Patrick Hall

If you are like me, then you might have jumped straight into studio lighting without paying much attention to manipulating natural light. If that is the case, now is a great time to play around with reflectors outside especially since the sun is lower on the horizon this time of year.

Have you ever wondered what happens to your checked luggage after you check into your flight and leave it to be loaded on the conveyor belt? Well this video will show you just what happens to your prized belongings when they enter the hands of the airlines and the TSA. Six cameras were mounted in what looks like a pelican case so every angle could be documented.

Well it's the end of the year again which means those of you who run a photography business are probably thinking about maximizing your tax write offs.

The ISO sensitivity on today's flagship DSLR cameras is pretty amazing. They are so amazing in fact that for the first time, NASA is able to use Nikon D3 cameras to create night time timelapse videos as the earth sleeps. You've probably seen a bunch of these stunning videos here but now we are able to see who is responsible for capturing the raw images from orbit.

Well it's Christmas Eve here in the US and many of you are about to have a blast opening up some cool photography gadgets (or I hope so at least). But in the meantime, Eve Hazelton created a really thorough video on how to light an interview or one person scene easily and effectively.

Jay P Morgan is at it again with a new Christmas themed photoshoot. Almost everytime I watch one of Jay's photoshoots I learn a clever way to artificially create something that I wouldn't have thought of before. If you've ever wanted to know how to create realistic fake snow on a set, Jay teaches you a simple and easy way to bring the elements into the studio.

I'm not sure what has gotten into Chase Jarvis lately. First he decided to be a judge for our 2011 Behind The Scenes Contest. Next he flies over to Hong Kong to test a new Lego camera. And now I come to find that he's running his own "Will It Blend" campaign with the brand new Polaroid Z340 instant digital camera.

Amy Lynn must really want to win some of the $20,000 in photo gear we are giving away in our Behind the Scenes Contest because the photoshoot idea she came up with is one of the most original ideas we've seen yet! Amy wanted to create a fashion image with a twist.

Okay this video has been emailed to us a bunch of times, and it has already made the rounds on a bunch of blogs BUT I'm still not sure I understand this story at all. Researchers at MIT have created a "video system" made up of 500 sensors that can capture light movement at 1/1,000,000,000,000th of a second.

We are heading into the final stretch for our 2011 Behind The Scenes Contest and someone is about to win a truckload of gear! The latest video that caught my attention was from LA photographer Mike Kelley. Mike has been featured on our site before but in case you missed that post, his portfolio is full of some pretty kick ass commercial images of buildings and outdoor environments.

Just a heads up to everyone; today is the last day to enter into ort Peter Hurley / Apple iPad 2 Twitter contest! Tommorrow we are giving away a Apple 16GB iPad 2 and a free digital copy of Peter Hurley's The Art Behind The Headshot to one of our lucky twitter followers!

With only about 2 weeks left in our 2011 Behind The Scenes Contest, entries are starting to pour in. It's great to put some faces with the names of our readers and see the different types of projects everyone is working on. William Walker came up with a pretty simple but clever idea for his contest video.

Okay, I know my title is a bit dramatic but nevertheless I really think this is one of the best videos I've seen this last year for any working professional. Yesterday, Chase Jarvis had Ramit Sethi on his Chase Jarvis Live site, and the conversation was a cornerstone pillar for any working professional photographer.

We don't usually put a lot of deals on the front of Fstoppers (we save those for our twitter account) but this one is simply too good to pass up. Right now BHvideo has the Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera on sale for $1999 which is pretty close to the price of some of Canon's cropped sensor cameras.

If you are from the US, then chances are every Monday night your television is tuned into football. Monday Night Football is a cultural staple in North America and one of the largest traveling media productions around.

A few weeks ago, commercial photographer Jay P Morgan showed us how to balance strobe light with ambient light on a large 18 wheeler (which involved closing down a California highway on ramp). In this video Jay is shooting a lifestyle image for Pilot Freight Services which requires him to light a large outdoor areas with studio lighting.

With just under three weeks left until the deadline of our 2011 Behind The Scenes Contest, our readers are really hitting it into high gear by turning in some awesome videos! Some of the ideas you guys come up with are really clever and a refreshing alternative to the boring "glamorized music videos" we receive daily.

A while back we featured a behind the scenes video on the making of the 2011 Pirelli Calendar and people enjoyed commenting on it (especially Karl Lagerfeld's crazy gloves). If you aren't familiar with the Pirelli calendar, it's basically a glamour nude calendar that is only released to VIPs and Pirelli customers. Even though the calendar is not for sale, it has become an icon in the fine art world. A few days ago this BTS video on the making of the 2012 calendar was released and it's pretty interesting at well. It features photographer Mario Sorrenti as he and his crew scout out locations throughout Corsica in pursuit of the perfect light for each nude image. There are two video versions available below each having a slightly different perspective. While I wouldn't consider this pornography, this video is definitely NSFW so you might want to revisit this later.

We first featured film maker and timelapse master Tom Lowe almost 2 years ago. This week he released another mind blowing trailer for his documentary TimeScapes (pre order your copy here). Tom's vision was to give viewers a modern look at the American Midwest in all of its glory, and it to say it's glorious is an understatement!

Now this is an interesting story. Lately there has been a ton of controversy and debate about the role of photoshop in today's advertising market. FHM (For Him Magazine) just published their December issue with Pakistani cover model Veena Malik wearing what appears to be nothing.

