Articles from Kenn Tam

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. Fortunately, Toronto-based, Finnish filmmaker, and creator of Travel Feels, Matti Haapoja, has seen more than his fair share of friends that have taken the plunge. They were lucky to have had Haapoja on hand to help them out. And we're lucky that Haapoja was inspired to share, "7 Things Photographers Need to Know About Filmmaking".

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?

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.

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. It reminds me a little of Lee and Patrick's efforts to post 30 videos in 30 days (shameless self promo).

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 Burton humorously struggles to discover who took the first selfie, and struggles even further when the very definition of selfie comes into question.

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. If you're into that kind of thing then watch as McKinnon takes apart his very delicate, and very expensive Canon EOS-1D X Mark II.

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.

It's 2018. A brand new page. For us creatives, renewed energy, and enthusiastic drive is what it will take to kick the new year off right. And who better to personify said energy than coffee fueled, Toronto-based photographer / cinematographer Peter Mckinnon? In his first "vlogtorial" style video of 2018 Mckinnon takes to the streets of Toronto with friend and sage-like video creator Chris Hau.

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. To say I gave up would be spot on. But maybe it was for the best, because two days later, Toronto-based Photographer and Cinematographer Peter McKinnon came out with all the answers to my problems — well, my technical and inspirational ones. The rest I'm still working on.

In my early days with Photoshop, there were many timex when I tediously removed background from text by "magic-wanding" it out. If you've ever been inexperienced enough to do this, then you know that you then have to isolate the background that remained within the closed off section of each letter, like the inside of an "o." I've come a long way since then, but apparently, not long enough. Because when I saw LA-based digital artist, best-selling author, and founder of PhotoshopCAFE, Colin Smith, blend out the white background to isolate the black text and vice versa using only a few clicks, my $^@%*! jaw dropped and my face met palm.

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.

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. If you're interested in the three part documentary video, be sure to turn on "subtitles / closed captions" and switch to "auto translate" English.

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.

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 Malaysian photographer CY Wong continues to demonstrate the point: it's not the camera that makes a photographer.

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.

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. Fortunately, independent filmmaker Vincent Ledvina has created an ongoing, animated series about, "Camera Basics." As part of that series this handy little animation explains all you really need to know about aperture, in just five minutes.

The Cooperative of Photography, a photography apparel manufacturer and community-focused online mag, produced a cool new photography series where they asked creative photographers questions and the answer come only in the form of images instead of words.

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.

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. If you follow the wisdom provided in these five simple insights you'll find your subjects falling into their own natural rhythms, resulting in more meaningful images with little to no need to tell subject "A" to put their hand here, and subject "B" there.

Inspired by a video of six photographers shooting the same model, Photographers Jessica Kobeissi, Irene Rudnyk, and Ruby James came together to collaborated on their own version of the challenge. Each photographer got the opportunity to choose a location and an outfit for the model before taking five minutes to get their shot.

I trust I'm not the only one who has had their eye on Fujifilm's GFX 50S. With its 51.4MP, 43.8mm x 32.9mm CMOS sensor, removable OLED EVF, 3.2" 2.36m-dot tilting touch screen, 117-point contrast-detection AF system, extended ISO 50-102400, weather-sealed magnesium-alloy body, and my love for my X100T (predecessor to the X100F), I've been seriously considering Fuji as a full-on replacement for my Canon kit.

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. Since my very first Canon 5D I've been on the hunt for a digital picture frame that could display images with the same brilliance as print.

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.

Have you ever wondered how filmmakers create realism in their films? Whether it's having a character scramble across a ceiling, severing the head of a zombie, making hair seemingly grow before your eyes, or getting a giant to flip a car over, all of these illusions are achieved by seamlessly combining any number of techniques, crafts, and concepts. In this video RocketJump Film School cites examples from Aliens, Wizard of Oz, The Godfather, Lord of the Rings, and other well known movies, to demonstrate how filmmakers use "movie magic" to sell their scenes.

I haven't been writing very much lately, but when Swedish Commercial Photographer Erik Johansson hit me with an email about his recent creation, I had to stop and take notice. And I'm not the only one. For the third chapter of their miniseries, "Human Made Stories," Volvo (in partnership with Sky Atlantic) spent three days this summer documenting Erik's process as he breathed life into his latest piece, "Wake Up." Volvo's miniseries features defiant pioneers who inspire, do things differently, challenge conventions, and blaze their own trail. Yup, that sounds like Erik to me.

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.

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 get a very candid look at every little detail and consideration the cast and crew had to make.

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. Leuthard arms himself with a discreet Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II mirrorless camera to capture the essence of everyday life as it happens on public streets.

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 that go along with their photos. These videos are very brief, but are compelling, beautiful, informative, and often, humorous. 

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.

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 of painful contact lenses.

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. How many times have you taken a group shot only to find one or two of your subjects were poorly lit because they were too far from the source light, hidden behind another subject, or from using multiple ambient light sources?

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.

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.

When Arizona-based Photographer Chad Castigliano set out to help his wife's non-profit organization, Books To The Rescue Yavapai County, he had no idea that his photoshoot to raise funds and awareness would spread like wildfire. Fortunately for Chad, his good friend and model for the project was Wildland Firefighter Tim Wilson.