Mike Kelley Photography Tutorials

About Mike Kelley

Michael Kelley (mpkelley.com) is a Los Angeles-based architectural and fine art photographer with a background in digital art and sculpture. Using his backgrounds in the arts, he creates images that are surreal and otherworldly, yet lifelike and believable. A frequent traveler, Michael's personal work focuses on the built environment of unique

Popular Articles from Mike Kelley
The Most Impressive Display Of Light Painting You'll Ever See

Architectural photographer Mike Butler did not hold back at all when he was commissioned to create an image for the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami, FL. In this video, we get a behind-the-scenes look at everything that goes into a high-end commercial architecture shot. To make this one shot happen, multiple days of planning were

The Story Of The Most Successful Photographer You've Never Heard Of

In under five years, Andy Frame went from being a photography nobody to running one of the most successful photography operations that I'm aware of. I had a chance to catch up with him and hear all of his absolutely inspirational story so that I can share it with our readers, and so that I can motivate my own self to do better on a regular basis.

Fstoppers Reviews The Rokinon 35mm F/1.4 Aspherical Lens: A Fantastic Value For The Money

Rokinon recently released a new offering in the 35mm lens range, and I was super excited to get my hands on it for a number of reasons. The great price, wide aperture, and popular focal length of 35mm makes for a great combo, but never having used a Rokinon product before I wasn't quite sure what to expect. After an extensive review covering nearly two months (thank you Rokinon, for lending it to me for that long!)

FS Review: How Lowel's GL-1 Hotlight Has Become An Integral Part Of My Lighting Kit

As an architectural and interiors photographer, I own more lights than I even want to think about. Pelican cases full - hot lights, speedlights, monolights, color balanced bulbs, and modifiers to go along with all of them. Lowel recently released the very polarizing GL-1 Hotlight to much controversy: people mocked it or loved it. And truth be told,

HDR Vs. Flash For Interiors And Real Estate Photography

I know that many of our readers are real estate photographers or have at least tried their hand at real estate photography. The most common method used to create 'good enough' real estate photos is HDR: whether it is tonemapping or exposure fusion, HDR is definitely the most-used method for real estate and beginner interior photographers. In this post, I'll do a comparison between tonemapping, exposure fusion, single on-camera flash, and multiple off-camera flash, and show you the benefits (or disadvantages, rather) of each.

Ken Block Turns San Francisco Into His Urban Rally Course And Captures It All In Stunning Fashion

Ken Block, owner of DC Shoes and action sports mogul is well known for his incredible skill in a rally car. He's also been known to make some incredible videos, such as his original Gymkhana piece. For this installment, Gymkhana 5, Ken decided that he wanted to take over San Francisco: and that is just what he did. He also made sure that it was captured to perfection: I can't imagine that any less than one hundred cameras were used in the making of this piece.

Taking Your Interior and Architectural Photography to the Next Level

As I promised when I wrote my Anatomy of An Interior Shoot post a few weeks ago, if the interest was there, I'd continue the series. I'm happy to report that I've got much more in stock for you. If you're interested in kicking your architectural and interiors photography into high gear and adding some special sauce to your photos, this post is for you.

DigitalRev Allegedly Selling Used Cameras As New, And Are Yet To Issue A Response

Rob Dunlop, creative director and brains behind PrettyInWhite.com, just posted an interesting and also somewhat humorous account of his purchase of a Canon 5d Mark III through DigitalRev.com. Rob, spurred on by a series of bizarre coincidences, ended up doing some research on his new camera, only to find that it had not only been used, but used somewhat extensively by DigitalRev to create a review.

360-Degree Panoramic Video: The Next Big Thing In Video?

I recently was introduced to Making View, a Norwegian company that specializes in creating 360-degree panoramic video. Yep, you read that right. Panoramic video. Much like a 360-degree photo tour, you can zoom and move around the video as it plays. It is without a doubt one of the coolest things I've seen in recent memory, and I can see the technology being used in some pretty incredible ways.

Behind The Scenes With David Honl: A Hilarious Look At A Quirky, Conceptual Photoshoot

David Honl, photojournalist and the mastermind behind the Honl line of lighting gear, put together this hilarious behind the scenes video involving a cavewoman, spaceman, mind-altering drugs, and speedlights (which, besides getting a few chuckles, manages to pack some educational punch as well). This video is for those of us who just couldn't pay attention in those classes full of dry material and boring lecturers. Enjoy!

Internet Calls For Flickr To 'Be Awesome Again,' Flickr Responds In Kind

A few short years ago, Flickr was unquestionably the largest and most popular image sharing site on the internet. It was clean, fast, easy, and social. In fact, it was one of the first websites to embrace the concept of social media. Flickr was on the cutting edge of the internet, and it was growing fast. But over the past couple of years, as websites like Tumblr, Facebook, 500px, smugmug, Instagram and Imgur have risen to fame and evolved

Fstoppers Reviews The New Pocket Wizard Plus III Radio Triggers

Today, Pocket Wizard has rolled out the newest in their line of wireless flash triggering devices: the long-awaited update to the industry-standard Pocket Wizard Plus II, the Pocket Wizard Plus III. We at Fstoppers have been playing with them for awhile, and we're here to give you all the details, including an exclusive video look at the new Pocket Wizard Plus III. Continue to the full post to see it all. [Pre Order The Pocket Wizard Plus III Here]
[Video] Photographer Vs. Security: The Ultimate Showdown

How would you react if security officers told you that you were breaking the law by photographing a building from public property? One British photographer was faced with just that question, and here is how he reacted. View the full post to see the video, which is funny, sad, eye-opening and jaw-dropping all at once.
The Roadmap to Success in Architectural Photography: CreativeLive With Mike Kelley

If you've ever been interested in the field of architectural photography, now is your chance to learn about the ins-and-outs of getting clients, bidding on jobs, building a reputation and learning some post-processing tricks for FREE. I'll be speaking on Creative Live today at 1:15pm Pacific Standard Time, and will be going into detail on how I've built my business from the ground up in just a few short years.