Hollywood glamour type lighting?

[TJPhotoGuy]

This is my favorite type of portraiture - does anyone know:

1) Anyone in the Dallas area that does this, especially someone on this forum and

2) Some books to recommend on lighting setups and post processing for this style?

Thanks

[fran reisner]

I know how to do the style of lighting you're referring to. Maybe you should be coming to my workshop. If you're not in a hurry we can talk about it when I get back to town... maybe over that Starbucks! I'm sure there's a resource for you, and if I think of it I'll let you know. In the mean time... a good place to start... "Hot Lights". Not that you have to use them to create this style, but they work really well. ~F

[srwatters]

Almost any decent lighting book will have the basics on butterfly lighting made popular in the 40's by hollywood studios. It isn't all that hard to do. The best thing is to really look at the modeling lights if using strobes or as Fran suggested, use hotlights to start with. Vary the size and distance of the light source to make softer and harder edged shadows. Add a kicker or hair light depending on hair/bg color and desired effect.

Just watch out with the face shape. Some faces just don't look good in butterfly light. That's why we use Rembrandt and other styles depending on the facial shape and features. YMMV.

[TJPhotoGuy]

Thanks guys. Thanks Fran! If you can think of a book please let me know. I bought one not long ago but it turned out to be more of a biography about Louis, although it was quite interesting too. Also if you have some you can post I'd sure love to see em!

Scott, I've done a number of butterfly lighting shots, I'm referring more to the setups and post-processing techniques. My understanding is that the old photos were touched up a whole lot.

I've tried to find some books on that style specifically but haven't had much luck :( the few setups I've seen often have 4 lights. I took this one the other day, this is sort of the effect, but I'd like to improve and grow this style a lot, it was taken with a large softbox camera right, bg light of course, and a bare light with just a 40 spot:

[fran reisner]

Hey TJ. I've been wracking my brain while packing and I can't think of a book specifically on 50s Hollywood style lighting. I'll tell you who was a master at it though... George Hurrell! http://www.hurrellphotography.com/ Study his work... and try to duplicate it. You'll learn something. A couple key factors... don't use a soft box. A small light source (like a parabolic reflector... maybe add barndoors or a snoot) works much better. And if your light source is not small enough the further you back it away from the subject the smaller the light source will "appear". Really! You want the "hard edge" this will give you. You'll want your camera room to be dark and start with only your main light so you can see exactly what you are achieving... how the light is "touching" your subject. Then add the other lights for the effect you want. Then... you may want to turn off all the modeling lights EXCEPT your main, so you can continue to see what's happening with that light. One little turn of the head and your lighting pattern has completely changed. You'll also want to stick with a higher lighting ratio. I'd start at 1:4 and experiement. Push it as far as you can.

A GREAT (and more general) book on studio lighting is Basic Studio Lighting by Tony Corbell. He's a dear friend (and doing a portrait of my daugher and I on the beach in San Diego for me on Friday!!! Yea!! So hard to do 'em while I'm in 'em! ) and one of the most knowledgeable people I know on the subject of LIGHT.

I don't do this style of lighting a lot, although I love it. Just doesn't fit MY niche so much. And honestly, most of my examples of it are shot on negs. The only easily accessable one I found is this. Notice the "hard edge" of the shadows.

Hope this helps a little. ~F

[TJPhotoGuy]

Fran,

That image is beautiful. More butterfly lighting - I love it. I also think the jewelry and wardrobe etc is an integral part of this style.

My studio is very dark; yes, that helps seeing shadows. I put tin foil outside the window. THe shot I posted was bare bulb, just a grid. I did use a softbox just to create the main light for the scene though.

The bio i read was actually about Hurrell's mentor, Louis who worked at mgm for about 5 years if I recall from the book correctly.

I'd also like to know what people who reproduce that style do in terms of post-processing, since obviously doing it on a computer is different than what Hurrell did, and I've read that he spent a great deal on his post work.

1:4 huh? I'll try that. I think the shot I posted was around 1:2.

Thanks for the info! I'll check out that book. the one I've used thus far is master lighting guide, can't recall the author off hand.

And yes that image you posted is what I'm going for... perrrrfect.

[CaptainTom]

YOu might consult Paul Morgan in FW.

On line here is : PhotosbyMorgan2

[fran reisner]

Glad to help. That image by the way, is another one you'll find in one of Bill Hurter's Amherst books, Photographic Lighting. That's another one I'd recommend reading actually. Lots of great lighting tips and techniques. Shows a lot of lighting set-ups (including some of mine :-) I'm betting Tony Corbell is in there too. Have fun!

Oh, and when I say 1:4 ratio... that's assuming you're shooting RAW. If you're shooting jpeg, depending on the camera... you're likely to loose too much detail. If you don't know this rule of thumb... expose for the highlight and fill the shadow.

Back to packin'. I HATE packin'!

[TJPhotoGuy]

Thanks again Fran! And yes, always shooting raw. I'll check out the books...