old hollywood glamour

[texxter]

My lovely wife was my model this Sunday evening to do a short "old Hollywood glamour" session. I am very interested in getting better at doing this type of work with digital equipment, and she's a patient subject! The hair, makeup, etc do not match the 30s style, but I was mostly interested in the light and the postprocessing. I am not there yet, but every attempt moves me a bit closer. I need to work on the postprocessing, as I think I overdid it here.

I was inspired by Len Prince, a NY photographer who published a book on the old Hollywood style, "About Glamour" - he used an 8x10 camera and hot lights, like Hurrel and the old masters

C&C welcome, as always!

[dutchgin]

Paco,
Looks like you nailed the lighting to me. Great work as always.

Lance

[mmuhlenkamp]

Very Hollywood glam, I really like the effect. I think maybe smooth or soften the hair a bit though, everything else is so smooth and dreamy I think it detracts a bit.

Great work as always Paco!

[DoublyDan]

Holy Cow Paco!!!
I think this is awesome.
The diagram is very useful to us, so thanks a lot for that.
I looked at the image and thought that this was an example of what you were shooting for. Then I read the post an couldn't believe that this was taken yesterday..
Nice, very nice

DoublyDan added 3 Minutes and 8 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

What was your BW conversion processes?
BTW, did you retouch your wife's skin or is that from the hot lights creating that soft look?

[bondarnes]

Great first attempt. I believe that in an effort to get light on the plex you aimed the spot too high, putting the accent on her forehead rather than her eyes.

[kula23]

WOW you rock! I love it! Thanks for sharing!

[texxter]

Lance, Melissa, thank you for the kind comments! I agree that a bit of softening on the hair would help.... she's got this thick, shiny Asian hair, very different from Caucasian hair. I need to pay attention to that!

Daniel, thank you! I used the Photoshop CS3 B&W conversion feature, with a bit of tweakng. The skin was heavily postprocessed, as the harsh light is killer on skin imperfections. The old Hollywood photographers would gently scratch their 8x10 negatives to achieve a smooth skin, kinda same thing we do with Photoshop these days, but a lot more work and skill were required.

Don, good point about the light, the spot needs to be positioned more carefully. The trick with these images is that they are most un-spontaneous! If the subject moves, there goes your lighting! It gives you an appreciation for the simplicity of big softboxes!

I really appreciate the comments. I have another 30s glamour shot today at noon, with a MUA and a very interesting looking model, I'll share some results later or tomorrow.

texxter added 6 Minutes and 51 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

For anyone interested in learning precise positioning of lights, as it was done before softboxes became pervasive, check out Walter Nurnberg's "Lighting for Portraiture", first printed in 1948. This book also has a really cool way to show lighting diagrams, more sophisticated than what I do with the photoshop lighting setup template.

[DoublyDan]

So I am new to lighting my sets/locations (that's why I'm here...always learning).
I wouldn't worry about the highlight on her forehead a whole lot...
Especially if you are doing heavy postprocessing anyway.
I know there are those that say get it right on location/studio, but as you say just the slightest movement would throw off your intentions. And of course you want to get it right on location, but with all things considered there are so many things to try and get accurate...
A little burning would take care of it and the eyes are so bright already that they would pop after the forehead it brought down. If not, just use a curves adj layer in PS to bring them up. But you know that already.
Just curious, though how would you get the highlight just on the eyes? Barndoors?

I think using the plant to break up the BG is an excellent idea! Did you come up with that yourself, or did you learn that from someone/a book? got any other brilliant techniques?

[texxter]

Originally Posted by DoublyDan

Just curious, though how would you get the highlight just on the eyes? Barndoors?

You can lower the light's height, or you can change the angle. Each will give you a different shadow placement. A barndoor may not work very well because it produces a high contrast edge between light and shadow. If you place the light at eye level you'll get no shadow. If I lower the angle, I get a different nose shadow, lower towards the upper lip. With a fresnel I can also change the focus of the light, which changes the look quite a bit, including softness, as I go from flood to spot.

I think using the plant to break up the BG is an excellent idea! Did you come up with that yourself, or did you learn that from someone/a book? got any other brilliant techniques?

I have not come up with any ideas in photography. Every thing I do has been done before, I just hope I can apply them with some skill and appropriateness.

[peeker]

Paco, even though we haven't met yet, I was happy to see you come back, you are such an inspiration and great teacher. Great photo, can't wait to see more.

[AllenAyres]

Very nice Paco, this style is fun to attempt with bridals too

[texxter]

Kelly, Scott, Allen, thanks! I had my lunchtime glamour session with a model/friend, and here is one of the images from the session, the only one I have postprocessed. Didn't have time to write a lighting diagram, but pretty similar to what we did for my wife. One difference is the small flash hidden in the vase, and a real hairlight instead of a mirror. And the pearls and gown, plus pro makeup. Oh, and I used a hand cut cookie out of a piece of cardboard, instead of the fern pot, to have more control over the pattern.

The vase is a litte hot, I am afraid.

[Corrie]

Awesome!! Love the lighting.

[texkam]

lunchtime glamour session with a model/friend

Stunning!

[texxter]

And a second one from the series, postprocessing on this was quick and dirty, as I was quite busy today. I kinda like this one, especially my hairlight on camera left doing its thing. She's got a mohawk type haircut and some really cool ink on her I'd like to photograph some other time.

Those are shiny pearls!