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A HollyWood Light Challenge

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FredJamesPhotography

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Hello All,

I was on another forum and we were talking Hollwood light looks and gave it a really quick shot to see what I could do. My daughter was on her way to a movie's with friends and they were honking while i took this shot. She was not in the mood. I want to do it again today but i was curious if there is a way to make this have that old time HollyWood look. I remember there were more shadows and had a certain dramatic feel. I tried to do some shadowing on her face but seemed to miss getting it right.

Can this be done? If you can show me I would appreciate it.

Here is the image and here is a link to the original for better quality.

http://www.pbase.com/fredjamesphotography/image/90955439/original

Thanks for your efforts, Fred

 
There are distinct eras of Hollywood lighting styles: 30's, 40's & 50's which all had different looks and setups and basically chronicled the evolution of motion picture lighting equipment. Most lighting was very harsh and non-diffused since softboxes weren't around back then. Consider that most portraits in those days were done without flash strobes (not even invented yet) but with arc or halogen lights like Mole & Richardson set lights.

Which era style are you trying to mimic? 30's Jean Harlow, 40's Rita Hayworth or 50s' Monroe?

http://www.hurrellphotos.com/hurrell_home.asp?ID=2 Great examples from one of the classic 30-40s era best photographers.

My first observation is that your lighting is positioned too low over the face and too soft to get the defined shadowing that you are after. Try using just the reflector or a snoot to pinpoint the light.
 
Thats why I love this place. Within minutes you get excellent advice.

I love that site yiu showed me. I want to try some of the classic shots like they show there. As far as the year. Anything that works. I might do one of my wife today to see how close I can come. I'm not sure if I will use a video ight in a snoot or a bare buld or ?

Hav you done this type of work? I think it would be a great style to know and throw it in the mix at weddings or portraits.

Thanks for you advice, Fred
 
Your image is a bit soft for Hollywood, it needs some strong back lighting as well as a snoot to isolate the face a bit more. I think the guy's on the lighting forum will be able to tell you more about lighting this type of shot.
--
Alfred
 
Hollywood Portraits by roger hicks and christopher nisperos
has great examples and the lighting set ups form the 30's to the 60's
You can even show it to the person so they can pick a pose or style
very nice shot but just not the 30's style
 
I love seeing pictures cause I usally can fisure out the lighting from one or duplicate it in another way.
I will try some stuff today if i get a subject.
Thanks, Fred
 
Yes the guys there are great but I have seen some amazing PS work, turning day into night, winter house scenes etc and i was curious if there is a way in PS to do some of it. Then I shoot again and keep in mind what I can do here.
Thanks for the reply, Fred
 
Not classical hollywood- didn't like the b/w look with noise added..heres something in between.



added b/w version

 
Not sure this one lends itself to Hollywood lighting without some excellent PWL. You already have a very good and successful style, Fred, so I trust these little excursions are just to provide a little something different to your customers. Not sure why a lovely girl would resist having her pic taken either. I ran apply image, then Imagenomic noiseware, then portraiture. A little oversharpened. George

 
FredJamesPhotography said:
but i was curious if there is a way to make this have that old time
HollyWood look. I remember there were more shadows and had a certain
dramatic feel. I tried to do some shadowing on her face but seemed to
miss getting it right.
Click to expand...
I went for a very contrasty B&W presentation .... seems to be approaching the look.




FredJamesPhotography said:
Here is the image and here is a link to the original for better quality.

Click to expand...
--
http://letkeman.net/Photos
http://kimletkeman.blogspot.com
 
The shutter effect is great. I was starting to think this one wouldn't be able to be worked but thanks for the great start.
Fred
 
Very nice old film look. Looks like an old classic that was leftalone for ahwile then you stumble on it and say, who was that!
Thanks, Fred
 
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