Large portrait taking gigs can be a bit of a nightmare. If you're taking multiple portraits of a few hundred people, trying to sort through those and organize them so that they're easily found is no walk in the park. Fortunately, you can find an automatic solution to this problem on Robert Bieber's photo blog Bieber Photographic.
Destin of Smarter Every Day recently shot some light-painting photographs using an RC helicopter loaded with colored lights. The maneuverability of the helicopter turns the great outdoors into a giant canvas on which you can light paint giant 3D shapes.
Lee Filters is a world-class producer of high-quality filters for both photography and cinematography, and now we have a chance to see what goes into making these high-end accessories. Keep in mind that these filters aren't made by some machine on an assembly line; each Lee Filter is made by hand, and in this video Mike Browne shows you what that process entails from liquid start to solid finish.
Back in February the New York Times launched a new site called "The Lively Morgue" for regularly sharing photos from its historical archive of the same name. The video above gives an interesting behind-the-scenes glimpse at this amazing underground archive that stores millions of historical photographs and 300,000 sacks filled with negatives.
Reuters photographer Kevin Lamarque recently got a call that summoned him for a top secret assignment: travel on an unannounced trip to Afghanistan with President Obama. After getting back, Lamarque wrote up an interesting behind-the-scenes blog post documenting his experience: …
By and large, as a professional of whatever description, clients hire you based on experience and expertise, grace under pressure, problem-solving skills, and your finely-tuned ability to transcend the limitations of the assignment and distill the essence of an idea into its most purely realized form.
Columbus, Ohio-based photographer Nick Fancher works as the lifestyle photographer of Men's online shopping club JackThreads, a job that has him shooting lifestyle photos for 8-12 brands every single day. The behind-the-scenes video above shows what a typical day for Fancher looks like as he hurries around to different locations in the city to photograph his models wearing different clothing items from different brands. It not only shows the process of shooting the images, but also lighting …
This "How It's Made" segment provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the manufacturing process for modern Walker Titan SF 4x5 large format cameras.
Washington DC-based photographer Sam Hurd has a series titled "Epic Portraits" that consists of portraits of famous individuals captured using techniques such as the Brenizer method, freelensing, and compositing. What's neat is that each photograph has its own behind-the-scenes page detailing how it was created (the gear, goal, vision, story, and lesson learned).
Stephen Shankland over at CNET has written an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how DxO Labs -- one of the world's premier camera testing services -- evaluates equipment. DxO Labs is based near Paris, France and was the result of a 2003 spinoff from a company called Vision IQ, which specialized in swimming pool safety. Since then, the group has published over 185 in-depth camera reviews on its website DxOMark.
Street photographer Markus Hartel recently did some shooting on the sidewalks of New York City on a rainy day with a Kodak Playtouch rigged to his Leica M9 and 28mm Elmarit. The above video shows a point-of-view documentation of his walk along with the "keeper" shots that resulted.
Here's a video in which photographer Ryan Schude walks through how he went about shooting a photograph titled "The Diner". The image involved 24 lights, 20 subjects, and 12 hours of shooting. Check out his crazy lighting diagram and the finished photo.
How would you go about photographing a $380,000 Lamborghini Aventador? Here's an interesting behind the scenes video in which photographer Blair Bunting presents a step-by-step walkthrough of how went about doing it.
Los Angeles-based photographer Ian Ruhter creates amazing photographs using a van that he turned into a gigantic camera. He uses the collodion process (AKA wet plate photography) to turn large sheets of metal into photographs, and spends upwards of $500 making each giant one-of-a-kind print.
Here's an oldie but goodie: back in September 2009, photographer Chris Weeks released this documentary about street photography titled Documenting the Human Condition. It's occasionally preachy and at times feels like a stealthy Leica advertisement, but should be interesting to you if you're at all interested in the practice of street photography.
What would you do if you were given the task of creating a self-portrait within 20 minutes in front of an auditorium packed with people? That was the challenge given to photographers David Hobby, Martin Prihoda, and Gregory Heisler earlier this month at Gulf Photo Plus 2012 in Dubai. The video above shows what unfolded. It's like watching the photography equivalent of a freestyle rap battle.
