The color red was used for the satin covering Ash as red looks good on her and her tone. The white sheet on the floor was used to help reflect light and create a great contrast.

Below the final images is the lighting diagram for this shoot.

Always a pleasure to work with Ash D.

Glamour Lighting with Ash D.

Glamour Lighting with Ash D.

Glamour Lighting Diagram

The post Model – Ash D. first appeared on Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom.

Here is the images of Kelly Devoto and the respective lighting diagrams for her Hollywood Glamour Session. The first two images were reminiscent of old Hollywood pinup type and the second two were more of the forlorn starlet. We also did the first two in color and then converted them, I’ll include those at the end.  The lighting diagrams are after each set of images.

Kelly Devoto

Kelly Devoto

This is the lighting diagram for the first set of images one 500 watt fresnel was used for key light set to camera left and slighting higher than models eye level. The hair light, a 500 watt fresnel was set behind and directed to the back of her head higher up than the key light to shine down on her hair. The hair light helps to give depth and separation from the background. Without the hair light we would lose her and her hair into the background. Also notice the catch lights in her eyes to help bring the eyes alive.

Kelly Devoto Lighting Diagram

Kelly Devoto

Kelly Devoto

This diagram shows the lights being place around the model at all four corners. The lights are shinging through white satin strips of cloth to give a shiny soft glow to the image. Satin material can be found at any fabric store. This type of lighting does not have many hard shadows but was a technique employed by many of the Hollywood glamour photographers back in the days of old. George Hurrell usually accomplished this effect by bouncing the light off of other objects such as mirrors or white walls or table tops. Also notice the catch lights in the eyes here as well.

Kelly Devoto Lighting Diagram

This next image was similar in lighting to the first images of this post, but was shot in color. The color was corrected adn enhanced to give the look of an old style photograph when pin up was just emerging.

Kelly Devoto Color Pinup

This image below was shot with film from a 35 mm camera. The color is slightly off as it was shot with fresnels and the film was for outdoor lighting. Outdoor lighting is cooler than the warm temperature of the incandescent hot lights. The warm color tones were toned down as it was much more saturated. The images was scanned using a negative scanner.

Kelly Devoto Color Pinup Film

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Film Noir is typically thought of as being a crime drama, usually involving a Femme Fatale(a women of questionable virtue). The femme fatale usually thought of as a danger to the hero or underdog, sometimes being the one thing that can bring the hero down, or elevate him to hero status. The hero is usually a private eye, police detective or cop.

Most classic period film noir movies were low or modestly budgeted, and low on film company equipment such as lighting. The American Film Noir was said to have come about through the idea of making use with what one has, or didn’t have and the need to accentuate the moods of the plot and the emotion to be conveyed by the characters. Low budget or low resources for equipment usually meant they had to make due with what they had and therefore became very inventive, especially in terms with the lighting.

There are a couple great book on film noir, but for a film noir lighting book, there’s nothing like the film noir lighting bible entitled “Painting with Light” by John Alton. Another great reference for film noir movies and discussion of the style is the book “The Noir Style” by Alain Silver. More film noir books HERE.

Film Noir Lighting became the hallmark of the Film Noir movie, and is seen in many types of photography today. Sometimes being confused with Hollywood Glamour Photography, Film Noir is usually of a much darker natural.

Some hallmarks of the film noir shot, or film are low key, low light scenes and skewed angles or low-angle, wide angle or dutch tilt type shots. All are ways to give disorienting or disfiguring effects as are images in mirrors.

The lighting is sometimes either stark dark or light contrasts as are the dramatic shadowing effects known also as the chiaroscuro style. Chiaroscuro is a style of light and dark paterning that came from Renaissance painting. One typical cliche and always notable scene type is the shadows of venetian blinds on the wall or across the face of the characters in the movie or photo.

Some classic examples of film noir lighting come from movies such as The Third Man, with the long cast shadows on the walls of the dimly lit streets along with the dutch tilted angle of the scene.

The Third Man – Long Shadows, Dark Streets, Running Man

The Third Man – Long Shadows, Dark Streets, Balloon Peddler

Another great example of Film Noir lighting in a movie is High Sierra, in which the lighting was done to look as if lit by an oil lamp. The low lighting is low in this scene and gives away the feelings the two characters have for each other. The lighting is not as low as in criminal lighting where the light would be coming from the floor, but lower as in the height of the oil lamp itself to make it look realistic.

