Do you have images or films that are sitting on your file servers and nobody, except for your team and the client, knows you did them? Even if you don't, you will eventually have a few some day. How would you handle such requests to not publish images and can you take any advantage of that?
You don't have a dolly, a steadicam stabilization system, or a gimbal, but maybe you have a tripod and a camera. It's more than enough, really, but you need a story. That's what this short film, "Incident by a Bank," is all about. The story has been carefully orchestrated and recorded as a single 12-minute long take from a camera on a tripod.
Long takes in films are always impressive because they show a continuous performance of the actors within the scene without any cut. This requires very focused work both from the actors and the people behind the camera. I say "people" because it's not only the camera operator, as you can see in this behind the scenes from the movie "Atonement." It shows how they achieved a spectacular five minute long take that involved hundreds of people, horses (even dead ones), and an abundance of historical props. I thought it was all shot by a steadicam operator walking with the actors but I was surprised that it wasn't that easy.
When I first started in filmmaking, I didn't want anyone in the world to know how I made my first video because I knew filmmakers usually have expensive tools and expensive software. At that time I didn't have either but I made that video anyway. Today I'm going to share the details with you.
You may have just started your journey in photography or you have been on the market for quite some time, and you still wonder if your website has more to do with getting more clients than you might think. The answer is yes, but only to some extent. Let me tell you what I thought was important for my website and what I think is important today.
Fight stunts are not something that I'm into when shooting video, but I'm always curious how the pros do them. In this video the stunt coordinator of the "Atomic Blonde" movie, Sam Hargrave, breaks down how the fight moves were choreographed. Not only that, but being a second unit director, he also gives insight of how they shot and cut the footage from these scenes.
Telling a story with moving images has been evolving so much through the years. One of the most important milestones in this journey is the progress from monochromatic to color pictures.
Ready to try Sigma's Art optical quality built into a cinema glass? Sigma has made that possible in their new 14mm T2 FF and 135mm T2 FF cine lenses and now have announced their prices and availability.
Full-frame cameras are superior to the crop sensor ones. There's no doubt. Most of the professional photographers out there are making a living with full-frame bodies and thus those cameras are considered professional. What if you shoot with smaller sensor cameras? Let me share my own story.
Would you work on a project where you as a photographer who creates the final images will take about 10 percent of the production cost? That's a tricky question.
No matter how small I am in the business I always try to watch how the big ones do it. Probably I won't be able to do most of the work those big budget movies do, but I still want to know the principles. Who knows what may come up my way that may need key knowledge I get from videos like these. In that segment the stunt coordinator Darrin Prescott describes how they shot the opening scene from "John Wick 2."
There is a great abundance of Star Wars fan films and honestly I don't like most of them. Some of them have too fake fight scenes, some are too long, and some are way heavier on VFX. Most of the time it's all about showing the result from a "how to make a light saber in Premiere" tutorial. But this short film is different and I liked it.
Video cameras' resolution war has already started. So has the frames-per-second race. Current DSLRs shoot high resolution stills and lower resolution video. What if you can have an 8K video camera that captures both raw stills and raw video in 8K? Would you replace your stills camera with it?
A video camera is a machine that has recording capabilities that captures images through an attached lens. Whether it's your phone, DSLR, film, or a digital cinema camera, that's the basic principle. But wait. You watch a behind-the-scenes footage of a movie and you see a gigantic monstrous camera that has lots of cables and gadgets. If it's the camera body and the lens that do the essential work, why complicate things that much?
Blend modes in Photoshop are still confusing lots of us even after years of using the software. This article is about two of them: Luminosity and Color. You may start using them more frequently after you understand their strengths and cases when you should use them.
As with every new product, Canon sponsors a number of projects to show the capabilities of their upcoming C200 cinema camera. Indeed, it has great features at its price level, but what is a great camera without a good example how it was used? The perfect film marriage is between a beautiful story, captivating visuals, and audio that ties it altogether. I think we have them all here, including a glimpse of how it was done behind the scenes.
Whether you are a professional photographer or an amateur, you will face situations where you have to make compromises with the image quality or image concepts. I'll share nasty situations when you can't get the job done the best way, but you have to come up with a decent solution anyway.
