specular highlight | 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...

Review: 3 Dimensional Contrast: Principles of Lighting for the Digital Age

Posted by Steve Herzberg on Aug 7, 2009 in Quick Focus | 0 comments

To many of us, “contrast” is an afterthought — a slider in Photoshop or a setting in our cameras that has something to do with the relationship between the dark and light areas in our images. We use the slider without vision or purpose. To Dean Collins, controlling and manipulating contrast...

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...