Here's a video in which renowned portrait photographer Nadav Kander discusses his approach to photography and portraiture. One thing that's interesting about Kander's method is that he tries not to connect with his subjects prior to photographing them: …
The digital photography course offered by Stanford (CS 178, which we featured last year) has an awesome page filled with flash applets that can help you gain a better understanding of certain technical aspects of photography. These include understanding how various factors affect depth of field, a visual look at how phase detection autofocus works, and a simple introduction to color theory.
I’ve always been fascinated by pancake lenses. It just amazes me that something that small can actually function. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we’ve been taking things apart to determine where and how (and sometimes if) the lenses can be adjusted optically. So, I decided to do two pancake lenses for mirrorless cameras side-by-side to see how they differed (the Sony 16mm f/2.8 E mount and the Olympus 17mm f/2.8 micro 4/3 mount). I wasn’t sure there would be much we could do with …
Here's a fascinating video by NASA that explains what auroras are and what they look like from space. It's filled with beautiful photographs and time-lapse sequences captured by astronauts on the International Space Station. Astronaut photographer Don Pettit, who maintains a blog about his experiences, writes that taking pictures of Earth is harder than it looks.
Last year we shared a table listing the various hazards National Geographic photographers experience while on the job. Of the 45 members surveyed, 8 of them had been attacked by wild animals. Here's a video in which Nat Geo photographer Mattias Klum describes an experience in which he went face-to-face with a lioness, and escaped with both his life and an amazing photograph.
One of the most important things I’ve learned during my ongoing adventure as a small-town, self-employed photographer is that nothing is more important than the relationships I’m building. So when I decided sometime last year that I was going to do a 2012 promo I wanted to create something that looked elegant, something that the recipients could be a part of and most importantly, something that could start building long-lasting relationships.
YouTube filmmaker Casey Neistat's DSLR recently took a tumble, breaking a piece off of the built-in lens hood of his Sigma lens. Instead of sending the lens in for repairs, Neistat decided to do a thrifty repair himself. After finding a similar-sized jar lid on some peanut butter at a local grocery store, he created a replacement hood himself by drilling a large hole and a couple small screw holes into the lid. He calls the project "The Peanut Butter Solution".
Haristobald recently captured a series of Superman photographs without the use of Photoshop or body painting.
Photoshop guru Scott Kelby has released a free iPad app that teaches the lighting techniques he used for various photographs in his portfolio.
Ever wonder how photographs were made back in the days of the Civil War? This video by the George Eastman House provides an interesting step-by-step look at how tintype photographs are created. It'll make you feel spoiled as a modern day photographer.
Here's a documentary film about acclaimed American photographer Richard Avedon that originally aired in 1995. If you have 90 minutes to spare, watching this movie is a great way to peek into the mind of a master and become inspired to improve your own photography.
Here's an interesting video tutorial by Destin of Smarter Every Day that shows how you can capture amazing photos of guns being fired and their muzzle flashes. Here's the "basic" idea: he uses a piezoelectric transducer to convert acoustical energy into an electrical pulse, which he sends through a pulse generator. The pulse from the pulse generator is used to trigger a flash and an high-speed exposure. This allows him to photograph guns at the moment they're fired in the same way many people …
Street photographer Eric Kim and DigitalRev host Kai Wong recently got together to do some street photography on the streets of Hong Kong. Kim and Wong have personalities that go well together (and look like brothers), making for some pretty humorous photographic entertainment.
Photographer Benjamin Von Wong recently had the idea of doing a photo shoot that involved a model being lit on fire. He assembled a team of people -- including a person willing to be lit on fire and some fire experts -- and then set out to turn his vision into a reality. This interesting behind-the-scenes video shows how they went about capturing a burning man without using Photoshop to add in the flames.
This amazing photograph of sailor Alex Thomson walking on the keel of an 8-ton yacht was created with courage rather than Photoshop. It was an ad for fashion house HUGO BOSS, which has sponsored Alex Thomson Racing since 2003. The conditions for the shot had to be just right, and the skipper had to carefully keep the yacht at a 45-degree angle for up to a minute to avoid crushing Thomson and the jet ski driver.
Here's a clip from the bodybuilding documentary "Bigger Faster Stronger” in which photographer Rich Schaff spills the beans on some industry secrets for how those unbelievable before-and-after photos promoting bodybuilding products are made. He shows how both shots can be of the same model on the same day, with various tricks and image manipulations used to achieve the drastic differences you see.
