industry professionals to collaborate with.