Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom » Black and white hollywood glamour

Jean Harlows Bearskin Rug Negative Commands $57,500 at Auction

Darkman — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:01:32 +0000

Jean Harlow, Bearskin Rug © Epstein&Schwimer

At the Profiles in History Auction held on March 26 and 27 in Calabasas, California, the bearskin rug portrait camera negative of actress Jean Harlow (1911-1937) sold for $57,500. Shot by George Hurrell, while a resident photographer at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, for the January 1935 issue of Vanity Fair.

This famous image of Jean Harlow was shot by Hurrell on October 18, 1934, at the home Harlow shared with her mother at 214 S. Beverly Glen Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The catalog incorrectly noted that the photo session occurred one month after the suicide (author’s italics) of her husband, Paul Bern. For the Vanity Fair shoot only contact prints were made, and no enlargements were printed at the time of the negative.

The bear rug photo was Hurrell’s first assignment for Vanity Fair and would become his most important Hollywood portrait. Other actresses would request a bearskin rug at their photo shoots, so Hurrell had to go out and purchase one.

The black-and-white 10″ x 8″ camera negative on nitrate Kodak film brought the highest realized bid for a single camera negative. Although this negative had a cropping paper remnant on the lower emulsion border, it was otherwise in very fine condition. One can only imagine how many glamour photos the winning bidder might produce from this negative and sell for whatever amount the market will bear.

A 48″ x 36″ gelatin silver matte double-weight (on 8-ply foam board mount) print of this bear rug portrait with Hurrell’s signature and Portfolio I edition number 38/60 in ink on the bottom left corner, a 1979-82 printing example, in excellent condition, brought a price of $16,100.

The majority of the 1337 lots of vintage Hollywood photography at the auction were gallery portraits and portfolio camera negatives from the collection of Michael H. Epstein and Scott E. Schwimer.

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Evie Lovelle Gallery and Shoot – Hollywood Glamour Photography

Darkman — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 04:51:26 +0000

After about a month of battling the Flu and a back issue, I am finally getting this gallery and post up regarding the Evie Lovelle Shoot. The day I shot Evie I was actually coming down with the flu, and for the following two weeks had the flu and then back issues, from popping a rib out of place from all the sneezing I did. Not Fun.

Anyway so Evie can over and we talked and went over some ideas for the shoot and discussed the order in which we were going to do the outfits she brought. I had her get into the first outfit and then did a quick video interview which is going to be on PinupoftheMonth.com, but I included a video here of us shooting and my messing with the lighting. The equipment list for this shoot is as follows, no strobes were used at all, only Fresnel.

Equipment list as far as lighting:

2 – 500 Watt Fresnel Lamps for kickers similar to these

2 – 300 Watt Altman Fresnel Lamps for Key and Fill Light

2 – 200 Watt Mole – Richardson Midget Fresnel Lamps for Side and Background Light

My Background Setup or one of them is the Manfroto AutoPole System by Bogen Imaging

In a previous post I included a video of Evie dancing to give people an idea of what a burlesque dancer does. Burlesque can be left up to some interpretation, but her dance is a classic style and with classic outfits. The video I included is here.

The video of Evie Lovelle and I working together is first, then the gallery of the shoot.

And here’s the gallery…Enjoy!

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Model: Jasmine Worth

Darkman — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:12:33 +0000

Jasmine Worth

Jasmine Worth is an old friend that I knew from the gothic/industrial scene like 8 or so years ago, before she started modeling at all. We used to see each other at clubs dancing and hanging out and one time she asked me about doing some pictures for her.

I had been doing pictures in the club scene for some time, doing the club scene type pictures that you see on websites of clubs. I had some great ideas, at least I thought they were great ideas. Somewhat fetishy in style, I guess she didn’t like the idea and I hadn’t heard from her for several years after that.

When I did run into her again she had a full portfolio and one of the best fetish/latex fashion models in the San Diego L.A. area. I never really asked her what happened, but we’ve shot a few times since and this is one of her ideas. She was saying a Hedy Lamarr type thing and it wasn’t until later, months later that I saw images of Hedy Lamarr and I realized WOW what an uncanny resemblance.

