I'm not usually too big on photography seminars but this one is just too good to pass up. On October 2nd and 3rd Natalia Taffarel the famous retoucher is sharing her secrets for only $400. I will be flying up to NYC just to learn from her and it would be cool to see some other Fstoppers readers there as well. Check out the details here.
I just stumbled upon this amazing skateboard video moments ago. As I was watching it I thought, "man I wish I could put this on FS but I'm sure there isn't any BTS". I was pleasantly surprised to find that the second half of the video is all BTS footage. Enjoy!
"LAKAIROMANIA" from Marc Ritzema on Vimeo.
What does a guy have to do to find a high quality, informative BTSV around here? Apparently I have to start looking at videos that were released years ago.
Here is a quick BTS Chase made over 2 years ago. We haven't ever posted it but if you have seen it, don't get mad at us; good BTSVs are hard to come by these days.
We have all heard about and seen footage from the Phantom camera. This thing can shoot amazing slomo at 1050fps at 1080p. I, however, have never actually seen the camera itself before. Tom takes us through a quick tutorial, because we will probably never get to touch one ourselves. Is anyone else shocked by the terrible navigation on this camera?
Sometimes videos don't require a BTS because although they are a unique idea, they don't necessarily have to be complicated. Danny writes "Everyone has experienced fireworks. It is truly a magical sight. I set out to capture them, not as we know them normally, but in a way that many of you may not have seen them before.
I am proud to announce our first monthly contest winner is Ken Brown. The theme for the photography contest was "technology" and Ken delivered a gorgeous shot of a Lotus sports car.
Ok guys, here is the deal. We did some poking around and I am happy to say that it doesn't appear that anyone has been cheating. Multiple contestants got many of their friends and family members to sign up and vote for them and although that wasn't our ideal plan, it is totally fair and within our rules.
I was one of the few people on the planet that actually wasn't a huge fan of Avatar but I did love the special effects. James and his team had to create new technology to produce the most successful movie of all time. Check out his camera setup below.
Game Trailers - E3 2011 - Gadget Pr0n
I am a huge fan of the technology behind movie special effects. Here is a quick look behind the scenes of the movie John Adams. It's amazing what is possible these days.
Just a friendly reminder that you have 3 days left to enter our monthly photography contest. Submit your "technology" pictures by posting them here.
We just got back into the states yesterday and we should have the BTS contest for the camera figured out and running again on Tuesday.
Annie Leibovitz is perhaps the most well known photographer in the world and her work always stands out from the crowded world of photography. While her Louis Vuitton campaign with Sean Connery is a few years old now, there is still a lot of great information to be gained from the beach shoot.
Here is a very simple but totally informative video about splash photography. I cannot figure out who this photographer is, if you happen to know please post it in the comments below.
Martin needed a light weight camera crane that could fit in a backpack, setup in under two minutes, and hold a DSLR. This sounds too good to be true right? Well it was, so I built one by hand.
Light Camera Crane - Build from Martin Roberts on Vimeo.
There has been some shady activity on our forum. Patrick and I are about to head out of the country for 5 days and we will not have internet. We have decided to pause the contest voting so that we can research IPs of the voters on the contest. More info soon.
When we launched Fstoppers back in February, we were working hard to create our own original video content to help kick off our website. After shooting this video, it got buried in my computer before I had time to edit it because we were also working to complete multiple other videos at the same time. I finally had enough free time to finish up this quick food shoot.
Remember Travis Harris? He called me out of the blue a few months back and actually flew to Charleston to assist me at a couple of weddings. Since then Travis has had one goal in mind: to do whatever it takes to quit his day job and work as a full time professional photographer.
If you have not seen the Go Pro HD Hero camera before, let me introduce it to you. We have bought a few of these this summer for various projects and they are a lot of fun to play with and the footage is absolutely amazing. We will have some new Fstoppers videos coming out soon with Go Pro HD footage but in the meantime you must check out these videos.