High Sierra with Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino

Another type of film noir imaging is silhouetting of the characters against a light background such as in the The Big Combo.

The Big Combo

Some examples of criminal lighting, I will use some of my own images for these. Typically low angle lighting pointing upwards, giving a stark evil feeling, along with a facial gesture can make all the difference in the world.

Guy Chapman, with Criminal Lighting and a Dutch Tilt

Film Noir Lighting Diagram for image of Guy #1

Long shadows on walls are a must in almost all film noir movies.

Guy Chapman with a long shadow on the wall

Film Noir Lighting Diagram for image of Guy #2

A tilted hat to create a shadow to hide the eyes can create a feeling of either mystery or sadness  depending on the context.

A tilt of the head to shadow and hide the eyes

Film Noir Lighting Diagram for image of Guy #3

Sometimes a tilt of the camera can create a interesting or unusual effect. Used to disorient or convey disorientation, stress, dread or looming danger, the dutch tilt is a classic and simple to use technique.

Dutch Tilt to create weird, disorienting and grotesque mood

Of course there’s also got to be the seductive Femme Fatale.

Film Noir Moll

A smoking gun is always nice.

Smoking Gun backlit for effect

And then there’s the Hero or Protagonist, Me…Larry Darkman Clark.

Larry Darkman Clark, Film Noir Lighting

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post on film noir lighting with the diagrams. Film noir has always been a passion of mine and there’s so much to it, it is in many of the movies we see today.

The post Film Noir Lighting with Lighting Diagrams first appeared on Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom.

1. Expose the face for flash using aperture(size of the hole).
2. Expose for ambient background using Shutter(speed of the shutter, usually long).
3. Close aperture until face is correctly lit.
4. Increase strobe power until face is exposed correctly
5. Decrease shutter speed until background is correct.

Sometimes it takes a few minutes to get the background and foreground just right, because your using a tight aperture with a long exposure.

• flash is controlled by aperture
  
• shutter speed controls ambient light.

So how I did the shot below, the faux magazine ad for the eyelashes, I metered for the correct flash exposure on her face. Then I focused on the light in the background behind her with my camera and opened the shutter speed up(made it longer), until the background light was up as much as the strobe on her face.

The strobe is only “on” for so long in terms of milliseconds. After the strobe fires, the shutter is still open drawing in the background ambient light, exposing the “film” to the correct exposure of flash and ambient, until the perfect picture is achieved. Am I making any sense at all?

The end product:

Faux magazine Ad for Shu Uemera Eyelash Comany

The Lighting Diagram is here:

Glamour Photography Lighting Diagram, F/13, 1/3 sec., 800 ISO

The portable system I used for this shoot is HERE.

Glamour Photography Lighting Explaination

This shoot was done on the street corner in Pacific Beach, Ca., on a strip where there’s a lot of college kids bar hopping and partying. I wanted to get some people in the background and have it give an atmosphere of night out on the town, but the crowd wasn’t co-operating. So I just shot kali alone with the fashion area of the strip in the background.

The following two fashion glamour shots were done in downtown San Diego at a law office that was covered in ivy, I wanted to shoot Kali in front of the old door with ivy surrounding it. I used the same portable lighting setup as above but I only metered for the strobe since there was no background or ambient light I wanted to include.

Model: Kali, Location: Downtown San Diego, Ca.

Model: Kali, Location: Downtown San Diego, Ca.

Kali is a model I was directed to by my make-up artist Jenny. Kali had just returned from a modeling gig in Hong Kong where she was there for over a year. She said they love American Models over there. It was really cold that night and Kali is a true model in all the sense. When it came time for the shoot she took her coat off and posed like a real trooper, fighting of goose bumps from the cold. She’s a modeling machine.

Shu Uemura is an eyelash company based in Asia.

The post Fashion Glamour Photography – Lighting Diagram and Explaination first appeared on Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom.

This is one book I’ve had in my library for years! and I keep going back to it for reference.

While there are tons of books out there you can buy for lighting with specific layouts for achieving exact copies of images, or step-by-step lighting procedures, this is not exactly a lighting book, per se’. It is a book on just about everything you would need to know on the subject of Nude Photography. From enhancing your images to getting better and better models for your assignments or sessions, how to act around nude models and avoid the creep factor to interacting with a nude model and making her feel comfortable around you. We all know that great images start with a great model, for without a great model we would have nothing.

