Articles from Patrick Hall

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.

Jaren Wilkey is the manager of Brigham Young University's photography department (perhaps he helped on this shoot?). His Behind The Scenes Contest submission idea was to create a photoshoot that played off a news story there at the university. Jaren and his students set out to produce an editorial type image featuring computer hackers.

I just realized that our Fstoppers Twitter account has tons of unread direct messages (we prefer you email us). One of them was from Douglas Sonders who had a crazy experience with one of the original Ghostbusters Ecto 1 Cadillacs. These caddies have so many lights on them that I can't make any sense of what is going on but it looks pretty cool.

There are just less than 7 weeks left to submit your behind the scenes contest video. Submissions are starting to come in and it's amazing what our readers are doing through their photography. As the video submissions come in we are going to feature the standouts here on the front of Fstoppers.

Some of my favorite behind the scenes videos we've featured on Fstoppers are of Matthew Jordan Smith. He speaks well and always articulates his lighting and setups in a way that both amateurs and pros can understand.

This video has been sent to us so many times over the last 24 hours that I thought we should share it. It was filmed at After Dark Education based in Tucson, AZ and is a pretty funny look at how some videographers and photographers view each other on a wedding day.

It seems every week someone is producing a piece of art that pushes the limits of both technology and also creativity. One trend has been to create commercials and videos completely in camera with minimal post processing. The new music video for Kina Grannis completely blows my mind!

We are heading into the holiday season which usually means manufacturers and retailers are looking to hook up buyers with some pretty sweet deals. Right now through BHvideo.com you can get some great discounts on Sandisk high speed flash memory cards which are great as newer cameras offer more megapixels and greater video capability.

Some of our readers might have met up with Monte Isom at last month's Fstoppers NYC Meetup. His videos have been fan favorites on the site and this week he is sharing another one of his commercial shoots. In this behind the scenes video, Monte shows you how he photographed his latest Molson Export Ale ad campaign featuring hockey players as they slide in towards the camera.

Jay P. Morgan is a commercial photographer based out in Los Angeles. His behind the scenes videos have been a hit with our readers because they always feature some useful lighting or photoshopping technique. In his latest video, Jay shuts down a highway ramp in order to light an 18 wheeler truck against the LA skyline.

If you were approached by a big client and asked to only shoot with one light, would you freak out or would you make the most of the situation? In Nike's latest basketball commercial Basketball Never Stops, they only used one single hard light to tell the story how the game and fans go on even after the court lights turn off.

Joel Grimes is a commercial advertising photographer who is most known for his composite portraits. In his recent interview with [Framed], Joel discusses how he got started with his career, how he uses 16bit HDR images in his workflow, does a full photoshoot, and even shows off his musical talents. The video is long so take your time watching it because he gives a lot of useful tips. I'm trying to persuade Sean Armenta to create an Fstoppers Post Production Tutorial on this type of composite editing so if you have questions leave them in the comments below.

When someone turns us onto a product or service we really enjoy we like to spread the word. Our friends over at Novum Studios just recently launched the new site design for BorrowLenses.com and it looks great.

For some people, Halloween can be a stressful time as you panic to come up with that perfect costume that will impress all your friends and help you score big with the opposite sex. Photographer Tyler Card decide to one up everyone by creating his own lifesize working Nikon D3 which can capture all of his trick or treating fun.

In May 2012, Marvel will release the comic superhero movie The Avengers. Some apple fans are suggesting that footage actually in the movie was shot on an Apple Iphone. The Avengers cinematographer Seamus McGarvey was quoted saying,

Lee's wedding video A Moving Moment created a lot of discussion about how to get high production shots with minimal gear. The truth of the matter is Lee handheld 90% of the footage and used our favorite slider, The Atlas 10 Slider, for the remaining 10% of the shots.