The images of Hedy Lamarr, the movie star of the 40′s 50′s and 60′s, we’re beautiful in their own right, but the images we had created were incredible and I couldn’t believe what a resemblance ours had to her’s. I had never seen images of Hedy Lamarr before until months after Jasmine and I shot. I have to credit Jasmine for this shoot as it was her ideas and her guidance during the shoot that we were able to come up with the resulting shots.

Jasmine Worth is a great model but she is also an incredible artist. Her art is somewhat like a fairy tale gone bad, but it’s beautiful. One can only experience her work and see what she does for themselves. Her site and online gallery are here http://www.jasmineworth.com

Here are the images we came up with for this shoot. Enjoy…

These shots were done with 2 Altman Fresnel Lamps, a keylight and a background light.

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Hollywood Glamour Lighting Video and Diagrams

Darkman — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:25:40 +0000

Be sure to check out the Photography Lighting Diagrams for this shoot HERE

I have people wanting to know how I set my lights up and how I get some of the effects I do for Hollywood Glamour and Film Noir Lighting. Most times when I do Hollywood glamour photography I use Fresnel lights, the same type of lights they use in Hollywood on movie sets. In fact I use several very old lights that were probably used on a Hollywood lot somewhere. I have two lights that are from the 1950′s.

When I first started this type of photography I felt I should use the same exact lights to get the same type of effect. I still feel the same as when I started, however I have adapted several strobes to do a similar effect, but it’s still not quite the same. You can get strobe flashes fitted with Fresnel lenses to get the same focusing effect but to me it’s just not quite the same.

The main difference between a Fresnel Lens Hot Light and a strobe, IS the Lens. A Fresnel lens is the same lens used in lighthouses and that long focused beam. A Fresnel Lens has the ability to focus to a hot beam of spotlight or open up and spread out for a wide spray of illuminating fill light. You can also use the edge of the circle of light, called feathering as a fill light or an edge light.

The center of the circle of light is a hot spot, and the edge is a softer feather edge. The Fresnel gives a hard light but also has a creamy soft quality to it. It’s hard to describe but it is something you can see and experience when shooting. A strobe has a hard quality to it with no softness at all with the bare bulb, nor does it have any focusing ability or softness unless you use a modifier. Then even with a modifier it’s too soft, and can’t give a hard edge shadow as the Fresnel can give. The modifier, usually a softbox wraps the light around corners and spreads the light everywhere. You can’t get a good hard edge on the shadow needed for a good paramount lighting under the nose. I will give a couple comparison photos another time but below is a video of a shoot I did with the model Kristabelle. It shows the lighting diagrams and actual shoot we did with Fresnel lights and a shot with a strobe.

Enjoy…

Darkman.

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Model – Katie Kasket

Darkman — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:08:00 +0000

Katie Kasket

Katie Kasket was one of my favorite models to work with. A bit of a cult figure in her own right, she’s had a comic book made after her, and has so many followers on Myspace it’s incredible. Katie has a company called Kasket Kustoms, in which she sells custom hand painted purses. Each purse is hand painted by her and no two purses are alike.

Katie’s got great features and shadows nicely in the lights of the old Hollywood style, hence the old Hollywood Glamour Photos of her. Most of these images have two lights, a hair or rim light, and a main or key light.

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Model – Lindsey Lou – Limited Edition Collectible Prints

Darkman — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:53:08 +0000

Lindsey Lou Black

I have decided to start putting my work up for sale here on my site. I have sold my work before in different arenas, but never on my own website. Galleries, privately and even on eBay(groan). Now that I am going to take my life in the artistic direction I have been wanting to I need to start presenting my work as what I do for a living. Although the thought of being a full time photographer scares me, this is what I aim to be. Well maybe not full time. My intent is to make a living with my photography and to sell enough or teach enough to be able to quit my day job.