Russell James is perhaps my favorite photographer of all time. His images of sexy women never look cliche, and basically everything about his photographs are brilliant. But few people probably know what steps Russell took in becoming one of the world's most successful photographers.

We've featured a lot of timelapse videos here on Fstoppers. And while they are really cool, very few videos have been made on how you can actually make one yourself. The guys over at Dynamic Perception, makers of the Stage Zero Dolly and MX2 Dolly Engine, have created a pretty thorough explanation of how to program dolly movements with long DSLR exposures.

Most of the readers here at Fstoppers are photographers but we also have a lot of videographers as well. Most of us photographers are completely out of the loop when it comes to the tools videographers use day in and day out, and some of them are pretty cool. Mitch Gross demonstrates some of the features found in the new ARRI L7 LED Fresnel Lights and they look pretty awesome.

We have a lot of contests going on each month but we wanted to give away something really special for the Holidays. What are we giving away that is so special? How about a free Apple 16GB iPad 2 and a free digital copy of Peter Hurley's The Art Behind The Headshot!

I'll always remember a friend of mine saying that he loved the Canon 5D Mark II for film making because it was expendable and cheap compared to "real" video cameras (he crashed a lot of them). For most of us, having any piece of gear break is heartbreaking especially when it comes from our own stupidity lack of foresight.

So you've had a long week of work and just survived a record breaking wind storm...what does one do to cut the edge in Salt Lake City? How about socializing over a few beers with other local photographers? Lee and I will be in Salt Lake City, Utah this weekend hitting up Solitude (if the snow sticks around) before we head down to film the next Fstoppers Original in Phoenix.

One of the biggest announcements I was really excited about this year was the release of Nikon's Flagship SB910 Speedlight. Many people were speculating that the revamped portable strobe would be smaller like the classic SB800, finally offer wireless syncing via radio, incorporate a small constant LED light for video, or add another half stop or two of power.

The videos keep coming in for our 2011 Fstoppers Behind The Scenes Contest as we enter the final month of submissions. Most photographers use either strobe, fluorescent, or incandescent light to mold and sculpt their subjects.

Gry Garness is a makeup artist turned retoucher/photoshop consultant from Norway. I wasn't familiar with her photoshop tutorials until I came across this video the other day, and I must say I'm pretty impressed with her articulate approach to complicated techniques. In this video, Gry teaches some interesting liquify techniques on an image by Derek Cooper.

When Lee and I started this website almost two years ago, our vision was to not only share knowledge of what some of the best photographers around the world were doing but to also create a community that could inspire other creative professionals.

If you are like me, you probably avoid Black Friday at all costs and instead shop in your pajamas on Cyber Monday. In the Full Post we have some of the best deals going on today only so shop till your mouse breaks (or your wallet) and get that perfect gift for the photographer in the family. If you are a Canon shooter you hit the Jackpot.

I recently came across this video produced by [Framed] Show, and it really made me stop and think about how I run my business...and this is not just for wedding photographers! Sal Cincotta takes a second to put all of the gear, lighting diagrams, inspiration, and BTS videos aside to talk about something that a lot of photographers fail to capitalize on in their own businesses.

Most people know Joe McNally for his photojournalism or his editorial work. Others know him as the author of some of the best photography books on lighting. But Joe "numnuts" McNally is also one heck of an advertising photographer too. Recently Joe photographed the Anti-Gravity Dancers in an ad campaign for Epson's new R3000 printers.

Everyone has been waiting for the new Nikon D3s and D700 replacement cameras for what seems like forever. Nikon Rumors recently opened a whole can of worms as they released photos that the rumor blog owner stats as being 99% legit. However new speculations have come out from another reliable source over at DigitalRev.

These days it's not surprising to find out that most of what you see in a movie or commercial is completely green screened or created with CGI. So I was pleasantly shocked when I saw the behind the scenes video for the outdoor clothing company Quechua's latest advertisement.

It's pretty rare that a solid behind the scenes video comes from a super high end photoshoot. Usually they aren't full of much photography insight and instead focus on the model. But that doesn't mean you can't get inspired and learn something from the best of the best.

Yesterday we got an interesting email from our friend Pye Jirsa over at SLRLounge.com. Pye recently helped film a video campaign for a friend's Kickstarter product launch called One and he decided to film a quick behind the scenes video on how he lit and filmed the different scenes. Pye is a big DIY guy and many of the lights he used on this production can be found for super cheap.

A week ago today, a friend of mine introduced me to environmental art photographer Jack Gescheidt. Minutes after talking with Jack about his Tree Spirit Project I knew I had to share his work with the Fstoppers community. Jack's photographs are unlike anything I've ever seen; yet even while they appear rather innocent, they still somehow strike up a bit of controversy.

Red Bull no doubt has some of the best sports video work I've ever seen. In their latest sports commercial, the energy drink company takes to the skies as they film 2x Women's Motocross Association Champion Ashley Fiolek. Ashley, who has been deaf since birth, has been making a lot of noise on the women's circuit, and she has become an inspiration to fans of the sport world wide.

Now this is clever. Victorinox makes a few fragrances and wanted to create an interactive video that shows just how fresh their perfume makes you feel. So they sent a crew up to Cauma Lake in Flims/Laax, Switzerland to film a 360 degree video UNDERWATER! To capture 360 video footage they used the new Yellowbird camera which works a lot like the Google streetview car.