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Want To Retouch Like Von Wong? You’ll Want To Check Out This Tutorial

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If you are unfamiliar with the work of Benjamin von Wong (previously), you have probably not read DIYP in the last few years. Ben creates epic, inspiring, larger than life art and now he released a set of video tutorials explaining how he works. But I am going too fast, let me take it from the start.

Von Wong has done some amazing work, but many of his first creations can be related to his crowd-funded trip to Europe. In this tutorial, Ben breaks down those photographs and explains his entire workflow on editing them. After watching this section of the tutorial, I can say that this alone is worth the package, as the amount of information that Ben fires while editing is incredible. If you know Ben, you know that the pace is pretty fast and expect a rate of about one tip per ten seconds.

But Ben does you one over and also includes two more sections: a Lightroom tutorial section and a Photoshop section. Both are critical for understanding how to optimize your workflow. Hit the jump to see the full review.

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Von Wong on the Importance of Problem Solving in Photography

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Von Wong is the photographer behind some of the most epic images created in recent years and even his most simple photos tend to have something rather magnificent about them.

Obviously a lot of hard work goes into each photo, but what viewers don’t know is just how much planning, organizing, adjusting and adapting is involved in such complicated, yet low-budget, productions.

In his recent blog post, Von Wong describes how he handled various setbacks such as the centerpiece props not arriving, unexpected logistic tasks and shooting an entire photoshoot on a Sony a7R camera he’s never used before – all while being 10,000 miles away from home.

While his story makes for a good read, he doesn’t stop at just detailing specific solutions to the difficulties encountered on his recent shoot in Australia. Von Wong also shares insight that will help you get the job done in the best way possible, no matter what goes wrong.

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Epic Portraits Taken While Storm Chasing Show The Impact Of Climate Change

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I remember chatting with Benjamin Von Wong on Facebook one day, and him inviting me to this Facebook group that would involve his next adventure. Months later, this story came across my desk and I had to jump on it and made sure I got to share it with all of you! If you are unfamiliar with Von Wong’s work I suggest you take a look at his site after you read about this project. What happens when you take creative minds like Benjamin Von Wong and Kelly DeLay, plus a crew of talented storm chasers, photographers, and a community of friends and fans, and send them out into the midwestern United States into some very strong storms?

Come out of that storm cellar and take a look at the imagery and the story behind it!
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A Photoshoot at a Shipwreck: Part Two of Von Wong’s Epic Underwater Project

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About a month back, we featured an immersive and exhilarating underwater project done by photographer Von Wong. For those that never looked into it, Von Wong was the man behind a photoshoot done completely underwater – and it wasn’t anything I’d ever seen before. Before his work caught my eye, no photographic work done near at a shipwreck was quite as captivating at all. And if you haven’t seen it by now, you’re about to.

Back when we first posted about it, we featured a video that Von Wong uploaded to accompany his work, detailing the introductory basics of what it took to execute a project like that. It’s a privilege for me to introduce his next part in the making of this project: the second part to his video series, giving you an in-depth look behind the scenes at exactly how this photoshoot was executed.

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Blackmagic adds AI text editing in DaVinci Resolve 18.5 Public Beta

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During NAB 2023, Blackmagic Design announced the new DaVinci Resolve 18.5 Public Beta. Building on what is already a very solid video editing platform, Blackmagic – like just about everybody else – is jumping on AI to help improve and speed up the editing workflow. Probably the biggest new feature in the Resolve 18.5 Beta is AI-powered speech recognition and subtitle generation, with text-based editing.

The complete notes for the new DaVinci Resolve 18.5 beta are listed below, but other highlight features include a new standalone proxy generator application, timeline improvements in the Cut page, improved Media page organisation, more GPU acceleration in the Fusion page, AI-based scene relighting, more colour tools and improved audio tools in Fairlight. We spoke with Simon Hall on the Blackmagic stand to find out more.

