On July 24th I did an old Hollywood inspired session with the lovely Laci. This session was inspired by several of Lindsay Adler’s YouTube videos where she walks through how she got the old Hollywood look, using a fresnel lens modifier and an optical spot. Also, this was a perfect time to work with Laci, as both she and I are fans of the vintage Hollywood look.
When I reference the
term old Hollywood or classic Hollywood look, I’m referring to the style pioneered
by George Hurrell in the 1930s and
1940s. This look relied on precision lighting, spotlights, and dramatic
shadows. I also used the works of Clarence SinclairBull and Milton H.Green as references for this session.
For this session I used:
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Photography Equipment |
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Cannon 80D Trigger 2 strobes 2 c-stands 1 dome reflector 1 Set of barn doors 1 30-degree grid 1 50-inch umbrella with sock 1 strip box with grid 1 flag 1 light stands 2 speedlight 1 Backdrop stands Grey backdrop Sandbags 2 posing cubes |
The set up
For the pure classic Hollywood look, I would have needed to use a fresnel lens modifier, which I do not own. While I do own some fresnel lens, purchased from a theater going out of business, they are only the lens and not contained in useful light modifier for a strobe. Thus, I relied on bell reflector with a 30-degree grid and barn doors to shape the light coming from the main strobe. This combination let create a spot of light, while providing me control on how the light spread across the scene. By just using the one strobe I would have very dark and dramatic shadows, I decided to add a second strobe with a socked-umbrella on it to act as fill light, just to ensure the subject didn’t completely blend into the background, and you could see some details. I also used a speed light in a strip box, whose job was just to provide rim lighting to the model. I then had one final speed light, whose sole job was to provide an interesting light pattern on the background.
Now normally all this would be great, except my two speed lights kept losing sync with my trigger and not firing. Thus, I did not have consistent lighting looks throughout the session and lost the background pattern which is a hallmark of the old Hollywood style. I did end up giving up on the two speed lights, and only shooting with the two strobes, which still gave me a reasonable approximation of the look I was going for.
Finally, I kept the background and set pieces very
simple, as the focus of this style of photo is the lighting. That is why I went with a grey backdrop and
the simple posing cubes.
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| Starting Configuration |
Camera Settings
For this session I used ISO 200 with an aperture of F8 and a shutter speed of 1/1250s. My focal length very from 18mm to 110mm with the most common lengths being 28mm.
The Photos
I shot all the photos in
color, but converted them to black and white, to play further into the old Hollywood
style. The photos look good in both
black and white and color but I feel the black and white images have a bit more
impact.
This first image is my favorite
from the whole session. It also reminds me of an image of an actress from the
1940s, but I cannot remember who and cannot seem to find the reference image. To
get this image I placed my main light slightly behind the model, so it would be
in a short light position. (Short light is lighting technique where the far
side of a subject's face is lit relative to the camera.) While keeping the
socked strobe in the same front position to fill the shadows slightly. In post,
I worked on the color version first, where I did all the basic edits of white
balance, adjusting contrast, color, and applying lens correction. I then applied a strong vignette. When I was
happy with the color version, I converted the image to black and white using “Adobe
Standard B&W.” I then further refined the image by adding two light masks.
The first I added behind the subject to add that slight halo seen in the
image. I did this to provide a bit more separation
between the model and the background. I then used a second mask to enhance the
sliver of light falling across the model’s face. From there I pulled the image into Photoshop
to clean up the image by removing some stray hairs, and doing minor skin smoothing
using Adobe’s neural filter.
This second image
required a lot of work on my part. Right
out of camera it was a decent image, but I because of the angle I shot it at I
ended up with my background stand and a light stand in the image, which had to
be removed. Again, even though this is a
black and white image I did all the basic edits on the color image before
converting it to black and white. Once I was happy with the color image, I
converted the image to black and white and further refined the image. In the
black and white image, I added a small mask that spread from the top of the
model’s head to right below her shoulder to enhance the highlight on the side
of her face. I then pulled the image
into Photoshop, were I used content aware fill to remove the stands. I also
felt the image was a little soft, so I ran it through Topaz Sharpen AI to
remove that softness. Finally, I wasn’t completely
happy with the lighting, as I felt it could be a touch more dramatic, so I
pulled the image into Boris Optics which allowed me enhance the lighting. In Boris Optics I used the spot light tool, a
lot easier then render in Adobe Photoshop, to enhance the light I had coming
from my left, and make it look more like a movie spot light. I then pulled the image back into Photoshop to
do the final clean up of the image by removing stray hair, filling in the screw
on the box and cleaning up the seam created by using content aware fill. After all these steps I had a nice final
image.
The last image I’m going
to leave you with is a color image, with a lot of drama. I left this image in
color because, if I turned it to black and white you would not be able to see
the color and detail of the dress. Yes, we did do an outfit change during the
session, where Laci changed from the form fitting red number with the fishtail silhouette,
to this vintage couture 1950s gown. This last image was her idea as she wanted a
picture of the back of the gown. This image is lit using the main strobe with
the bell reflector to my left, and then the second strobe with the socked umbrella
to my right. In lightroom I did all the
standard edits from adjusting the exposure, white balance, and color. I then added a slight blue/orange color grade
and a medium vignette before pulling it over into Photoshop. In Photoshop I
cleaned up a few stray hairs, removed a leg of a light stand sticking into the
frame, a stray feather from the boa that was used earlier, then ran a neural
filter to refine the skin tone.
Overall, I’m happy with
how the images from this session turned out, but not happy with my speed lights
consistently dropping sync with my trigger.
I need to determine why the speed lights are dropping sync, while the
strobes are not. Because of the frustrations
with the speed lights during this session, I ended up buying a third strobe, a Westcott
FJ400. I would have bought another
Phottix strobe, however the company no longer produce studios strobes, and only
makes LED solutions.
Like I said I’m very
happy with how the images turned out, there are a few areas I think I could
improve but that will be for the next session.
A few images from this session will be published in the August black and white
issue of Vigor Magazine. You can see all
the final images both color and black and white here: Old
Hollywood.
Credits:
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