Richard Avedon style

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone can give me some guidelines of how to shoot

some richard avedon style portriats- the ones with the white

background, taken from straigh on. what does he use for the white

background? just a wall? how does he get the subject to stand out so

well? what kind of lighting, etc?

thanks,

ns

As Al suggested, DEFINITELY get the Darkness and Light video.

Avedon shoots a Rolleiflex TLR, with standard 80mm 2.8(F) Planar lens. He uses a

Hasselblad with 150mm on occasion, to get closer, unless he uses the Rolleinars on

the TLR. When he shoots large format, it's with a Sinar 8x10. Film is Tri-X or Plus-X,

for B+W. I don't know if there's any recent information about colour film, given the

changes in manufacturers' product lines over the years.

The background, when in the studio, is a white studio cyclorama cove. If he wants it

white, he lights it with 4-6 strobe heads, half on each side. If he wants a gray

background, he lets the exposure on the background fall off to less than the key

light. When he did American West, he shot against white seamless which was gaffer-

taped to the shade side of whatever structures he could find (barns, etc.). Those pix

were 8x10 view camera shots.

How the subject stands out so well? Not sure what you mean. I think, from his

beginnings, he's always used only one light on the subject. With colour, he may have

used hair/rim/accent lighting, for fashion/beauty/Pirelli Calendar pix and such, but

he's most known for the simplicity of one light, either a strobe (Elinchrom at one

point), or the sun/daylight. He sometimes fills will a white card, or uses a metallic

card for fill or a catchlight in the eyes. Printing has a great deal to do with the final

result. The large format prints, especially, are intricately dodged and burned, based

on Avedon's mark-ups of test prints. You can see just how much work goes into

those prints from the video, or the EVIDENCE book (page 86).

If you get the video, pay attention to the part where he describes how he got the

expressions on the faces of the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor.... Avedon was often

criticized for not 'flattering' his sitters. It's said that he was often "cruel." You can get

away with that when you're a legend. If you're a commercial photographer, though, or

shooting family/friends, Avedon's way may not make you very popular.

For American West, the white seamless was often taped to "the shade side of a barn."

They also used trucks, mobilhomes, etc., but probably always with the goal of not

using direct sunlight.

There is more to the technique than a white background. He also used a black gobo on each side of the subject. to duplicate that get a 3" peice of styrofoam 4x8 paint it black and set it just outside the frame and top it with a black sheet the same. then light the front with a soft box or big umbrella and light the background 1-1.5 stops higher than the front light.

He would set this up on the street and in a studio.