A few weeks ago, I beat Lee Morris in our Puerto Rico Landscape Challenge. With that victory, many of our readers said my edit in Photoshop was simply too over the top. Today, I try to re-edit my photo to see if I can create something a bit more realistic.
For many photographers, the first type of photoshoot they will ever book is an engagement session. In this extended tutorial, I will walk you through four different setups that you can use regardless of your location or skill level.
One of the things I love most about photography is the challenge of creating something new and refreshing. In today's behind the scenes video, I thought it would be fun to try to capture some family photos with a split view above and under the water.
As the artificial intelligence race intensifies among photography software companies, Boris FX is filling a completely different niche with their editing software Optics. With their latest release, Optics users now have access to their powerful Particle Illusion generator, which can create thousands of useful emitters like explosions, smoke, fire, and other particle effects. Today, we take a look at the new Optics 2022 release which is available as a plugin for both Photoshop and Lightroom, as well as a standalone application.
With so many amazing new RGB LED lights on the market, it's easy to see why so many content creators are utilizing these in both their photography and videography projects. Today, I look at the Meteor 30 and 60 Pixel Tube Light by Aparo and show you how I plan to use it in my own studio.
For years, videographers have been saying video will replace photography altogether. Last year we tested this controversial statement in our own Red Epic Video vs Hasselblad Photo Shootout. In this latest video, Abraham Joffe along with Philip Bloom and Sue Bryce test the idea of simply pulling out still shots from video and printing them at reasonable sizes. Just as we found with our own video, capturing the definitive "micro expression" with a video camera like the new Canon EOS-1DC can be both precise and incredibly clunky.
For over a year and a half now, David Reynolds has been filming his "budget" series of short films called The Underwater Realm. Each week he and his team release a behind the scenes video on how they overcome some technical aspect of filming (previous Fstoppers posts here). This week Eve explains how he tackled the challenge of making a small diving pool appear like an infinite ocean using something other than green screen. If this is what is required on a budget, I can't imagine what the full blown productions look like!
As many of you have seen over the last 5 days, Fstoppers.com has had a few hiccups. We had a malware scare earlier last week and our site has been in an out of blacklisting with Google and a few antivirus software companies. It's been the most aggravating thing we've ever had to deal with and we appreciate all the patience you guys have had as we continue to make changes to our server and security. We are looking for someone who can help us with the site when problems like these arise; if that sounds like you, we want you to apply!
Update: Live Now! As a wedding photographer myself, I think the most important thing any photographer can do for their business is adding video to their services. I met Rob and Vanessa earlier this year and was excited to hear they are teaching this new "Fusion" video/photo hybrid to other photographers. On June 29 - July 1, creativeLIVE is airing their 3 day workshop for free! Learn how you can easily incorporate video into your photography business from two of the industry's leaders.
Trey Ratcliff is perhaps one of the most well known and adored HDR photographers today. The High Dynamic Range images he creates are not subtle by any means and he takes no apologies when it comes to creating images he personally enjoys. In this video, Trey talks about his gear (mainly Nikkor 12-24 and Really Right Stuff Tripods) and how he thinks through his compositions as he visits the beautiful Gorda in the Virgin Islands. Watch the 2nd video in the full post
As photographers, we are always in search of that new unique lighting modifier to add to our bag of tricks. I recently saw this video on Strobist where Amber Gray claims her Broncolor Para FB could actually reduce the amount of post production on her models. That statement seemed a bit bold when I first heard it; usually I credit a great makeup artist for awesome skin texture rather than a specific light. I've never used a ring flash
Last week one of the most respected camera review sites, DxOMark, listed the brand new Nikon D4 as the best digital DSLR camera to date. The D4 ranked so well that it was actually the 2nd best digital camera period falling behind only by the Phase One IQ180. Today both those cameras fall to a shocking competitor..the much less expensive Nikon D800!
Giving back to photographers has always been a big part of what makes Fstoppers such a great community. Soon after we launched last year, Lee and I decided it would be fun to see what you, our readers, would come up with. Our first Fstoppers Behind the Scenes Video Contest was a tremendous success with over 90 BTS videos submitted by the FS online community (we even added Sean to our team after seeing his video)! Last year we gave away a Canon 7D as the winning prize but this year is going to blow that out of the water as we have over $20,000 in prizes. Want to find out what you have to do to win all this gear? Click the Full Post for the current 2011 Fstoppers Behind The Scenes Contest!
Details inside.
![[BTS] How To Create HDR Images Using Bracketing With Trey Ratcliff](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/styles/med-16-9/s3/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/how-to-photograph-high-dynamic-range-HDR.jpg)
![[Studio Lighting] Could This Be The Best Light For The Photo Studio?](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/styles/med-16-9/s3/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Bron-kobold-para-FB.jpg)
![[Camera Tests] DxOMark Nikon D800 Rating Tops Nikon D4 and Phase One!](https://cdn.fstoppers.com/styles/med-16-9/s3/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Nikon-D800-rating-DxOMark.png)