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Kenn Tam

Toronto, ON, CA
Kenn Tam Photography
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Articles from Kenn Tam

Seven Things Photographers Need to Know About Filmmaking

If you're like me, a long-time photographer with a new found desire for getting into filmmaking, then you undoubtedly have a lot of questions. There are so many new things to consider when a photographer makes the jump to filmmaking. Things that as a stills shooter we seldom, if ever, think about.

Using a DJI Mavic Pro to Light Paint a Tesla

San Diego, California, content creator Aldryn Estacio of Flytpath, and photographer Spencer Pablo wanted to collaborate together on a fun project. And what would be more fun than using a light equipped drone to light paint a pair of great looking, matte black Teslas at night? 

Stop Ignoring Sound and Learn How to Create Amazing Audio for Your Video

UK-based filmmaker, and DSLRguide creator, Simon Cade, walks us through the importance of good audio in our videos. Cade also shows us the gear he uses, how he gets his samples, and how he puts it all together in post. But the biggest take away for me was seeing the amount of creativity, and exploration that actually goes into sound creation. 

How to Make Stop Motion Videos With Ease

With today's photo and video tools at hand, and science in mind, filmmakers, and biologists Rob Nelson, and Jonas Stenstrom set out to teach us how to use our gear to their fullest potential. Every week, 52 Things (get it?), releases a video that aims to tell an engaging story that will not only entertain, but educate us on how to be better storytellers ourselves. I love this concept.

What is a Selfie and Who Invented It?

Producer, director, writer, editor, actor, and researcher, Sarah Burton has to wear many hats while working for BuzzFeed Video, but can she answer the question, "Who Invented the Selfie?" Spoiler alert, she can't but as the adage goes, it's the journey not the destination.

Watch as a Photographer Unnervingly Cracks Open a $6,000 Camera

Toronto-based photographer and filmmaker, Peter McKinnon, is a big jerk. You won't see me saying that very often as I truly do respect McKinnon as a content creator, but at the three minute, twenty-second mark of this video my butt clenched up and stayed that way for an entire six minutes and fifty-five seconds.

How to Make a Pro Sci-Fi Short With a Small Budget

Writer and director Ryan Connolly, over at Film Riot, wanted to challenge himself to see if he and his crew could turn out a realistic, action-packed, science fiction short film with no script, three hundred dollars, and a whole lot of help from his friends.  But, to be clear, when I say, "Pro Sci-Fi Short," there is an emphasis pro.

How to Film Yourself Peter McKinnon Style

Under mounting pressure from my peers and the industry at large, I finally tried getting into video creation. While filming myself in my first video ever (an unboxing), I ran into a whole slew of issues. How should I mount my camera? Where do I place it? Why does this look so gosh diddly darn boring? To say I struggled would be an understatement.

Eight Fun Ideas for Shooting Hilarious Portraits With Your Friends

The Cooperative of Photography (COOPH) wants us to kick 2018 off with a bit of fun and inspiration. To help get our creative juices flowing, they've compiled eight ideas for taking some wonderfully weird portraits using common household items.  

1890s Candid Street Photography Taken With a Spy Cam

Using a thin, round, six frame, glass plate, "spy camera", a nineteen year old Carl Størmer (1874 – 1957) captured candid images on the main streets of Oslo, Norway. These atypical images are a rare glimpse into everyday life at a time when most photos taken were of well prepared, composed and stoic subjects.

Seven of the Most Common Studio Portrait Light Mistakes

Finland-based commercial photographer Antti Karppinen shares what he thinks are the "7 Most Common Studio Portrait Light Mistakes" and how to fix them. Barring any creative differences, these are pretty good rules of thumb. 

Taking Professional Portraits with a Mobile Phone

Propelling Fstoppers into the successful community it is today and inspiring a slew of shooters to create without limitations, the iPhone Fashions Shoot was meant to prove that a talented photographer needed little more than their own knowledge and creativity. In these one minute spots for the Huawei P10 mobile phone, Chinese

Five Tips for Shooting Night Portraits With Available Light

For most photographers, magic hour is just as the sun is setting, but for Photographer Jordan Matter, it occurs after dark. In this video Matter gives us five tips for shooting nighttime portraits using only street and window light. Using this simple technique he is able to achieve three differently lit portraits in just a couple minutes. 