This is my start. From here on out I am considering myself a photographer by trade and no longer an IT person. For most of you who don’t know me I own my own IT business doing consulting for small and medium sized businesses. Basically an IT manager for hire for those who 1) can’t afford a full time one, or 2) don’t want a full time one. So I am on call most days of the week except for the weekend. I am getting tired of doing the IT stuff and I am not getting any younger. I find myself wanting to travel more and take more pictures of the world than sitting in front of a computer screen. Except of course when editing my images.

So I am here to say that I am putting up a Limited Edition Prints page in which I will sell the best of my best. Some will be limited and some will be ongoing. It will be marked as such and if any one wants to buy something else that I have shot but isn’t on that page, they can inquire with me on the contact page.

My first limited edition print that I give is of Lindsey Lou, one of my favorite models to work with in Southern California. Lindsey has some of the nicest features to photograph. I don’t think she has a bad side at all. This we shot one day after she had her hair done by Lottie, a girl I shot before but also does hair. I talked about Lottie and her modeling and burlesque dancing in a previous post. I believe this was our first shoot together, and we have shot at least 3-4 times since.

To purchase a limited edition print of Lindsey please go to the Collectible Prints Page.

Enjoy…

Lindsey Lou - Darkmans Darkroom

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Lighting Techniques for Hollywood Glamour Photography

Darkman — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:52:13 +0000

Model: Kristabelle

Be sure to watch the Hollywood Glamour Photography Video for this shoot HERE

Photography Lighting Techniques are sometimes huge mysteries, at least to the beginning photographer. Sometimes to the seasoned pro too, only because maybe it was such a simple setup that it just couldn’t be that easy, right? I know I am that way sometimes when my friends tell me how they lit a set or how it was just one light or it was ambient light. Lighting has always fascinated me and when I decided that I wanted to take pictures like the people who’s photography I liked, that’s when things changed for me.

I had gone to New Orleans, just after Hurricane Katrina for Convergence, a gathering of Goths for the sole purpose of partying, music and having a great weekend, only much more. I had my Canon 20D and was taking pictures the whole weekend because NOLA is such a beautiful place and there’s so much to photo. One memorable part of my trip was the swamp tour in a boat; the swamp fascinates me, is beautiful and I will be back to photo the swamp again as I am drawn there.

Friends who know me say I sold my soul to the swamp witch we met, because this was the turning point in my photographic career. I had attended the fashion show for convergence and gathered the designers and models together to take some photos. When I got home to San Diego I made a gallery and put them up online. A few days later I looked at the gallery again and said “These suck!”. That is when I locked myself away for a year and studied nothing but lighting.

Nowadays people come to me and ask questions about lighting, I guess they say I am a go to guy when it comes to certain types of lighting, so I always share my knowledge of lighting with people when I can. Here are some lighting diagrams and techniques I used for a few images I shot a couple weeks ago with Model Kristabelle. I also have a video I will put online when I get it edited.

Model: Kristabelle, Black and White

I met Kristabelle at Ink n Iron 2009, as I contacted her for a shoot for the promoter as she was a finalist for the pinup pageant. I had also seen her on my friend Johnny Angel’s Myspace page which is where I originally seen her. Below is the lighting diagram for this shot. If you have any questions please make a comment and subscribe to the comment as I will answer your questions there.

Lighting Diagram for Model Kristabelle in Black and White

Model: Kristabelle in Color

I decided to show this image in color as I really like the tones and the scene, I like it so much that I am going to print a limited number and sell them here in case anyone is interested. Below is the lighting diagram for this set, it’s similar to the previous diagram with the placement of one light to camera right instead of left.

Model: Kristabelle in Color, Lighting Diagram

The previous two shots and lighting were done with Fresnel Focusing Lamps. They are a hot light and the same type used in the old movies of the 30′s, 40′s, and 50′s. They are what some of the great photographers used for their portrait sittings in the old days of the movie studios, and it is what I use in many of my photos, because I want a certain look and color tone.

