If you've been wanting to get an aerial perspective but dont have a clue how to fly an octocopter, check out the new LA100 by Lehmann Aviation. They've designed a drone that flies itself while an attached GoPro records the flight. After take off, the drone follows a preset flight pattern for five minutes and gives an excellent view of the surrounding area.
Very few of us have been involved in photography and art long enough to truly appreciate how much change has taken place in when it comes to cameras and photographs. David Hockney, a British artist who has dedicated much of his life to painting and photography, thinks some of the art in imagery has been lost along the way. In short, Photoshop is boring.
It might be easy to form a quick opinion about a picture like this. I'll admit it, when I first heard “trucks,” I was already curious about the people I was going to work with. It's not often that you run into someone who is passionate about their vehicle.
Although there are thousands Guinness Wold Records and some are broken every day, it's still inspiring to see large numbers of people come together with a common goal. Recently, both GoPro and Devin Graham filmed different world records.
Of course, if you ever learned anything about art history, you know Vincent van Gogh has long been dead. That didn't stop the creative mind that brought you the Blow Job series from posting the backwards claim on his blog that someone had turned his old portrait photograph into a painting.
Over the last few days, I've taken some time to reflect on 2012 and my work as a wedding photographer. Yes, it's getting close to mid January, New Years has long past, and you may think it's a little late to be retrospective, right?
If you've watched the TV series "Grimm," you may be curious how the mythological creatures from Grimm's fairy tales make it onto screen. Bent Image Lab, the production company behind the cg creations of the show, explains their process of transforming characters into creatures and adding a fantastical element to each episode.
In the last several years camera development has taken huge strides in giving photographic capabilities of stills to video. Non film makers now have the capability of taking cinematic quality video without needing to upgrade from their dslr. In this video, Untitled Film Works unpacks the continual merging of stills and video.
To shrink the hobbits in "Lord of the Rings" was not a simple feat for Peter Jackson, it took a lot of set crafting and perspective tricks. Instead of going through those extra hoops for the recently released "The Hobbit," Peter and his team took a different composite approach to the process of resizing the actors. Our friends at Popular Mechanics detailed how the results were achieved.
For one of the most epic trailer sequences of the year, youtuber Genrocks compiled over 100 films into one sequence. Although the movies range into every genre, the sequence flows amazingly well from one scene to the next. For a list of all the movies and music used in the compilation, click here.
We've featured several creative uses of projection mapping here on Fstoppers before, used for both commercial photo shoots or just visual appeal. There is something captivating about incorporating dynamic imagery into a set. Formative is a company that adapts projection mapping set ups for any auditorium.
I've been a fan of all of the Lord of the Rings movies and am very much looking forward to the release of The Hobbit this December. I always knew that a lot of work went into the film industry beyond the actors and cameras, but after seeing this behind the scenes of the upcoming Hobbit movie, it makes me realize how extensive the work is after all the filming is said and done.
If you've been looking to upgrade your video set up and get some higher quality audio, take a peek at the holiday savings for the TASCAM DR-40 4-Track Portable Digital Recorder. B&H is offering the fantastic price of $139 plus a $15 rebate. Although online ordering is unavailable till tomorrow afternoon, you can still stick it your cart for later.
Everyone knows "that" guy or girl who should have stuck with a point and shoot when picking out their camera. From the gear head to the overly enthusiastic "artist," Youtubers DSLRnoidea have a little fun with the type of people who really weren't meant to own a dslr.
If you're a fan of setting up bird feeders and watching the adorable little animals swoop into your back yard, you might want to look into this new piece of equipment designed by Bryson Lovett. Instead of hunting down your favorite avian wildlife at 200 mm, this little contraption allows you to view and photograph the birds up close and personal without invading their space.
It takes a lot of patience to put together an extended time-lapse work; I have great admiration for anyone who actually finishes one. "Existence" is a time-lapse project which Michael Shainblum worked hard on for four months.
Good special effects are the ones you don't really realize were "special." They are the moments that give you that sense of awe without dragging you away from being caught in the moment. Fuel VFX specializes in creating special effects for a wide range of movies, some of which you've most likely seen this year.
I'm always a fan of watching talented humans. Parkour is one of those activities which I'll never be good at, but am amazed to watch. HeliPOV had the same idea and decided that parkour group 3RUN should be shown off to the rest of us. The HeliPOV team was kind enough to film the groups jumps and dives using their multicopter.
