Old Hollywood Lighting

[garry edwards]

Sorry, try again...<div></div>

[peter_thatcher]

Hollywood Portraits by Roger Hicks

 

Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits by Mark Vieira

 

I did a 30s hollywood glamour shoot as part of a "past masters" assingment. These books helped alot. As for which

lights to use, if you can't get fresnels (I wouldn't use anything over 1K, "Klieg eye" is still a problem) flood lights will

work in a pinch. Outside of lighting, if you are willing to use film, tri-x with a Tungsten filter works well. It will yield

results similar to orthochromatic, yet is fast enough to use dimmer lights and can be pushed if needed.

[john_sloss]

Check out www.photographyschoolhouse.com

 

They have been running classes that include diagrams and videos on how to duplicate the Hollywood glamour lighting during the

30's and 40's.

[sing_lo]

Fresnel vs honeycomb grid:

 

Fresnel:

 

produces light having both hard and soft quality at the same time. Fresnel lens is frosted and acts as a form of diffusion. The bigger the lens, the softer the light it produces. It creates unique brilliant highlights on skin. The shadow sharpness and light hardness can be varied by changing (focusing) the lamp position relative to the lens; flood/spot. The light is softer at full spot, while the light is harder at full flood.

 

Honeycomb grid:

 

cheap way of producing spot light effect. Light quality is harsher and less forgiving on skin. It is difficult to see the modeling light and it tends to cause flash head overheating with fine grids. You can put hamburg frost in front of honey grid to soften its hardness without changing the beam spread too much. I would not recommend you use honeycomb grid to shoot a person with bad skin unless you don't mind lots of retouching.

 

I use fresnels in portraits all the time from 4" to 14" monster, more often than using softboxes, beauty dishes...

 

BTW there are a few mistakes in the lighting diagrams in Hollywood Portraits by Roger Hicks and Chris<div></div>

[WAn]

I second the Peter' recommendation about the book

Hurrell's Hollywood Portraits by Mark A. Vieira

http://www.amazon.com/Hurrells-Hollywood-Portraits-Mark-Vieira/dp/0810934345/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216650660&sr=1-1

 

The study of this book as well as old movies shows that the shadows usually had crisply defined edges, no softening at all.

[irishprairiegirl]

Wow,I didn't get back to this.Thanks for all the advice!

[larry_clark1]

<p>Since I do this sort of lighting as my specialty I should say that it's the fresnel that is the way the lighting comes across. It's hard but has soft edges. It can produce crisp edges but it can also produce softness with the edge of the light itself. The lens of the light is the same as a lighthouse, it's focus-able and it's made to project long distances when focused or it's made to spread light wide.<br>

The center is hard and hot and the edge is soft and cool. Feathering will produce a hard and a soft edge but the center will produce a hard edge needed for specific shadows like the butterfly lighting method. It produces a hard clean edge to make the perfect shadows used in the old days.<br>

Check my website for more examples:<br>

<a href="http://www.darkmansdarkroom.com/">http://www.darkmansdarkroom.com</a><br>

Larry</p>

 

[tobiasfeltus]

<p>Hi Larry,<br>

thanks for posting your site. nice work. What kind of fresnels are you using? they are not very powerful, from what you say. I am actually a little surprised to read that you are using digital with not particularly bright lenses, as the one thing left in your pictures would be that delicate shallow DOF that was so typical of 8x10" portraits from the '30s.<br>

t</p>

[larry_clark1]

<p>The fresnels I am using in many shots are 200watt and 150 watt. right now my small area doesn't permit me busting out the 500 and 1000 watt lights. I do occasionally use a wide aperture to get a shallow depth of field but sometimes I like a nice crisp shot too. it all depends on what iam shooting too. faces I usually will do a more shallow depth. but again it depends on me and how I am feeling that day. :)</p>

[christopher_nisperos2]

 

<p ><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=3776446">Peter Thatcher</a> <a href="../member-status-icons"></a>, (Jul 18, 2008; 04:55 p.m.) wrote:</p>

 

<p>"Hollywood Portraits by Roger Hicks"<br>

. . . <em><strong>and</strong></em> Christopher Nisperos! Sorry for the delayed entry to this thread (just now seen it), but it's never too late to make sure I don't get forgotten. My ego can't stand it!</p>

<p>Mark Vieira once stressed to me that he felt that the "real" Hollywood glamour look isn't possible without a few key ingredients: tungsten lighting (he didn't specify fresnel, but who knows what he meant), <em>film</em> in large format and negative retouching. i don't remember the rest of what he said in his interesting email, but if he comes across this post, he's welcome to add to —or correct— its contents. </p>

<p>Anyway, for anyone reading this who wants to try creating this style of portrait photography, here's a huge secret (not): Once you've read a couple of these how-to books, you'll have ALL the information you need to get started. From there, just experiment a lot until you get the results you're looking for. You may well find that you can achieve this look (or almost), using</p>

<p>-Any professional quality camera.</p>

<p>-Any light[ing] --(HINT-if using studio flash with a grid, try jamming some tuff-spun between the grid and the reflector to soften the light while retaining the directional aspect. <strong>NOTE</strong>- This may or may not effect the ventilation of your flash head. If it does, better to drop the idea than to damage your unit! Also, a hot modeling light will have a tendancy to create a brown spot in the middle of the tuff-spun. All-in-all, it's a technique which will call for some regular surveillance).</p>

<p>-Any technology (hand negative retouching or photoshop).</p>

<p>As mentioned in previous posts . . . Have fun!<br>

Best,<br>

Christopher Nisperos</p>

<p>.</p>

 

 

 

[larry_clark1]

<p>@Christopher Nisperos I sent you a PM and was wondering if you may have gotten it?<br>

BTW anyone who knows of Christopher Nisperos book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0817440208?ie=UTF8&tag=nichemarketer-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0817440208">Hollywood Portraits</a>, is THE book to start with if this is what you want to do. it's where I started and It is where I send anyone who wishes to do this style of photography.</p>

[yucel_y]

<p>Seemed like a good book, ordered one. arrives on Jan 3 from the Amazon.<br>

Created a list of 12 glamour lighting video tutorials, including a shoot with Frenels in Hollywood style, check them out at <a href="http://glamourphotography.co/?p=660">http://glamourphotography.co/?p=660</a></p>