Yeah I know that Behind The Scenes (BTS) videos are old hat for a lot photographers but hey - I finally got one. Anyway, thanks to Leila for whipping out her Mark II and shooting just a few seconds during the shoot with Heather at the garage. I used it to try my hand at video editing also with Final Cut and I know all you guys with much better skills will laugh at me but I’m learning so send me your tips and critique!
Many of you have a flash and I would venture to guess it’s attached to your hot shoe. Now, there are more adventurous types of you who have ventured out to off-camera flash with some sort of remote either with a cord attached to your hot shoe or a wireless remote like a Pocket Wizard. I was using my off camera flash yesterday with my model Lynlee at the Morgan Creek Vineyard when the opportunity came up for me to demonstrate the power of shadows.
The problem with the light yesterday was that it was 7PM and had been raining so there wasn’t much sun at all. I did my best to create my own sunshine. So I had Lynlee stand between two rows of vines while I shot over at her from slightly behind her left side. My assistant stood in the same aisle with her in the first picture with the flash (umbrella attached) pointed right at her. I looked at the picture and thought the light from the flash was good enough but the results weren’t what I desired.
Rule: Shadows make a photo more interesting not light. Actually, you do have to have light to create shadows which is the trick…use your light source to create shadows that make shots more intriguing. You wouldn’t put your subject looking directly into the sun would you? Of course not! You would put them turned slightly with the sun at the side or back of their head.
I had my assistant go over one more row of vines to the next aisle and point the flash up and over the vines at the right side of her face which created shadows on the left side of her face. I included a before and after shot to illustrate…
Light creates shadows when used correctly
The problem with this is going to be how do you get that $300 Canon 580 off the hot shoe right? A 6ft cord attached to the flash and the camera wouldn’t allow you to more your flash around very far. More on that later…yes it’s just more money!
Kerry Brady called me from Golf Digest to shoot a portrait of Richard Crawford for their BackSpin section of Golf World magazine. I have to confess I know nothing about golf other than I know better than to even try it myself and it’s not because of the time commitment either. It obviously takes talent and determination to do well. Mr. Crawford was a 15 year tour pro and won back-to-back NCAA Titles.
I gave Richard a call and we decided to meet at Eagle Point golf course where he found us a golf cart. He drove it to my car and I loaded my lights and equipment and we drove out to the nearest green where I set up and he and I chit chatted. Richard is a man of deep faith and most of our conversation was about faith rather than golf which was quite refreshing.
I feel I made a new friend that day.
Other Images that didn’t make their cut which I liked.
I have received so many emails (and one phone call) from many TalentHunter.com models who say they had gotten an email from me about casting call or invitation for a paid assignment. Please know that I did not sent anything to anyone concerning this. I extend my apologies but it appears that someone named Allen Matthews must have emailed many and those people found me on a Google search thinking I was the same person.
I extend my apologies for being spammed.
2008-2009 UCP Annual Report
My friends at United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) of Birmingham (follow them on Twitter) asked me to do specific portraits for their annual report using some of the participants in their program along with some of their contributors. Jennifer Ellison wanted something in black and white which we did and they turned out very nicely. Another goal was to try and get some natural and fun interactions between everyone in the subjects and at least one group was having a lot of fun dancing and showing off but they didn’t make the cut for obvious reasons….but there was fun in all these shots. In the shot on the right Daniel is an obvious Auburn fan (who knows why right?) and we had fun picking back and forth about Alabama vs Auburn and shouting “Roll Tide!”
One of the challenges of getting all the shots together of everyone was organizing everyone to be ready on the same day which didn’t happen. The shoot took place on 3 different days with the first day done by bring my mobile studio to their beautiful headquarters and the next two days were shot at my studio. There was one girl program participant who just wouldn’t smile for the camera - until I left to check out one of my lights that had stopped working when I heard everyone yelling at me, “Alan! She’s smiling get over here!” Thankfully we got the shot!
I will post one shot that didn’t make the Annual Report cut but gives some idea of the fun time we all had together.
Glory Revealed II won a Dove Award tonight for Special Event Album of the Year. Congratulations to the always excellent Mac Powell and all the artists that made it special. I had the privilege of being the event photographer for the last concert of the tour in Birmingham, Al. Before the show I had setup a mini-studio hoping to get some pictures of the guys not performing. Everyone was spending time with their families so at the last minute before the concert the guys came back and not knowing anything else to do Mac said, “Line up!” So police line up style is what I got! I salvaged the picture by taking them from the photo they took on a photo of an alley I took in downtown Nashville. Salvaged!
Glory Revealed II - The Men (Aaron Shust, Shawn Lewis, Trevor Morgan, Mac Powell, Jason Hoard)
Glory Revealed II - Laura Story
Laura Story came to my church (Oak Mountain Presbyterian) not long ago for a concert and she announced a song she wrote - You Are Amazing God. I turned to my wife and asked, “Did she just say she wrote that song?” Here’s a song I can hardly sing without getting choked up and the humble artist and author singing it for us.
Glory Revealed II - Bethany Dick (Sara Evans sang with her on the album)
Glory Revealed II - Backstage Post-show
I thought I would do a little bit of instructional post today. I shot JD yesterday at the train tracks and I lit him with a single gridded head and it lit his face well and kept the exposure of the background looking correct. However, the background is the problem. Have you ever taken a photo and thought, “If only that man with the pizza box weren’t in the background it would be a great photo?” My thoughts were similar to that on this photo where I thought the photo was nice and I did a little cross-processing on it and liked it. But, the background on the left really looked bad.
So what I did was to use the pen tool (in Photoshop) and outline very close to his hair and across his shoulder to mask off the part I wanted to remove down to the top of the silo. If you’ve never used the pen tool you should consider it because it is an excellent way to mask more accurately. After the selection was made I simply used the clone tool and since I had lots of blue sky I sampled the sky and cloned it over the parts I wanted to remove. Since all of that was next to and “behind” his head the mask allowed me to clone remove very accurately so it looks like nothing was there in the beginning.
If you have any questions about specifics shoot me an email. I wanted to illuminate the concepts and point you in the direction as to how you might be able to do the same thing on your photos.
The Ceci's of Huntsville, AL
On the left I included the page from the March 2010 edition of Family Circle Magazine and on the left included one of the family shots that I personally loved. We shot that at the The Davidson Center for Space Exploration next to US Space & Rocket Center. The story was to highlight the Ceci’s civic involvement as well as the city of Huntsville. I learned some cool things about Huntsville I didn’t know which was how much history exists there especially in the area of Twickenham Historic District which includes the oldest house in Alabama which was built in 1814. There I also found the childhood home of actress Tallulah Bankhead.
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Thanks to the good people at Southern Living I have the tear sheets from the Healthy Living Section from January’s edition. It is really cool to see talented designers put together a visually appealing layout of text and photos like they did here….unlike my feeble attempt here to show them! |
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January - Healthy Living Section
Thanks to WonderfulMachine.com for being found by Southern Living. I got the pleasure of meeting lots of good people both at the magazine and at the bootcamp (BirminghamBootCamp.com). Mary Zarate really kicks everyone into gear out there in Mountain Brook for Birmingham Boot Camp. Everyday that we had planned to shoot it was raining like crazy. There was a tight deadline so we finally found one morning early that was dry - 8AM! Ok that’s not that early but for me it was especially when it was that cold. Thanks to everyone for a good shoot.
by matthews121
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