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Posts Tagged ‘Aaron Matthew’

Portfolio Development with Aaron Matthew

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Aaron Matthew - Phoenix AZ Model

This past month my good friend Aaron Matthew and I have started working on updating his portfolio. For this session I was going for a classy suit look, but with a bit of an edge. We went with a single outfit and changed it up with a variety of lighting techniques.

The initial concept was to shoot inside an elevator, so we took a trip to downtown Phoenix. After finding our elevator, we quickly learned it wanted to have nothing to do with us propping it open. Instead we timed this whole setup in the amount of time it would stay open from pressing the button. This was the only setup that used additional lighting. I attached a bare speedlight to the staircase behind the camera with a justin clamp to bring some hard light into this shaded area.

Aaron Matthew - Phoenix AZ ModelAaron Matthew - Phoenix AZ Model

For the rest of our setups I worked with natural light, ranging from setups in the shade, sun flares and shadows cast by nearby objects. My new EF 50mm f/1.4 I purchased has been working amazing for shooting into the sun to get flares. It’ll allow me to virtually shoot straight into the sun.

Aaron Matthew - Phoenix AZ ModelAaron Matthew - Phoenix AZ Model

After what was to be our last setup, we busted out a few crazier concepts on the way back to the car. The shoot is never over until the memory card gets plugged into my MacBook.

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Shooting Into The Sun With Aaron Matthew

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Aaron Matthew - Phoenix Arizona Model

This past week I had the pleasure of shooting with Aaron Matthew, a Phoenix-area model and friend of mine. I have wanted to try shooting a style that is a little different than my usual work. For this shoot I wanted to work with the natural light and shoot into the sun.

Aaron Matthew - Phoenix Arizona Model

A couple hours before sunset, I met up with Aaron to pick out some outfits. Once we decided on the wardrobe for the shoot, we headed off to a dusty field in Tempe. One of the qualities I really liked about the location is you cannot tell we’re surrounded by the city. The field also offered a golden color that complimented the light of the setting sun.

Aaron Matthew - Phoenix Arizona Model

Using the sun as a light source behind the model isn’t something new to me, though I usually offset it with a powerful strobe in front of the model… or at minimum a reflector. I intended to use a reflector this time around too, but the wind had other plans. The reflector was quickly abandoned when it was turned into a gigantic sail that tried to blow me across the desert.

Aaron Matthew - Phoenix Arizona Model

Getting the sun aligned where I wanted it wasn’t as difficult as I expected, it was focusing on Aaron that proved to be a challenge. With the sun shining straight into the lens, quite often the camera couldn’t lock focus on it’s own. Temporarily blocking out the sun solved that issue and I was able to get the shots I was looking for. I like this style a lot and plan to work with it more in the future.

Aaron Matthew - Phoenix Arizona Model

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Dramatic Lighting with a Silver Reflector

Monday, May 11th, 2009

Aaron Matthew photograhed by Jazmin Riley

For Jazmin’s final project in her college photography class, she was tasked with taking photographs of people. Being that she’s a model and I’m a photographer, we did what comes naturally, we called up a model. Our friend Aaron Matthew was kind enough to join up with us and donate some time to the project. Hey, no where on the final project instructions did it say we could not utilize professional talent for the subject matter.

We started the shoot in the morning to avoid the afternoon heat, but the sun was already high in the sky. With all the light available to us we started out with 48″ x 72″ white reflector to fill in the shadows. While it was doing its job, the light we were getting wasn’t quite punchy enough to produce the photos Jazmin wanted.

Aaron Matthew photographed by Jazmin Riley

With the switch in wardrobe and background, we also switched out the white reflector for a 48″ x 72″ silver reflector. For these photos, I held the reflector with the long side on the ground, angled slightly to reflect the sunlight onto our model. The change in reflector made all the difference in our lighting setup and added a lot of drama to the overall photograph. It also added about 30 degrees of heat to where the model was standing according to what we heard from Aaron, so be sure to take care and not cook your model when using this type of setup in the summer.

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