- Portfolio / Photographer Dan Matthews
- 2024-12-25T07:11:59+01:00
- 2024-12-25T07:11:59+01:00
Europe / United Kingdom / York
Series of images taken at a ruin in North Yorkshire (UK) this summer (Sept 2024).
Strong sunlight gave particular challenge, influencing the editing approach, but helped define the strong contrast between model and stonework.
Equipment
- Canon 6D Mk I
- Canon 70-200 F2.8 L Mk 1
This year I had the opportunity combine art-nudes with my landscape and fine-art infrared photography.
I had previously shot a model outside for a single set in 2023, but this had been in fading light, in a garden. Here I worked with Keira to shoot several sets in the stunning landscapes of northern England in bright early autumn sun.
Despite battling some harsh highlights and needing to keep our wits about us for dogwalkers, the shoot went very easily and delivered a good range of images that in most cases needed very little doing with them after.
For me infrared offers something like a monochrome, but somehow still different, with hints of false colours and false tones.
Shown here are the additional captures not presently in my portfolio.
Equipment: Canon 550D with a 720nm IR filter
Sometimes a location crops up that's got so much potential that it dominates a whole shoot. That is what happened when I noticed these old mirror panes propped up in Eva's shed.
Straight away we could both see the potential, albeit with some need to move things around on the opposite side of the space to make room for me to get into a decent shooting spot (part of why everything was shot from the same angle).
At the time I'd recently been inspired by editorial fashion work, hence my direction to Eva to go through both traditional figure-study poses as well as more characterful ones. Combined with the recent return to shooting with film, this gave a wide spectrum of end-results, despite the unchanged lighting & setup.
What did this shoot teach me?
Firstly, it provided a dramatic comparison of film vs digital, but helped me appreciate the positives of both. For film it was the cinematic grain adding to the sense of immersion of the 'scene'. For the digital images it was an appreciation of the detail and fidelity which is available that maybe we take for granted if we've not used analogue formats for a while (or at all).
Secondly, it was the difficulty of co-ordinating a models pose in two places. I have many favourites within this set, but in only one case for me is both the pose and the reflected pose optimal, in the rest one carries the other to a degree (the film shot with arms wider, facing the mirror).
Thirdly, heels. Traditionally I've never used heels in art-nude work, but in this case it worked well, providing extra definition in the Eva's stance, but at the same time not diminishing the art-nude feel of those images more at that end of the scale.
What would I do differently?
Given the chance to shoot this again, I would revisit not moving my position. Yes it would have taken a significant amount of effort to clear more space, but I feel that there were other great shots waiting to be taken from alternative angels or closer in.
Equipment:
- Canon 6D Mk1 / Canon 300V
- Canon 35mm F2.0
- Kodak TX 400 film
I'm a photographer based in the North of the UK. Over the years I've experimented with a variety of formats including infrared and film (both vintage and contemporary).
As well as working with models, my other area of interest is minimalist and landscape fine-art images using digital-infrared.