howitwasshot

How I Use Stencils to ‘Paint’ Light into Geometric Shapes

As a photographer, when you produce a series of photos that goes viral and you close sales and license deals because of it, it is tempting to simply continue doing the same and hopefully keep receiving the attention you had in the first place.

Shooting Cyberpunk Flapper Girl and Other Photographic Mashups

It’s a rare occasion when I do a team collaboration on a personal shoot. I typically prefer to work directly with the model, having them bring their own wardrobe and arrive with their hair and makeup already done. It not only saves time and is easier to coordinate but I also love the challenge of coming up with a cohesive theme for the shoot, basing my techniques, lighting, and color palette on the items that they brought with them.

This is How Photojournalists Got Shots of Trump Golfing

President Trump was golfing on Saturday when most mainstream media outlets called the 2020 presidential election, projecting former Vice President Joe Biden as the winner. A few photojournalists managed to capture photos of Trump by shooting with ultra-telephoto camera lenses from nearly a mile away across the Potomac River.

How to Do Water Ripple Tank Shadow Photography

A simple ripple tank is the mainstay of every physics teacher's demo collection. The typical demonstration is done with a point light source of a little tungsten light bulb a few feet above the ripple tank. The ripple tank is in reality a shallow pan of water with a clear bottom. The ripples are observed by placing a sheet of paper a foot or so below the pan of water.

A Full Commercial Food Photo Shoot: From Concept to Shooting to Editing

In this 35-minute video, I go through my entire process of shooting for my commercial portfolio. During the COVID-19 lockdown, I have had more time to focus on my book, which will hopefully help get me back out there when everything opens up again.

How I Shot a Car Flying Off a 100-Foot Jump

I'm San Diego-based photographer Daniel Schenkelberg, and in the 1-minute video above, watch as I show you how I captured this face on remote camera shot mid-air.

Shooting a Professional Timelapse on a Smartphone

Hi! My name is Patrick Poh, I’m from Singapore, and I have been playing with timelapse photography for a few years. I recently completed the above timelapse video using a 3-year old phone (Sony XZ Premium) and a phone gimbal (Zhiyun Smooth Q), and I want to share about how it was done.

Behind the Scenes: Shooting a Bugatti Chiron Going from 0 to 250mph

Back in 2017, automotive filmmaker Al Clark and his team at OUTRUN filmed an impressive "0-400-0 km/h" commercial for Bugatti's latest and greatest supercar: the 1500bhp Bugatti Chiron. Now, after years of online speculation, Clark is finally revealing how exactly they did it.

This Magical Rain Photo of Harry and Meghan Was Lit by a Stranger’s Flash

A magical photograph of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle beaming at each other under an umbrella has been going viral over the past few days after the couple's first appearance together in public after they stepped back as senior members of the Royal Family (popularly called "Megxit"). Now the photographer behind the shot is sharing details of how it was made.

Shooting Environmental Portraits in Detroit

The City of Detroit has launched a redevelopment plan for the Gratiot/7-Mile community. I’ve been hired by the city and the consulting firm Giffels-Webster as the still-images creative director and photographer.

Shooting a Creative Album Cover Photo with a Delorean

In late 2018 my buddy RJ (AKA RJD2) approached me about shooting the cover art for an upcoming album he was working on. He didn’t have a concrete idea about what he wanted to do but suggested possibly involving his Delorean.

These Oversized Objects Were Shot with Photo Tricks and Zero Budget

For our latest project, Oversized Normality, we wanted to create an unreal world while at the same time achieve a realistic final result even if we had changed the proportion of an object 1:1000 times. We wished to accomplish this without using any advanced VFX techniques, which would have required a higher budget and more time.

Shooting a Photo of Politicians’ Empty Campaign Promises

'Politricks': "the word "politics" altered to convey the empty-campaign promises often experienced after politicians get elected." About a year ago I had this thought of making a picture from this word.

