What techniques/lighting/etc were used on these photos?

<p>These are driver license photos of my grandpa from 1966-1975. They are the only vintage (from the 70s anyway) license photos I've ever seen, and they seem to be of a lot higher quality than today's quickly done DMV photos.<br>

According to someone I talked to, back in the 1970s, if you had a certain license type, you'd have to get your photos taken at a photo studio and there were very specific standards about the photos in terms of what size the photo had to be, how the person had to look, etc--Much like modern passport photos. It wasn't done on-site like the modern DMV. The photos were taken separately and then affixed to the license either by stapling or taping.<br>

That said, what kind of techniques (lighting/shadowing/flash) and what sort of camera/film was likely used on these to create the effect they did, particularly the last photo?<br>

The photos are here presented in chronological order, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1975. I ask because I generally like their quality--they make good "mugshot" type photos, a good representation of how the person looked face on, compared to the lower quality modern driver license photos.<br>

<img src="http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/2435/1966driverlicensephotom.png" alt="" /><img src="http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/6150/july1969.png" alt="" /><img src="http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/6895/1972.png" alt="" /><img src="http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/1835/may1975.png" alt="" /></p>

<p>What I find most interesting is that the lighting is identical in all the shots taken many years apart. So it is probably a purchased mugshot camera/light setup either at the DMV or a studio that had a passport setup. These would typically be designed so they didn't take up much space, so it probably didn't use umbrellas.</p>

<p>To see where the lights were, look a the shadows and highlight/reflections. There are two small highlights in his eyes, above the camera, not too far from the camera, the same distance on each side. The last picture shows the shadows from his lapels nicely, the shadows are fairly hard so that supports small light sources. The 2 catchlights are not pin-points so I would guess the flashes were in small metal reflectors. There is also a very small catchlight in the bottom of his eyes, probably a small flash without any modifier.</p>