The book also has a nice library of images to look at, with examples of how things are done. Ashley also goes into equipment, and why he uses what he uses, the benefits and differences between different pieces of equipment, besides what he uses, and explains a bit about light color temperature and effects on the images in editing and results.

The book is full of diagrams and screen shots of lighting and editing screens, and goes well into detail about each aspect of each point the author is trying to make, and why. Not many photography books I have read go into detail about why they do certain things, but Ashley does, and usually relating to a certain situation he has had in the past, that he himself had to learn from. Here again passing along to us, the readers, valuable information that can save us countless hours of frustration or dead, unusable shoots.

This book is so full of good information, the list continues to go on into locations for shoots, idea for different locations, poses for shots, hair and makeup tips and ideas, and a check list of things to make sure your model is feeling comfortable and easy. He also gives a list of visible clues to look for, and what those clues can tell you, the photographer what you are actually seeing with the model you are working with. I mean this guy is good.

The book itself is 256 pages long. It took me a while to get through the whole book. I Skimmed through and jump to parts that interested me. I found the whole book interesting, extremely informative and well thought out.

Overall, the book is a gem of a resource, to be gone over and over again. The Only thing I found to be something I would change, was how long the book was, and how many different topics were thoroughly covered. I felt the book could have been broken up into several books covering each subject on it’s own. It took me a while to get through the whole book, but I was able to eventually get through the book.

I will say this for the length and all the topics covered, the author does a great job of flowing from one subject to the next, making the flow of the book one of ease. I was glad that I had the whole book, because when one subject was ending, it flowed into the next. This is where I was glad I didn’t have to go buy another book to continue.

Great Book! Highly Recommended!

For more information, including an in-depth list of contents,  go to Amazon.com.

Here’s a few of my own…

Ripe with Morning Dew

Desert Wild Flowers

Body Scaping

Midnight Morning Shower

Bianca Malise

Better in Blue Jeans

The post How to Photograph Nudes Like a Professional first appeared on Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom.

In this Hollywood Glamour photo shoot, you can see me messing with the lights and snapping a couple pictures. The in the resulting images you can see what the camera is seeing. Hollywood glamour photography really isn’t as hard as people make it seem. It is a technique, but it is also a feeling, an art and a painting of sorts with light. Not painting with light like they mean in today’s terminology, but more of an artists painting as he places his lights and shadows here and there.

One secret I always tell people is to create drama with shadows, rather than flood it with light. I hope you enjoy the pictures and the resulting images, can you tell or remember which Hurrell shots these are imitating?

Enjoy…

Hollywood Glamour Photography, Behind the Scenes

Hollywood Glamour Photography, Behind the Scenes w/Daisy Devine

Hollywood Glamour Photography, Behind the Scenes w/Daisy Devine

Hollywood Glamour Photography, Behind the Scenes w/Daisy Devine

Hollywood Glamour Photography w/Daisy Devine

Hollywood Glamour Photography w/Daisy Devine

Hollywood Glamour Photography w/Daisy Devine

Hollywood Glamour Photography w/Daisy Devine

I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts and comments. I’d also like to know what you would like me to write about. Got a question, ask me, and I’ll try to answer it to the best of my ability.

The post Hollywood Glamour Photography, Behind the Scenes with Daisy Devine first appeared on Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom.

This image in particular receives many questions as to the lighting and how it was shot. It’s actually pretty simple and mainly with existing light, with the exception of one additional light acting as both fill and key light.

The existing light was metered to be approximately 1+ stop higher than the key and fill light, to give a nice rim light on her hair and her left side. It was also set this way to illuminate the scene with the existing lights in the bathroom, to make it look as natural as possible.

The Key and Fill Light, was a 200 watt Fresnel, with a diffuser on the barn doors. The diffuser was homemade, with a round embroidery frame from Walmart with a piece of white, sheer fabric, like synthetic silk to diffuse the light and make it a bit softer. I then hung this round frame on the barn doors of the Fresnel.