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Von Wong Photoshoot Kinda Makes Us Wish We Worked At SmugMug (Plus A $20 DIY Rain Machine!)

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When SmugMug wanted photographs of their employees to hang in the company gym, a traditional corporate portrait just wasn’t going to cut it. They wanted something sporty and they wanted it in black and white. The rest of the creative direction was handed over to Benjamin Von Wong, the photographer you call up when you want epic photos and exactly who SmugMug went to for their shoot.

As usual, Vong Wong delivers the goods. Not only is his concept intriguing, but he really knows how to make the subjects comfortable in front of the camera. And let’s not forget the sweet DIY rain machine he built using PVC pipe and sprinkler heads. You can learn more about the build on his blog along with a lot of other tidbits relating to the shoot like lighting patterns, post production tips, and advice on thinking outside the box.[Read More…]

Benjamin Von Wong Visited A Guatemalan Garbage Dump And Brought Along A Sony a7r II

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It seems like everyone’s been anticipating the release of Sony’s A7r ii–even if it was to see if the camera could live up to all the hype. Benjamin Von Wong was no exception. He recently purchased one to take along on a trip to Guatemala, hoping to fully test out the new camera and it’s video capabilities. [Read More…]

Benjamin Von Wong Goes Against Cheapo P&S. Makes It Shoot Beautiful Fire Bursts

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When we feature Photographer Benjamin Von Wong it is usually when he aces a photoshoot. And usually he uses all sorts of fancy gear to take the shot. From underwater lights to super slo-mo cameras. But when Ben met Kai from DigitalRev he was thrown into the cold water and given an epicly cheap Point & Shoot to create an Epic fire lit portrait.

There were quite a few challenges that Ben went through and conquered and I thought it was worth doing a minute by minute break down of the video with regards to those challenges.[Read More…]

Von Wong and a Glimpse of the Other Side – Photographs from inside a Malaysian royal palace

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Ben Von Wong is a great friend. No, we may have never spoken or emailed or seen each other in person, but in my mind we go way back. (There’s a lot of people I know in my imagination…I’m quite the popular fellow, my therapist says.) Yet, even better than a friend, Ben makes an awesome photographer, and we’ve previously featured his work here…and here…and here… You get the idea. He’s practically family.

Recently, Ben and a team of creative professionals had the opportunity to photograph and video The Royal Istana of Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia’s newest royal palace. The palace is off-limits to the general public and access is only granted on an invitation-only basis. I mean, what rich and powerful guy wants his local deli clerk just strolling into his thirteenth living room while he and his harem are seated in a circle reading Twilight?

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An Epic Photography Shootout: Benjamin Von Wong vs. Rebecca Litchfield

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Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to participate in a project that brought photographers to Israel to share some of its nicer sides. The project was hosted by Kinetis and brought together an amazing team: Benjamin Von Wong, Rebecca Litchfield, Simon Pollock, Mike Kelly and Adam Lerner and Jared Polin of Froknowsphoto.

With so much talent condensed in such a limited geographical area, I knew I have to do something fun. The concept evolved to make a crazy shootout between Benjamin Von Wong and Rebecca Litchfield. We planned on presenting those two very unique photographers with an ‘identical photo’ themed challenge. Only instead of having them create a single photo, we upped the ante and decided on three different themes they will have to shoot in: A Fire Challenge, A Feathers Challenge and a Flour Challenge.

So, theme was identical, props were identical, wardrobe (donated by Rebecca) was identical, hair and makeup were shared, and the timeframe was tight for both. But…

Having Ben and Rebecca almost on the opposite sides of the spectrum should be pretty interesting: Ben shoots Nikon, while Rebecca shoots Canon; Ben like massive strobes, while Rebecca usually use small constant lights; Ben comes from epic and surreal while Rebecca is keen to fine art… you name it, they differ on it.

The final photos are found below for your enjoyment… (and both Rebecca and Ben will share some more detailed info about the photographs on their own channels as well so stay tuned).

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