Back when Lee and I started the idea of Fstoppers, we contacted a few friend photographers of ours to see if they would allow us to film some of their shoots for our Behind the Scenes website idea. We first featured Eric Bradshaw's beach shoot at launch but I figured I'd post the second video as well.
I was just chatting with some people from Atlanta about which photographer to feature for the next FS video and Zack Arias seemed to be the hands down favorite. Well Chase Jarvis beat us to it so I'll pass this along to you.
I have learned that there is often a lot to be gained by watching people being creative rather than simply being shown an interesting lighting setup or cool new technical gadget.
Joey L is always an inspiration because not only is he really young but because he is really forward thinking with his creativity. Here is the behind the scenes video of his latest project The Mentawai. It's pretty wild to see the logistics of a shoot like this and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Click Here to see the final images and the original video posted by Joey L.
Claude Kongs is an overseas director and his latest trailer for the movie Luxembourg Air Rescue is pretty amazing. What do you do when you are disappointed by the "unsexiness of your location"? Click the full post to watch a lengthy behind the scenes video on how this trailer was filmed.
Portfolio: Luxembourg Air Rescue Promo Movie from Claude Kongs on Vimeo.
The first time I clicked on Paul Ripke's website and saw the images on it, I knew I had found something special. Fstoppers reader Thomas send us this video and Tobi helped translate what is going on this video. It maybe a little long for some of you especially if you only understand English but it's still pretty awesome.
BJ and Richielle Formento are a photography team that makes up Revolvershoots, and I must say I really love their moody images. Their project Circumstance combines a lot of unique locations with models playing dramatic characters to create very artistically engaging images. It's definitely interesting stuff, and you can see how studying under Annie Leibovitz has influenced BJ's work.
Douglas Sonders is an amazing photographer out of Washington DC, and his work is very stylized with studio lighting and exotic action themes. Check out this behind the scenes video as he brings out the weapons, poker chips, and Bond characters during his Secret Agent shoot. Also check out his website for more inspiring work!
It's pretty rare that I come across fine art nude photographs that I find interesting and respect the execution but Thorsten Jankowski has some interesting photographs here. It's nice to hear a black and white photographer talk about when it is most effective to publish a photo in color too.
About a month ago we shared Shane Hurlbut's video The Last 3 Minutes and the behind the scenes on the making of that video. Here is another look at some more scenes from the short movie all filmed on the Canon 5D Mark II. It's really cool to see Shane taking the time to give commentary over this BTS footage. Enjoy.
A reader emailed me this video a while back and I finally got around to watching it. If you enjoy watching how things are made you will really appreciate the amount of effort that goes into making pro level lenses. I have never thought of my lenses coming ultimately from a bunch of powder!
Update: Fstoppers has just completed the full 4 hour tutorial with Peter Hurley. Check it out here.
Peter Hurley is a true inspiration. Not only is he an amazing headshot photographer but he is also one of the most fun, energetic, and encouraging photographers I have ever met. Let me tell you why.
I was sent this video by Marie-Louise Cadosch of Marc & Louis Photography based out of Switzerland, and I was absolutely blown away by the attention to detail in their planning and preproduction. Their behind the scenes video "Bleed Like Me" is gruesome and not for the faint of heart but I doubt you have seen anything like it. And if you are thinking about our DSLR Contest, you
Giuliano Bekor is a famous fashion photographer who has had various covers of Vogue, Elle, and Bazaar to name just a few. Today he takes us to "Africa" where BeBe is doing their summer 09 catalog with wild elephants, lions, and giraffes. This video is crazy but totally awesome!
Graeme Murray just sent us this interesting video of Red Bull Athlete Kenny Belaey jumping his bike through some interesting backgrounds. Check out his photos in this behind the scenes video
Kenny Belaey Photoshoot from Graeme Murray on Vimeo.
Stillmotion is a group of photographers turned videographers which create some of the most inspiring wedding videos I have ever seen. As a wedding photographer myself, I know the situations they are working in and how tough video can be and yet their work still knocks me out everytime I see it.
Patrick Gosling was faced with a problem: how do you create an image with more cars than you have available on set? This timelapse video proves that a little creative thinking can go a long way in creating an complex image without complex lighting. Here is what Patrick told us about the shoot:
Before moving to Charleston, I lived in Nashville. It's one of the most amazing places in the United States. I was just sent this video that really shows the level of devastation of the flooding. The video is pretty well edited and the footage is striking especially if you are familiar with the city. I have also setup a link to an awesome charity called MusiCares Nashville Flood Relief.
Dan Bartolucci and Gevorg Karensky over at Influxlab have put together a little montage video for everyone to see how they rigged the car camera up for the latest BMW M3 commercial. I'm sure many of you have wondered how they secured a camera when being so wreckless in a car; I guess now we all know.
Frank Salle and John Trotto have an interesting video on how they approached a difficult task: shooting swim spas both in the studio and underwater. Check out this video as they talk about their lighting and some of the difficulties they encountered during the shoot.
You can see more of their work at www.franksalle.com and www.johntrotto.com
Dylan Coulter and his team got pretty creative when asked to shoot a fashion spread for Men's Journal Magazine's May 2010 issue. Here is what Dylan told us about the shoot:
Carsten Fleck is an amazing fashion photographer out of NYC. In this video he teams up with Carol Hannah of Project Runway fame to shoot her 2010 bridal collection. This video was sent in by a viewer and I instantly recognized the model Courtney since she started her career right here in Charleston.
I was sent this video by a reader, and I thought the images looked really nice and the location was very cool. Then I got in touch with the photographer Matt Hawthorne and found out about the history of the Baker Hotel: the place is considered the most haunted building in all of Texas! This is what Matt has to say about the experience:
I came across this story after watching some late night Carson Daily while editing some work (sound familiar?), and I thought our readers would appreciate it. If you aren't one of the 12 million people who have already seen this video, check it out below. For their latest video, This Too Shalll Pass, Okay Go decided to build a Rube Goldberg Machine and film it unfold in one take.
If you own a DSLR that does video (which most do by now), hopefully we have persuaded you to at least try some of the video capabilities. The reality is the DSLR is the wave of the future and more and more commercial and professional videos are being shot on these new cameras. Check out what Seth Epstein did when he was contacted by Suzuki to shoot a commercial for their latest bike.
Check out John Chiara's home made camera; it's so big he had to build it inside of a trailer! If you thought it was tough getting out and shooting, you now have no excuse after you watch the amount of effort put into making these images.
When I first saw this video I was completely blown away. Using timelapse and high speed photography, Tim Shepherd and David Attenborough produce some stunning footage of plants growing over the course of 2 years. Check out this crazy video produced by the BBC
During the final weeks of March, Lee Morris and I decided it would be fun to feature a professional snowboard photographer on the front page of fstoppers. So we packed up all the cameras and headed out to Frisco, Colorado to see what our friend Dave Lehl could do to shed light on the amazing world of snowboard photography.
This video was sent in by a reader a few weeks ago and I was completely blown away. However it really did not fit our format because we had no behind the scenes video to accompany it. Luckily Shane Hurlbut with Hurlbut Visuals decided to release a behind the scenes video showcasing why and how he used the Canon 5D Mark II for this short film.
Michelle Moore sent us her very first behind the scenes video and we at fstoppers were thoroughly impressed. I know a lot of our readers are big on strobes and lighting but if this video teaches you anything it is that often times natural light is the best route to go especially when shooting lifestyle images.
Chase Jarvis is one inspiring guy. It was not that long ago when I first came across this video (it's much older than vimeo will have you believe), and I have to say it's one of the most powerful videos I have ever seen.
Here at Fstoppers we have been working hard to bring you a good wide variety of different behind the scenes photoshoots. One of our readers worked with Kim Kardashian for the latest Carl's commercial promoting their grilled chicken salad.
The guys over at Zacuto have released their second video of their series that compares film cameras to the current lineup of DSLR cameras. In this video you will see how different ISOs compare across the various cameras tested. It's pretty interesting and this is about as thorough of a test you would probably ever care to run.
I was blown away when a reader sent us this video today of the latest commercial for the Nissan Sentra SE-R. In this video we have mini Nissan cars, remote controlled cameras on RC cars, remoted controlled cameras on RC helicopters, and so many more fun little creative tricks as well. Watch as the directors and crew discuss how it was made and check out the final commercial below.
Sam O’Hare is an aero director/ VFX artist who likes playing around with his camera from time to time. When I first saw this video, I thought it was a cool little video that featured a tilt shift lens and some solid Nikon video work. It was not until I read his blog that I found out I was wrong on both accounts: no tilt shift lens and no video!