The shutter speed was set at 1/20th sec. and ISO 800, to allow the low wattage lights to take hold and register. The Key and Fill light were placed a ways back from the subject so as not to overpower the existing lights and to allow them to be brighter for rim lighting. The Key and Fill light also give a nice little catch light in the eye. The catch light brings the eye to life and gives a sense of realness to the image.

Bianca is sitting on the counter top of the sink with her back to the mirror and leaning toward the camera. The resulting shot was a really warm toned image of a really pretty model with a nice figure. Capturing forever, the image of youth and vitality, which is a selling point for all boudoir photography.

Enjoy…

Bianca Malise, Nude Boudoir

Bianca Malise Nude Boudoir

Bianca Malise, Glamour Lighting Diagram

The post Model – Bianca Malise, Nude plus Glamour Lighting Diagram first appeared on Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom.

They wanted something original, and cool looking, as well as something they called “Urban Grunge”. So I put them in front of a garage, and used strobe to overpower the sunlight, and when I edited the photo I used photoshop to paint a “Tag” of their band name “Wild Hare”.

I used a blend of high contract, layering and desaturation, to get that illustrative look of the picture. The only thing I would have done differently is to set the lights differently. I had the lights coming from either side of them, thus creating a criss cross shadow, which for some people can be a bit distracting. If I could do it differently, I would put one light to camera right and one light to camera center instead of camera left and right.

The Illustrative Look with Band Photography

The post The Illustrative Look – Band Photography first appeared on Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom.

Kevin Grevioux was coming down one aisle, I was going across another and as he came around the corner we almost ran into each other.  I looked up and was like “You’re that guy from Underworld, What’s your name?”. Duh, I feel so stupid.

I rarely get star struck anymore, because I’ve worked with a few big names now, but some people you just admire their work in films you know?
I really liked his work in Underworld and didn’t realize that he was one of the writers as well. Anyway he was really cool and let me grab a picture of him, and yes, his voice is really, that deep. Kevin Grevioux from the Underworld movis:

Kevin Grevioux from the movie "Underworld"

The post Comic Con 2010, Sometimes you just never know… first appeared on Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom.

The negative sold for about $57,000 recently in the largest auction of George Hurrells works by Epstein and Schwimer. I would love to have a copy of that negative.

So if you take a look at my diagram you can see where I have set the lights for the photograph, and in the second and third images I will point out to you why it is and how I know.

The hairlight which is on a boom and above Jean Harlow, this is easy to tell by the shadow direction of this light(fresnel) and how it falls onto Harlow in a tight pattern around her indicating it is a mid level tight focus, and above her.

The next light is a narrow focus photo flood light to the right of the camera at about 90 degrees from the subject, also indicated by the light shining on her left side of her body to camera right. Also see the bears nose for highlights. This lamp is low to the ground, pointing slightly up at Harlow.

The third light, called the Key light is also a flood, but set to wide, and more of a fill light than a key light. Take note of the catch lights in Harlows eyes, and the lightness of the shadows on her ribcage, the back of her right arm and let hand, and her face. This light is slightly higher than the second light, and set to wide to soften and lower the brightness, so as not to remove or blowout the shadows, but rather to open them up, so the camera can get that shadow detail.

This image is Hurrells signature dramatic lighting which is accomplished by painting or composing with light, rather than blast with light.  A little here, and a little there. until the perfect balance is met. Some would say the brighter parts of the image are her hips and the left side of her face, drawing attention away from the face, but instead, it frames the face.

As with many of Hurrell’s works, he the broke rules. To him there were no rules. This is what made Hurrell different, stand out and noticed. Not just by clients but by other photographers as well.

The other reason I know where the lights go is in the book “The Hurrell Style: 50 Years of Photographing Hollywood“, it’s documented where the lights are, as Hurrell took extensive notes on his setups and layouts. That book is available here, at Amazon.Com.

Jean Harlow, Bearskin Rug Lighting Diagram

Jean Harlow, Bearskin Rug © Epstein&Schwimer

The light is shining on her left side to camera right, also see the bears nose for highlights.

Jean Harlow Bearskin Rug, Blow Up Detail © Epstein&Schwimer

Take note of the catch lights in Harlows eyes, and the lightness of the shadows on her ribcage, the back of her right arm and let hand, and her face.

The post Jean Harlow and the Bear Skin Rug for Vanity Fair – Lighting Diagram first appeared on Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom.