Matthews | PrairieFire Productions

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...

Cool Tools: Matthews RoadRags

Posted by Steve Herzberg on Jul 24, 2009 in Quick Focus | 0 comments

More and more, many of us are finding ourselves shooting “on location” away from the comfort and equipment in our studios. What makes studio shooting so much easier for most of us is that we have (1) control over the environment, and, (2) all of our tools are in one place, ready for use. To me,...

Lighting Framed Artwork: Beating the Glare

Posted by Steve Herzberg on May 25, 2009 in Featured Articles | 13 comments

Nowhere is the battle against specular highlights more pronounced than when one tries to photograph a framed piece of artwork. “Specular highlights” a direct reflection of the light source on a subject, also known as “glare”, is the bane of all who try to photograph reflective...