Matt Hill 4/29/13 Matt Hill 4/29/13

Featured in Pro Photo Daily

Thanks so much to the folks at Pro Photo Daily for featuring NIGHT PAPER today!

Fine-art photographer and Pro Photo Daily reader Matt Hill’s “Night Paper” project combines cut paper and night photography to create exquisitely mysterious imagery: “The result is a surreal combination of the dilation of time and the beauty of people from all walks of life and all ages dressed in only paper art fashions,” writes Hill of the work. Hill began the project five years ago, shooting with one volunteer model. Many others followed (and he is looking for more). He custom-creates his paper fashions for each model … on the spot. Brilliant.

Note: I wish I were so talented to make the paper fashion on the spot :-) Maybe I'll work my way up to it. Very grateful for the write-up, nonetheless. Thanks!

Check out AI-AP.com and their Facebook page for more awesome photographers. Highly suggest signing up for their newsletter.

Matt Hill 4/8/13 Matt Hill 4/8/13

How-to: Taking a Portrait at Night

Mandy, circa 1993 Zeiss Ikoflex TLR + Kodak TMAX 100 Oriental Seagull paper (badly fixed) — *Mandy*, circa 1993
Zeiss Ikoflex TLR + Kodak TMAX 100
Oriental Seagull paper (badly fixed)

I've spent a fair amount of time teaching myself how to take a creative portrait of someone at night. I'd like to share with you some of my successes (and failures!) so that you may also enjoy making creative portraits during your night photography expeditions.

The above portrait I shot in high school (to the best of my memory...) while exploring how to take portraits in little to no light. I got lucky with this one since we chose to go to the school nearby and stand under a lamp on the wall.

More early history: My first attempts to render a human at night involved what I call "lighting with a hammer" – i.e. me setting my Vivitar 283 speedlite to a thyristor automatic setting and hoping it wasn't either too much or too little. Mind you, I was also shooting film and could not yet afford Polaroid at that time.

This is my first recollection of a successful photograph at night - which also happens to be a portrait:

Bryan, circa 1992 Yashica FX-3, Tamron 24-70mm zoom + fisheye adapter Vivitar 283 + Velbon Tripod — *Bryan*, circa 1992
Yashica FX-3, Tamron 24-70mm zoom + fisheye adapter
Vivitar 283 + Velbon Tripod

I remember it being like this, "Bryan - stand here." Open shutter on bulb. Pop flash. Bryan walks out.

"Why did you walk away?"

Bryan replied, "the flash went off and you didn't say to stay."

That was the best piece of non-dorection I ever gave. This print, when it came up in the developer, gave me shivers and possibilities exploded in my head. TIME + LIGHT = FUN.

I've been chasing time dilation methods ever since.

Fast-forward to today, where my NIGHT PAPER project has made me very serious about portraiture in the absence of ambient light. I am constantly evolving how I approach each portrait, but here are the basics I'd like to share today:

Do the High ISO Test and make one perfect ambient exposure. Do not photograph a person until you have mastered your scene - too many variables out of control to then throw in a live human being.What's this? Read Lance Keimig's PDF.
Use a flash meter. Batteries are your friend at night and every opportunity to do something once instead of chimping your way through your batteries and missing shots at the end is a benefit. I use a Sekonic L-758DR, and it has a PocketWizard trigger in it that works with my Plus III Transceivers and Profoto AcuteB battery flash pack. Additionally, I have to add that if you are able to master doing it all in-camera in one frame, your depth of knowledge and personal satisfaction will be very high.

Meter your main portrait light for so that it equals the aperture & ISO you set for your long exposure. Not enough? Turn up the power or move it closer. I'll post about quality of light in a separate blog post. To much? Do the opposite.

Also meter your 2nd and third flashes (set to manual) if you are using additional flashes for your initial burst. Make a good ratio if these lights are providing edge or texture definition for your model.
Be very aware of where the model's head is! Reason: If you have them move out of the frame after the first flash burst, which I often do, then whatever is behind their head is going to be added to the photograph. If it's a dark background, then almost nothing will happen. If it is a light source, then this will now become part of their head. Same goes for bodies - either intentionally let something burn through and "ghost" them or deliberately do not!
Have the model always come back to the same spot. Sounds simple, but just to be clear - the flash power you metered was an exact distance form the flash. Keep your exposures consistent by keeping them in the same place.
Try simple poses first. I am a fan of the face pointing towards the main light - it is flattering. Start there, then do variations of face placement for different shadow structure. Whatever is good in the daytime is also good at night!
Try jumps. These are not only fun on film, but also great to stimulate a model who may have to wait minutes between exposures. A good trick is to have them bend their knees when jumping - it give the illusion of a higher jump.
Mix continuous and flash sources. This is my favorite benefit of doing night portraits (as opposed to daytime). Use a tungsten flashlight, and LED flashlight, your speedlites (snooted off or with grids), your iPad/iPhone, flames (carefully!), video light, LED penlight, anything with which you can isolate parts of your model's body and then have them move after the flash goes off at the beginning of the exposure. Experiment. Get crazy - you may love those "happy accidents."
Safety first! Make sure your model is comfortable and in a place that is safe.

Take a fresh look at NIGHT PAPER (below) and see if you see anything different after reading what I have learned along the way. Comments welcome!

Clara Coquette and Hard Corey on Randall's Island (Copy)

Iris Explosion at the Pond, Central Park NYC (Copy)

Falana Fox on the 52nd Floor - Film (Copy)

Brooklyn Rooftop with Clara Coquette And Anon (Copy)

Long Island City with Gymnos Alithea (Copy)

Iris Explosion at Bethesda Fountain, Central Park NYC (Copy)

In-Studio with Bombazeen Bean and Gymnos Alithea (Copy)

Brooklyn Backyard with Heather Whatever (Copy)

Rockaway Beach with Sincerely Yours (Copy)

Falana Fox on the 56th Floor in Manhattan (Copy)

Manhattan Waterfront with Clara Coquette (Copy)

Randall's Island with Clara Coquette and Hard Corey (Copy)

Iris Explosion at Bethesda Tiles, Central Park NYC (Copy)

Falana Fox on the 52nd Floor - 6x12 (Copy)

Brooklyn Waterfront with Clara Coquette (Copy)

Iris Explosion at Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park NYC (Copy)

Hard Corey and Clara Coquette on Randall's Island (Copy)

Matt Hill 3/12/13 Matt Hill 3/12/13

Valley of Fire Revisited

Back in 2010, I went out to the Valley of Fire for the first time (Read more: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 and Part 4).

Last night I went back with a different group of friends - Joseph Carey and John Faison. It was legendary. Ask me about stories when you see/meet me.

I was testing out my new Trigger Trap dongle and iPhone App on the way out and back, using the DistanceLapse feature - set to trip my D700 shutter every 130m or such. I forget what the setting was since I was playing with it... Anyway, I made that into a nice timelapse for your viewing enjoyment with images from the shoot in the video! (If you are curious, I assemble the timelapse in iStopMotion. This time I edited the movie in iMovie - i normally use FCP Studio.)

I like the results! Great feature. I have reservations about using Trigger Trap on a night shoot, so I used my other external trigger. Here are some final photos!

Matt Hill 3/5/13 Matt Hill 3/5/13

Night Paper #8 FILM: Falana Fox on the 56th Floor in Manhattan

Just got back some processed film! Here are two shots from Falana's shoot back in February.

I love them both for different reasons.

Mamiya 7, 43mm lens 2 mins @ f/8 + light painting ILFORD XP2 Super — Mamiya 7, 43mm lens
2 mins @ f/8 + light painting
ILFORD XP2 Super

LOMO Belair X 6-12, 58mm lens 2 minutes @ f/11 Fuji Acros 100 — LOMO Belair X 6-12, 58mm lens
2 minutes @ f/11
Fuji Acros 100

Matt Hill 3/3/13 Matt Hill 3/3/13

69th St Transfer Bridge Revisited

floating debris makes for a great time dilation subject

Five years ago, Gabe and I had our first night out shooting NPy together at this location.

Two nights ago, I had the pleasure of revisiting this place with Erik Ward and Dan O'Neil, two guys who also met around five years ago and have been doing Urbex together ever since. Cool guys, very fun with which to shoot.

I must admit, one of my favorite NPy photographs I have ever shot was at this location and I was loathe to encroach on my personal enjoyment on its happy memory. But I approached it with an open mind to experiment and apply all that I have learned in the last five years. Great decision :)

Here is the image I hold dear from back then:

May, 2008 Mamiya 7, 43mm, f/16 @ 12 min Ilford XP2 Super, 120 — May, 2008
Mamiya 7, 43mm, f/16 @ 12 min
Ilford XP2 Super, 120

I remember Gabe shooting for much shorter times and wondering why I was exposing so long. I am not sure I knew what I was doing, but instinct told me to expose for 12 minutes. In hindsight, I knew I wanted the transfer bridge to stand out and since it was at least 3 stops darker than the correct exposure for the rest of the City, I let it burn...