What is Aperture and Other Camera Basics?

Everyone looking to be a photographer, or at least a good one, should understand their camera's functions and lens mechanics. This means understanding things like f-stops, depth-of-field, effects of shutter speed, ISO, fast lenses verses slow lenses, and of course, aperture.

The Men and Methods Behind 'Nerf John Wick'

Two days after its release on YouTube, "Nerf John Wick" has racked up over two million views and counting. So, I reached out to Corridor Digital to learn more about the people and techniques behind its making. 

Five Tips for Posing Couples

Their title may mislead you into think this is just another step one, two, three, posing tutorial but lifestyle and wedding photographers Rachel Gulotta and Daniel Inskeep along with Carlton Banks (a.k.a. Mango Street Lab) are quick to point out that it's directing, as opposed to posing, that gets results.

Three of the Best Digital Frames for Your Images

Photography has come a long way since my 35mm high school days. We've seen it go from film, to prohibitively expensive, low-resolution digital, to stunning high-res cameras in every phone. But the method of viewing digital images has been limited to print and computer screens.

This Epic Star Wars Fan Film Is What Being a Filmmaker Is All About

Filmmaker Stephen Vitale and Writer Eric Carrasco​ created a truly epic Star Wars fan fiction. When I came across this short, I found myself wishing they made a behind-the-scenes video so I could post them both for you all to enjoy. Turns out they did. So I did. And you will. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elWjSPOAN_U

Things to Consider When Shooting Slow Motion Action

Video Producer Chase Kubasiak shares how to achieve exciting and impactful video through the use of slow motion scenes. In this humorous B&H tutorial, Kubasiak highlights three key variables to consider when setting up your slow motion shots.  

Learn How to Shoot an Epic Bar Brawl

In their latest video, Film Riot's Frontman/Director Ryan Connolly comes to my backyard (Vancouver, BC) to film a truly epic bar brawl short. This entire series of videos is extremely useful when it comes to learning what it takes to film a quality short. The "Uncut Behind the Scenes" video is seriously my favorite of the bunch as you

23 Street Photography Tips For Your Next Photo Walk

The Cooperative of Photography​ (COOPH) teamed up with Switzerland-based Street Photographer Thomas Leuthard as he hits the streets of Salzburg to demonstrate some of the techniques he uses to be a true ninja street photographer.

'The Story Behind My Photo' Is a Compelling Series of Photographer Short Stories

Canadian digital camera store, Vistek, has been interviewing photographers that have exhibits in the Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, in an ongoing video series called, "The Story Behind My Photo." In case the series title hasn't given it away, Vistek asked talented Canadian photographers to take us behind-the-scenes and share the stories tha

The 5 Most Important Traits of a Great Director of Photograpahy

In this video, Filmmaker Matt Mangham runs down five important traits that every great director of photography should have.​ A director of photography (DP or DOP), also known as a cinematographer, directs the camera crews and is responsible for determining the overall artistic and technical aspects of a film. 

Learn to Create a 'Game of Thrones' Blind Eye Effect

In this Film Riot video, actor and director Ryan Connolly gives us the rundown on how to create a blind eye effect, similar to what we see happen to Arya Stark in HBO's, "Game of Thrones." Film Riot pulls this off in Adobe After Effects (although this tutorial can be applied to your compositor of choice) and without the use o

How To Correct an Image That Has Mixed Light

SLR Lounge founding partner, photographer, and retoucher, Pye Jirsa, walks us through a quick Lightroom tutorial on how to adjust a photo that has mixed light.

Using Intricate Light Patterns to Contour and Accentuate Nudes Models (NSFW)

Paris-based French Photographer Dani Olivier has spent eight years refining a process for creating incredibly mesmerizing images by projecting intricate patterns of light onto nude models.  Using an all-in-camera approach, Olivier's nude photography process consists of placing his subjects in front of a black background while projecting intricat

Crashing a $1400 DJI Phantom 4 Quadcopter Drone On Purpose

Watch YouTube star Julien Solomita follow behind-the-scenes as fellow YouTuber Keaton Keller of Tech Smart reviews the new DJI Phantom 4 Quadcopter obstacle avoidance feature. As a review, it isn't to be taken too seriously with Keller attempting to fly the drone into a tree, branches, a tripod, and finally himself.