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This is how to shoot a $2,500,000 car with a $50,000 camera

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There’s only a hundred Pagani Huayra BC in the world, and each one costs a cool $2.5mil. The “BC” in its designation stands for Benny Caiola, the first person to ever buy a Pagani automobile. With a Mercedes AMG designed V12 bi-turbo engine built exclusively for Pagani and pulling more than 750bhp, it’s a beast of a car.

When it comes time to photograph it, one also needs a beast of a camera. So, LA based automotive photographer Richard Thompson chose the Phase One XF 100MP for this Huayra BC advertising shoot. They also shot a behind the scenes video, so we can see what goes into a shoot like this.

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Instagram cracks down on stealth advertising with “Paid Partnership” feature

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Instagram’s been trying hard lately to clean up its act. It’s shut down several popular botting services. The so-called Instagram pods also seem to have been sort-of thwarted. And, for better or worse, they’re constantly tweaking their algorithm to help us see better content. They also took steps to help prevent misrepresented paid content on the platform, too.

To help add another layer of transparency to that, Instagram are making it obvious when sponsored content shows up. Until now, many Instagrammers have been adding hashtags such as #ad and #sponsored tags in the description. But they largely go unnoticed. A new “Paid pernership with” tag on posts and stores lets creators clearly communicate paid posts to their followers.

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This is the full budget and lighting breakdown on shooting an $8,000 commercial

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The world of commercial shooting, whether stills or video, is an attractive one. It can be a tough one to break into, but it can also be a lot of fun. But it’s not like shooting for yourself or for personal clients. There’s often big crews to deal with, time and budget constraints, venue hire, actors, and a whole host of other potential issues to deal with.

On a recent commercial shoot for Nu Skin, filmmaker Parker Walbeck documented what went into making it. He talks about the gear used, as well as how it was used. We learn about the lighting choices and setup used to film the actors. Parker also talks about the budget breakdown for this shoot.

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This guy created an epic VFX-laden commercial to sell his ’96 Suzuki Vitara

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This one of the most hilarious and amazing things I’ve seen in a while. Selling a 21 year old car is no easy task. But when you’re the VFX Supervisor at a design and animation company, like Eugene Romanovsky is, that’s not a problem. I mean, if you can build solid marketing for your clients, why not for your own ageing Suzuki Vitara?

The commercial shows Eugene’s Vitara in quite a number of familiar and far-fetched situations. You may recognise some of the scenes from various documentaries and Hollywood blockbusters. It almost makes me want to buy it. Almost.

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This crazy paint splashing commercial was shot completely in camera with no CG

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Motion control and high frame rate cameras have given filmmakers a whole world of new options. Creative abilities that simply weren’t possible just a few short years ago. New technology allows both photographers and cinematographers to show us our world in a whole new way. It makes the mundane amazing.

And it doesn’t get much more mundane than watching paint dry. So, when production company Psyop were tasked with creating a commercial for Sherwin-Williams to photograph their Emerald line of paint, they put that technology to the test. They created a whole swirling mess of paint that looks impossible. It looks like it should be CG, but it’s not. It was created using 100% practical effects.

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Target’s new swimsuit ad campaign goes “Photoshop-free” (or at least, liquify-free)

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Photoshop has received a bit of a backlash over the last few years about its use in advertising.But, it’s not really Adobe’s fault. Photoshop is just a tool. It’s like blaming Ford because you took a wrong turn down a one way street. But, the criticism has made a lot of companies sit up and think. Their average customer doesn’t really look much like the people used in their advertising campaigns. In fact, even the people used in their advertising campaigns don’t look like themselves in the final result a lot of the time.

More and more organisations have started to go “Photoshop free” for their advertising. And Target have now jumped on the trend, to great effect. To promote their new spring swimwear line, the campaign features women of all shapes and sizes, completely unretouched.

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Facing right in the photos makes people look more powerful

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Do you pay attention which side is your model facing in photos? And do you think this is important for the message? According to a recent study, it is. Simone Schnall, Director of the Cambridge Embodied Cognition and Emotion Laboratory, says in her report that the subject should be facing right. If we want to portray a person as dynamic, progressive, positive and forward-thinking, we ought to portray them looking right. But why is this so, and how can we apply it?

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Photographer recreates famous brand ads to point out to the lack of diversity in the industry

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We are surrounded by commercials, promotional images and all sorts of advertising material. Most of us take it for granted and doesn’t think much about the message these materials send. But an L.A. based photographer, Raffael Dickreuter, paid attention to advertising campaigns of famous brands and noticed something very negative about them – they lack diversity.

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If you wanna shoot Usain Bolt for an ad, you have to do it in Jamaica

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I think that if someone did a survey, Usain Bolt would be one of the most loved athletes in the world (actually, I am pretty sure there is such a poll somewhere). You just have to love this man, and here is another reason why.

Usain Bolt insists that anyone who wants to shoot him for an ad will do so in Jamaica. And there is some reason behind it.

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FTC to crack down on social media celebrity advertising posts

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Bloomberg are reporting that the American Federal Trade Commission are cracking down on social media advertising. Users now must be very clear about paid product endorsements. Users are actually required to do this already, but few do. Many advertisers also request that the social media users not mention it.

It’s understandable why advertisers wouldn’t want the public to know. They want people to believe that somebody actually likes their product. That they love it enough to tell everybody how awesome it is. They also pay a lot more to those who don’t mention sponsorship. What I don’t see is how the FTC are going to be able to realistically enforce it.

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