This lesson has stuck with me over the years. Upon returning, I wanted to test the theory again and shot two different exposures just to see what happened:

March, 2013 D700, 14mm, f/13 @ 2 minutes — March, 2013
D700, 14mm, f/13 @ 2 minutes

March, 2013 D700, 14mm, f/8 @ 2 minutes — March, 2013
D700, 14mm, f/8 @ 2 minutes

I think they are both successful for different reasons. The former has the qualities of all the light sources and shadows. The latter is more of an artistic statement about the relationship between the foreground and the background.

Moving on... here are some more shots & experiments from the evening:

Matt Hill 2/24/13 Matt Hill 2/24/13

Night Paper #8: Falana Fox on the 56th Floor in Manhattan

We were fortunate to borrow a little time in a beautiful apartment space near 30th St in Manhattan, all the way up on the 56th floor, facing downtown.

The scouting photo where the Freedom Tower was unobscured by clouds.

During our scouting mission, the sky was clear and a gorgeous view of the near-finished Freedom Tower was occupying the view at the foot of the wedge of Manhattan Island.

Last night, however, the weather was a mix of drizzle, low clouds rain and sometimes not rain. I do like shooting night photography in adverse weather simply because I like the challenge of making something beautiful out of what people typically call "shitty weather" (grin). Clouds and water make for great movement and reflections.

So we set the lights, metere, put aside two film cameras for later in the shoot and were ready for our beautiful model, Falana Fox, who is also a burlesque performer in NYC.

Here are the rest from the shoot. It was very hard to choose just these:

Want to see more NIGHT PAPER? Read more about the project and see the gallery of images.

Matt Hill 2/16/13 Matt Hill 2/16/13

Night Paper #7: Heather Whatever in a Snowy Brooklyn Backyard

I am delighted to present that latest installment in the NIGHT PAPER series. A good friend of ours offered his backyard in Brooklyn as a place to have a shoot. LIttle did we know that when we scheduled the shoot, it would be the day after WINTER STORM NEMO (ominous drumroll and peals of thundersnow).

I was happy, since I envisioned at least one snow shoot in the series. Fortunately, our brave soul, Heather Whatever, agreed that a snow shoot was a great idea!

For this project, I made a timelapse while cutting Heather's cut paper fashion. Here it is for your viewing enjoyment:

And now for my favorite images from this shoot:

Matt Hill 1/6/13 Matt Hill 1/6/13

Night Paper #6: Indoors with Bombazeen Bean and Gymnos Alitheia

This is an experiment that was so good, it's an official shoot. The models, who graciously volunteered their time and talents, were Bombazeen Bean and Gymnos Alitheia. Thank you! First things first, deep thanks to Mabel, my lovely PA and girlfriend, and to Sharon Radisch who was my photo assistant on this shoot. Without the two of you, this shoot would only have been a shadow of what it was.

Matt Hill 12/2/12 Matt Hill 12/2/12

Night Paper #5: Rockaway Beach

This Wednesday past, on the full moon, Gabe, Sylvester, Mabel and I spent a brisk evening on the beach at Rockaway. Having previously seen Sylvester's panoramics from when he was volunteering, we decided that the beauty of the repeating shapes from the concrete supports for the now-missing boardwalk was of such beauty that we were simply compelled to make art in that scene. Of course, we got to see the continuing efforts to clean up and rebuild Rockaway on the way in, and seriously, it's still not good there. My heart goes out to those displaced, and I hope that they find housing soon, and perhaps their new homes.

On to the art. I decided to roll the dice and continue the Night Paper Series. Our brave soul, Sincerely Y Ours, came ready to bare all and dress in paper when the temperatures reached the freezing point.

Here are my two top favorites:

And one portrait I just couldn't resist taking:

You can see a little more from this shoot here.

Matt Hill 10/7/12 Matt Hill 10/7/12

Night Paper #4 - Dumbo (NSFW)

This next shoot involves a second night of shooting with Gymnos Alitheia. Originally, we were scheduled to do this on the heels of the Long Island City shoot, but he was feeling under the weather, so we postponed. Luckily, we encountered a street fair! (grin).