Friday, April 20, 2007

Senior Pictures - Kial, Vintage Hollywood style



Hmm, seem to be having trouble posting to this blog. This was to be with the photos below.

I was thrilled when Kial scheduled her Senior Portraits with me because she wanted to do her entire session in the style of the 40's Hollywood portraits. I've long admired the work of that era by photographers such as George Hurrell and Clarence Bull so was excited to create some images in a similar fashion.

The lighting, wardrobe and styling are key elements to this look. Most photographers today use light modifiers such as softboxes to produce a large, soft, wrapping light that is flattering/forgiving for most subjects.

The studio portrait photographers of the 40's used many precisely placed lights to accent their subject, highlighting features with a more concentrated light source that produced deep shadows. This type of light is also less forgiving in that it revealed texture and imperfections. Thus the need for heavy retouching to the negative using chalk and a magnifying glass, to achieve a flawless complexion on the finished print. Although it's still paramount to capture the image properly in camera, we've come a long way and now the skilled artist can perfect and enhance wondrously with Photoshop.

Kial brought in several fabulous outfits that were perfect for her session and we had a lot of fun channeling Marlene Dietrich!

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