Anyone interested in the old Hollywood style?

[texxter]

A recent thread got us talking about the old Hollywood style. I find the style very beautiful and unique, and also challenging to do well these days.

So do you like it? Have you done images in this style?

Any tips on how to light to achieve the classic Hollywood look from the 30s and 40s?

Here one glamour portrait of Norma Shearer from George Hurrell I like.

[lukehng]

I've not done it, but I like this style also. Tag thread...

I'm thinking
beauty dish as a main light (soft yet still have high contrast) ?
one or two more lights with grid spot ?

[klynam]

Love it - learned a ton about it - haven't done it - tagged...

[dmora]

I know someone who did a series in this style. He called it Film Noir. He even had a gallery showing in his area.

One of his prints.

[texxter]

The key ingredients of the style, as done orginally by practitioners in the 30s were:

• Using large format cameras, normally 8x10
• Use of large hot lights with fresnel lenses for well defined by soft-edged shadows
• Use of a boom over the actress' head, and use of reflectors instead of a fill light
• Heavy lead retouching of negative for that smooth look - eight hours of retouching was not uncommon
• Sometimes using no makeup (other than eyes and lips) to capture the natural sheen of the skin

[texxter]

And three samples from my archives. Only the first one was done with a fresnel flash head, the other two were done with more easily available light modifiers.

1. Done with a Norman FS-10 fresnel strobe head as key light.



2. Done with a grid, if I remember correctly.



3. An umbrella and grids

[klynam]

Nice Paco - who is the model in no.2? Seems like I've seen her before...

[texxter]

Thanks, Kevin. Her name is Olena, MM#658802, she came well prepared to this shoot.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Ohhhh... Paco meant clothing and hair *style*... I thought he was talking about the lighting style in the original photo. Since none of the other images was in the same lighting style I was confused.

- Wil

[texxter]

It's really about the lighting, I just don't know how to do it decently, at least not yet. So I add the props, etc to fool the eye.

[srwatters]

Not a Hurrell, but a Newton style shoot I did in 2008:

I used only the modeling lamps on my Hensel Integra 500 ws lights. 12" reflector with grid for key light.

[texxter]

That's nice, Scott.

[HOUSCOUS]

Yeah, that's fascinating!!!

[mmuhlenkamp]

I'm a fan of old Hollywood style glamour as well. I recently did a shoot with a friend of mine trying emulate this look. I wasn't too worried about it being "exactly" old hollywood, but I wanted drama and safe for work sexy.

Homemade snoot camera right, reflector umbrella camera left for fill


reflector umbrella camera left, shoot through camera right for fill

[DarkmansDarkroom]

great images , it's what I am known for in So Cal, the Old Hollywood Style Glamour. I recently spent a day with Hurrell's last assistant before he died, and was able to see footage of Hurrell no one has seen before, shooting some stars that were not so big then but now are huge....
I'm a purist for the most part, I use Fresnels and fill lights, sometimes I'll use a reflector. I never use a strobe except on certain occasions, which I explain on my site. If you want to see lighting diagrams and videos of me shooting this style check out my blog...

I also like the works of Yousef Karsh...

thanks for the cool thread!!!
here's a couple of mine: