lighting | PrairieFire Productions

Self Assignment: No More Pretty Pictures

Posted by Steve Herzberg on Dec 16, 2009 in Quick Focus | 1 comment

This shoot came from my “Dark Side”. The basic concept was simple — to show that contrary to what glossy magazines and movies may tell us, beauty does not necessarily bring happiness. And, that for some, external beauty can be a trap because it blinds many an eye to the internal picture...

Camera Profiles and the ColorChecker Passport — The What, Why and How

Posted by Steve Herzberg on Nov 27, 2009 in Featured Articles | 6 comments

For a while it was a mystery. I just didn’t get it. No matter how I set the white balance in my Nikon cameras — be it preset or custom — when I opened my images in either Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) or Lightroom (which are, in essence, the same thing) the White Balance number would be way off....

Cool Tools: Matthews Magic Stand

Posted by Steve Herzberg on Oct 21, 2009 in Quick Focus | 0 comments

My name is Steve. I’m a tool junkie. I’m in love with a light stand. How did it happen? It called to me. The moment I saw it in a Matthews catalog, it called to me. All I could hear were the paraphrased words from a great Heart song: You don’t have to love me yet, Let’s get high a...

Busman’s Holiday: Shooting with Hanson Fong and My New Profoto D1 Airs

Posted by Steve Herzberg on Oct 19, 2009 in Featured Articles | 5 comments

Webster’s: Busman’s Holiday — a holiday spent following or observing the practice of one’s usual occupation. A couple of weeks ago, my good friend Hanson Fong, fresh off an appearance at the Houston stop on the Beauty and Beast tour, took a day off and hung out with me. So, how did we...

Q: I’m confused. What are the differences between “hot lights” and “strobes”?

Posted by Steve Herzberg on Sep 1, 2009 in Featured Articles | 5 comments

Some form of this question has come up in almost every lighting seminar we’ve taught. With the convergence of still and motion photography — with the morphing of DSLR’s into de facto video cameras, this question is quite timely. As I’ve mentioned before, I learned my lighting on film...