First of all I would like to apologize for the delay. We have been in contact with a few other web admins with contest experience and they warned us that cheating could be a big problem. We wanted to create a fair voting system before we jumped into this and we have finally figured it out.
Tom Guilmette has been creating a bunch of interesting videos recently, this being no exception. Check out his new toy below.
Kessler Shuttle Pod Dolly System Tutorial - Oracle Controller and ElektraDRIVE Motor from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.
We have posted Tom's work before. Here is a little behind the scenes of how he actually does it.
Behind the Scenes: Timelapse Crane from Tom Lowe @ Timescapes on Vimeo.
Cris Matthews just sent this video over to me. He did a few tests with the iPhone 4 and a ring light. He also used his iPad to review and edit the images. I have gota say, if I can easily and instantly view my shots on an iPad like they seem to be doing I will buy one tomorrow.
VideoJunkie.co.uk - iPhone Fashion Shoot from Cris Matthews on Vimeo.
Andrew Roshka doesn't like to shoot the average portrait. Instead Andrew begins with an idea and a drawing. He then brings this concept to life no matter how complicated that may be. Check out this great BTSV on his very in depth shoot.
fstoppers.com bts Andrew Roshka - high res from Andrew Roshka on Vimeo.
I was just introduced to Freddie's youtube channel and I am blown away. Freddie and his friends keep creating fantastic videos with some impressive homemade CGI and then they explain how they did it. Watch this BTS below and the finished product in the full post.
Diana Deaver is a talented photographer and good friend of mine from Charleston SC. A few weeks before the deadline she told me that she was working on a contest submission that would focus on natural lighting. Diana is a master of natural light and so I was very excited to see what she could come up with. Check out her very informatve video below.
I know everyone who entered the contest is patiently waiting for the voting to begin and I wanted to give you all a quick update. We are going to take this week to continue to post our favorite contest entries on the front page. Then we plan to create a post that has every video submission in one post so that our readers can easily find and watch all of them.
The bar has officially been raised. Thomas Woodson and Grant Lankford just submitted an amazing BTSV for the contest. This video has it all; it is fun to watch, it is informative, and it has fantastic final images. The most exciting part to me though is that they did all of this with just 1 strobe and a bed sheet!
I am really enjoying this quality images from low quality gear thing that has been going on around here lately. Check out Photo 54 shooting with just 1 light.
BTS - Entry Level Gear from Photo54 on Vimeo.
Let me begin by saying that this BTSV is not very informative. I usually only post videos that will help others learn but I must make an exception. This video is the most beautiful behind the scenes video I have ever seen. As creative professionals this video should be inspiring to us all on so many levels. Who would have thought that you could turn a simple photoshoot into a work of art.
A few days ago I posted a video this duo created to help all the haters understand that expensive gear does not equal quality pictures. Well Zach And Corinne are back at it again with their contest entry. I was hoping for something a bit more in depth from these guys but they packed some quality into 3 minutes.
BTS Photoshoot from Zach Andrews on Vimeo.
Ok, not REALLY, but that was the concept for the shoot. I like this BTSV for 2 reasons. First, he has a concept. So many photographers just take headshots of girls and forget about coming up with any sort of idea or theme for the pictures. Lorand Peli planned this shoot out before he ever started and it shows.
We have all seen great slomo videos on the internet but rarely do you get to see what it takes to film them. Check out Tom Guilmette's quick BTSV.
Fastec Imaging High Speed Camera - Testing 718 Frames Per Second at 720p from Tom Guilmette on Vimeo.
Everybody likes the old spice towel guy and his single take commercials right? Well they are some of the most popular commercials of all time because nobody can figure out how they were shot. It kills me that they don't film complete BTSVs of the whole process but we have the next best thing below. Isiah Mustafa, the towel guy himself, will walk you through it.
This is going to be a busy week for FS. The contest submissions are starting to pour in because the deadline is only 6 days away. We are going to try to bring you at least one professional BTSV and one contest submission every day.