Here's an awesome TED lecture in which digital artist Erik Johansson discusses creating realistic "photographs" of impossible scenes.
Street photographer Eric Kim created this video showing what it's like to photograph passers-by on the sidewalks of Beverly Hills, CA. He attached a GoPro camera to his Leica M6 (loaded with Kodak Portra 400 film) to record his adventure, and then edited in the final photographs after getting the film developed. Kim ruffled a lot of feathers with some of his old behind-the-scenes videos due to his in-your-face style, but has since toned it down quite a bit -- not using a large handheld flash …
National Geographic photographers get to do the coolest things. In this video, photographer Carsten Peter takes us along with him on a journey into Son Doong, the world's largest cave located in Vietnam. The biggest chamber in the cave is over 3 miles long and more than four times taller than the Statue of Liberty.
For those of you who are interested in the fine art of studio lighting, here's a video in which American celebrity photographer George Holz talks about how he went about photographing Beyonce for the cover of Spin magazine.
Destin of Smarter Every Day made this helpful video in which he and his daughter explain the basics of light painting and digital camera sensors using "super simple speak".
L.L.Bean recently decided to celebrate its 100-year anniversary by having commercial photographer Randal Ford recreated a classic 1933 catalog cover as a photograph. It's amazing how faithfully Ford and his team was able to recreate the illustration -- some of the vintage clothing had to be purchased off eBay!
Kai of DigitalRev shares some tips -- both serious and humorous -- on the art of street photography.
German broadcaster Deutsche Welle produced this interesting segment on photographer Yuri Arcurs and how he turned his microstock photography into a million-dollar photography empire. Here's a mind-boggling statistic: on average, Arcurs sells one of his images every 8 seconds.
Want to know what it's like to cover a football game as the chief photographer of a school's athletic department? Photographer Joel Hawksley created this day-in-the-life time-lapse video after being assigned to cover a football game between Ohio University and Temple University. It starts early in the morning when he pulls out of his driveway, and ends at night when he pulls in. In between we see everything from setting up, shooting, post-processing, and uploading/emailing photographs. Hawksley …
TIME magazine named "The Protester" as its "Person of the Year" last year. This behind-the-scenes video shows how photographer Peter Hapak traveled around to seven different countries to capture portraits of protestors for the story. The resulting photographs can be viewed here.
Aviation photographer Justin de Reuck has an awesome job: rather than do photo shoots in the comfort of a studio, he hops into fighter jets to photograph other airplanes in flight. This behind-the-scenes video shows him at work, snapping images while zipping around above the clouds and battling G-forces. The photographs that resulted from this shoot can be seen here.
While there are quite a few photographers out there who are fans of using early photographic processes (e.g. the collodion process), wet plate photographer Dana Geraths takes things one step further: he builds the camera equipment he uses. You can check out Gerath's work on his website here.
Ever wonder how the photographs found on the pages of National Geographic come together? Here's a fascinating behind-the-scenes video showing how the images of the 1992 cover story titled "The Sense Of Sight" -- photographed by Joe McNally -- were shot, edited, and arranged. McNally writes, …
Back in the spring of 1980, Magnum photographer Bruce Davidson began to photograph the subway system in NYC for his project titled Subway. NYRBlog has published an interesting essay -- an excerpt from the introduction of Davidson's book -- in which the photographer talks about his experience: …
Over the past year, there have been a number of jaw-dropping (and viral) time-lapse videos created from the amazing photos captured from the International Space Station by astronaut Mike Fossum. The video above provides an interesting behind-the-scenes look into how the images are captured.
Here's a crash course on how to work with models as a photographer. Photographer Mark Wallace discusses tips for before, during, and after the shoot, and also how to find a model for your project.
Here's a brief video in which Los Angeles-based photographer Mike Kelley shares his technique for lighting large architectural spaces using small flash units. Kelley captures hundreds of photographs of each scene and the combines them afterwards in Photoshop. Back in September we shared an interesting time-lapse walkthrough by Kelley showing how he shoots home exteriors with the same technique.
Light painting master Dennis Calvert (whose work we featured back in October) created this interesting time-lapse making of video showing how he created one of his epic photographs, titled "Thermodynamic Engineering".