Short films are regular projects for Andres Overgaard. Instead of doing his normal work, for one of his most recent projects, Andres decided to take out the Canon 550D/Rebel t2i and test out his Tamron 18-270 mm shooting some video. All shots were hand held with some work done later in post.
A good car chase has heroes, villians, jumps, crashes, helicopters and more. Youtube master Freddie Wong manages to capture the best elements of an epic car chase but does it on a small scale. By using RC cars, Freddie and his crew are able to set up the scene and retake as many times as they want. Check out the final video below.
There are a few ways to photograph motocross in action, but one of the best is to use a high powered strobe. For his latest shoot in NamJi, South Korea, Manchul Kim takes a couple of strobes to the track and sees how close he can get to the action.
In a creative and fun spec commercial, Ross Ching uses a really cool Popsicle stick trick and creatively applies it to a fun story. As he describes, Popsicle sticks can fit together in a certain way so that when triggered, a chain reaction occurs down the line at 35 mph. To capture this process, he used the Phantom Miro shooting at 1000 fps.
To put a little twist on filming one of Nissan's most recent car commercials, the crew involved shot everything on a miniature scale by using a few different RC vehicles. Check out how the team tried to preserve some of the standard elements that you might see in a car commercial. The group gets quite creative in building customized camera mounts to keep the best angles.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to the US last week but it appears that his entire delegation didn't return to Iran. Ahmadinejad's photographer is reported to have filed the paperwork to seek asylum and remain in the United States. According to U.S law, once you've filed for asylum, you can legally remain within the country until a decision is made.
As a wedding photographer, there's a certain amount of pressure to get all the "key moment" shots throughout the day. Make sure you get the kiss, dances, tosses, cutting, etc... The list adds up quickly. Despite good preparation, dependable equipment, and anticipation of events, every now and then you're probably going to miss one of these shots.
We've seen behind the scenes videos of how projection mapping can be used artistically and commercially. Tobias Bjorkgren takes on a slightly different angle and applies the concept to his latest fashion shoot. The use of projection allows him to stand his models in front of varying scenes without having to leave the studio. To see the final images, check out his blog.
Stressed at work or need a break? Seriously, put your feet up and enjoy. There's nothing that will relax you quite like some gorgeous scenes of nature put to some dulcet piano notes. John Eklund took this series of time lapses at multiple locations throughout the pacific northwest shooting around 260,000 images.
It's a standard today that once you get famous, you're going to have paparazzi following you around taking pictures. Granted, it's their job to get the juiciest shots possible to show up on the racks of your local convenience store. But, every few weeks there seems to be some new complaint by celebrities of invasion of privacy, so it begs the question, how far is too far?
Canon just recently released their newest model of the one man Cinema Camcorder EOS C100.
If you've ever wondered about a simple, travel friendly time lapse setup, check this out. During his recent time in South Africa, Chase Jarvis was able to use four different cameras to capture time lapse sequences over the course of two hours. Not only does Chase break down the settings he uses, he also explains how time settings of his camera will translate to a final product at 24 fps.
"Nightfall" is one of the most recent works by photographer Colin Rich, who photographs the transition from day to night over the massive city of LA in a stunning way. Colin utilizes some fantastic camera movement which really adds a dynamic element to the work.
We are in an age where CG dominates today's movies and cartoons. While the effects can be pretty cool, it can be refreshing when people work old-school and create a work based off green screen and creativity.
If your wedding client asked to have a customized pre wedding shoot halfway around the world, how would you treat the opportunity? Simeon Quarrie, who has developed a reputation for himself as an incredible creative and committed photographer jumped at the option to be flown to Jaipur, India to shoot in a unique setting for his wedding clients.
Anyone who works commercially knows how important it is to adapt the product you deliver to your clients needs; this is especially true when dealing cross culturally. Voodoo Partners in Germany does an excellent job of this as they take us behind the scenes in one of their recent Jewelry commercials to be aired in Qatar.
Every now and then you have to stop and recognize a piece of work not only for the creative thoughts put into it, but also for the sheer amount of effort involved in pulling off the project. Vu Hoang and a small team managed to come up with this clever stop motion music video using over 3,000 hand cut pictures stitched together in a clever guy meets girl music video.