For a western film you may need authentic props. Maybe you need a cool location. Maybe you need an Arri Alexa with anamorphic lenses. Maybe you need a ton of lighting. Maybe you need an expensive software to edit the project. Well, some of these are not that essential.
Becoming as a commercial photographer can't be defined with a formula. Each story is different but lots of stories share similar basic principles. They can be applied not only in the areas of photography and filmmaking, but also in other businesses.
Whether it's a style or a genre, film noir has that signature high contrast look we've seen in many old black and white films. Modern filmmakers also adopted that style of lighting and post-processing in their drama and thriller movies. In this video you'll go behind the scenes of how to achieve that film noir look in camera.
Being good at photography or filmmaking doesn't automatically lead to a successful business. You have to make yourself known to the world. Making that possible doesn't always require a lot of money. In this article I will share my personal approach to marketing my photography and filmmaking business.
When you hear about the Atomos monitors, most of you will think about their portable small and rugged monitor-recorders many amateur and pro filmmakers use. This time they leveled it up by creating a big 19-inch monitor-recorder with exciting features many other monitor brands in this category still lack.
Edelkrone has reinvented it again. This time, it's a motion control system that includes some of its existing products as well as new additions bundled into a kit they say is the "world’s smartest and most portable 4-axis motion control system."
If you're into video editing you are probably interested in visual effects to some extent. Even if you aren't, bookmark the current article as you will eventually be. Visual effects is not some software magic that works with any footage. With video you have lots of still images per second and the process of making a composite needs to be automated as much as possible. Working on a frame by frame basis is avoided as much as possible. In this video you will find 10 quick tips on the importance of having appropriate video content in order to help easily create more realistic visual effects.
Being busy doesn't mean being profitable. Working on all kinds of projects doesn't lead to a successful photography career. This article is not the usual "Five quick steps to become a wealthy photographer." To be honest, it's a slow process, but if you understand its principles it will guide you on the journey to success.
Editorial assignments can be both boring and quite interesting. Most of the time that depends on the photographer's attitude, not the budget. Let me show you how I approached a project where I had to make portraits of a motivational speaker and influencer.
Not all cinema lenses are made the same, not even those in the affordable price range or that come from the same manufacturer. In this article, you will see the structural and optical differences between Rokinon and Rokinon Xeen cinema lenses and what to purchase if you're looking for video glass on budget.
Pricing has always been a subject of interest for photographers. Whether you practice high-end commercial photography or you take beautiful family portraits, understanding and determining a just pricing strategy for you and the client is very important.
Once again, Vanity Fair teamed up with Mark Seliger to produce iconic photographs of Hollywood stars in a custom-built portrait studio at the 2017 Oscars. The portraits are definitely great, but we as photographers always seek to find the secrets of the masters, such as lighting, camera settings, posing, post-processing, etc. Seliger did the job in four steps. If you follow these steps, it will guarantee you a similar career.
The majority of the readers of this article who shoot video probably use still lenses. You might ask yourself why you may need different lenses for video while your existing photography ones work just fine. In this article I'd like to show you certain features of the cinema glass that you probably always wanted subconsciously. Maybe after reading this you'll start saving up the money for one.
A marriage between James Bond and Inspire 2 has taken place. It's not your usual vacation drone. It's an industrial machine that, in terms of artistry, may only work for badass artists.
The video world is changing. If you thought you'd never be able to have a cinema lens because you couldn't afford it, think again, because Fujifilm just released their Fujinon MK 18-55mm T2.9 zoom glass. It will surprise you with its features and price tag.
Resolution, bit depth, compression, bit rate. These are just few of the countless parameters our cameras and files have. Let's talk about bit depth here. There's a lot of good talk about 10 bit and a lot of bad talk about 8 bit. The computer can tell the difference, but can you?
Buying the right gear for you is not only a question of money. Sometimes the wisest decisions are made within a tight budget, while the stupidest choices may be made when finances are abundant. In this article I'd like to share with you my process of buying new gear for my photography and video projects.
Being a filmmaker gives you a lot of power to manipulate the emotions of the viewer. This can be achieved in several ways. Peter McKinnon shows examples of the same clips edited with various techniques to evoke entirely different moods.