Shooting K9 Charity Calendar Photos for the Waterloo Police

The classic cop story: a devious crime, a detailed investigation, an exciting high-speed chase, an intense interrogation, a news conference with flashing popping as the police show off their impressive bust… except this one involves more drool, flying fur, and a gruesome pile of bones -- dog bones, that is.

This Photographer Uses Clever Tricks for Extraordinary Photos

Jordi Koalitic is a Barcelona-based photographer who has racked up over 1.3 million followers on his Instagram by specializing in "creative photography." Koalitic shares not only his finished photos but also behind-the-scenes photos showing the tricks he used to create them.

A Wet Plate Portrait of Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg exploded into the public consciousness last month after the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist gave an impassioned and scathing speech to world leaders at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. Earlier this month, wet plate photographer Shane Balkowitsch got 20 minutes with Thunberg at Standing Rock and used the time to make 2 wet plate portraits of her.

Stretching as a Photographer with My First Mass Headshot Photo Shoot

One of the great things about our jobs as photographers is that we get asked to do so many diverse things. To me, new and different assignments keep me fresh. Sometimes we get asked to do things that push our limits or are even beyond the bounds of anything we have done before. This is the story about how I approached a recent project that pushed me to the limit, and how I was able to tackle it and win.

How to Shoot a Day-vs-Night Photo in a Single Exposure

Here's a creative technique to add to your bag of tricks. In this 9.5-minute video, we’ll show you from start to finish how we took an ordinary scene and turned it into to go from day to night in one single exposure, in-camera.

This Crazy Camera Rig Spins a Phantom Camera at 150RPM

Steve Giralt is a photographer and "visual engineer" who uses wild-looking camera rigs to capture eye-popping shots seen in ads. His latest project involved a large, heavy camera rig that spins a Phantom VEO 4K high-speed camera around a tabletop subject at 150 rotations per minute.

One of the Most Iconic Kissing Photos Was Staged

What's up, photography fans? It's Martin here from All About Street Photography, and today I want to talk about the story behind the famous photo Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville (Kiss by the Town Hall) by French photographer Robert Doisneau.

How I Shot a Concept Photo of an Organ Market

A surgeon at a meat market. It's an absolutely simple yet ridiculous idea, so it had to be done for real! China has been harvesting organs from detainees, so maybe this absurd project of mine isn't so far from the truth!

Putting a Man ‘on’ the Moon: A Photo for Apollo 11’s 50th Anniversary

I've been fascinated with the idea of incorporating the moon into photos whenever possible. And so, with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon landing on July 20th, I was excited by the possibility to shoot something special for the occasion: Putting a man "on" the moon.

What I Learned from Capturing My First Total Solar Eclipse

Last week I made the long trip from the UK to Chile in the hopes of capturing my first total solar eclipse. I had experienced a cloudy total solar eclipse from the UK in 1999 but back then I was just 9 years old and certainly no photographer. Now that I’m apparently a professional landscape astrophotographer, a total solar eclipse was a gaping hole in my portfolio.

I Photograph Birds in My Backyard by Setting Up Stages

Last year I joined my local photography club. The club holds regular competitions and I was amazed by the quality of the bird and wildlife photographs. I've never been much of a natural history photographer. So it's not surprising that my own photographs did very poorly in competitions.

How I Shot My Own Wildlife Short Film for Less Than $100

As a true fan of the wildlife documentary genre, I have been itching to create my own short wildlife video project ever since I started doing wildlife photography. That being said, and despite having some previous experience with videography and video editing, producing a high-quality wildlife video always seemed like a too difficult task for a single person with a non-existent budget and some pretty basic gear, and so I never pushed myself into trying it.

Slow-Shutter High-Speed Action Photography

With so many ways to be creative in photography, I get really excited with many ideas for a photograph. One area I find very interesting is sports action photography, but with a twist. It's great to capture that split-second moment and have that frame frozen, but I wanted to explore capturing the motion and freezing the action all in one go.