Model: Kristabelle in Archway, Black and White

This shot was done in the archway of my studio where I hung a curtain in the archway to create a backdrop. I lit the model with 2 mini monolight strobes. The archway divides two rooms and I put one strobe above the curtain in one room, shining down on the model behind her. I put the second strobe with a modified softbox in the other room in front and to the side as you can see in the diagram.

Model: Kristabelle in Archway Lighting Diagram

The modified softbox is actually a Photoflex Litedome XS, the part that’s modified is the egg crate grid to control the lighting direction. They don’t make a grid for the XS, so I had to get the one for the next size larger and cut it to size and sew the Velcro back on. Actually I stapled it. I used this XS softbox with a grid, because I like the way it works. People might say the box is so small why use a grid on it, it’s because I like the way it causes the light to fall off around the edges and helps to create sculpted shadow and lighting.

I hope those diagrams made sense and they help someone. I know when I was first starting out things like this really helped me and I was glad someone would share something like this with me. If you have any questions please ask. I am more than happy to help.

Enjoy…

Darkman…

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Hollywood Glamour Photos and How To Take Them.

Darkman — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:07:37 +0000

Daisy Devine

I’m asked all the time “How do you do that?”, the style of Hollywood Glamour Photography I do. I had a great teacher, George Hurrell. Someone introduced me to the work of George Hurrell a while back, and so I Googled George and I fell in love with his work. Since then I have collected every book I can get my hands on about him and his work. I’ve got A LOT of books about and by George Hurrell, and I have read every one of them. I’ve studied each picture, read each detail I could find about each picture, and George left excellent notes. One of the books went as far as to have the settings of the camera for each photo cataloged in the back index. What a great resource that is!

Rather than re-invent the wheel, I’m going to just name the one book I would suggest to anyone get who seriously wants to start learning how to do Hollywood Glamour Photography. The name of the book is “Hollywood Portraits : Classic Shots and How to Take Them.” That’s how I got started!

The most of the images in the book are from the Kobal Collection. John Kobal was the pre-eminent film historian and collector of Hollywood film photography. If one gets a chance to see part of his collection in a show or a museum gallery, it is awe inspiring. I’ve seen one in Santa Barbara and I was very moved, most likely because I am so into this style of photography.

The book describes each image, and then points out the telltale signs of how many lights there were used. Placement of the lights. Why they think there were this many lights and so on. They also have drawings to re-create the set and show how the lights and subject should be in placement. The book is where I got my start and is where I refer to again and again to remember how to look at the images I see and wonder “how did they do that”. One thing, a great clue that I can give anyone is look at the shadows. The shadows tell all. Where the light came from and how many lights. Also look at the highlights in each image, they also reveal where or how many lights were used, but the shadows are better.

So if you really would like to get a head start in learning how to take Hollywood Glamour Photos Get this book, it will help you save hours of questions and searching. I mean it’s a huge start.

Enjoy…

Darkman…

PS Below are a couple images from George Hurrell and a couple I did, that were similar.

Daisy Devine / Joan Crawford

And as always if you enjoyed this please share it…

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Model: Guy Chapman – The Film Noir Villain

Darkman — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:29:02 +0000

Guy Chapman

I met guy through a mutual friend that introduced us with the intention of needing to get some head shots done. Guy is an actor and has been in a few movies I am sure you have heard of: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Red-Eye as well as a few TV Series on HBO. Guy contacted me about some head shots(can be seen on his website) for his actors resume and Zed Card for which I agreed to shoot him. Upon seeing him I just had to do a bit more with him. He’s got a look that is sinister and brooding and I wanted to use that to capture some Film Noir styled photos. Guy worked out perfectly for what I wanted and I am sure you will agree as well, Guy is the perfect sinister villain. I’m inserting a full size image here below the gallery.

Enjoy…

Darkman…

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Model: Tanya(BluegirlB) – Gothic Hollywood Glamour

Darkman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:38:57 +0000

Tanya is a friend of my from the goth scene in San Diego, and I had seen her do some modeling for another photographer friend of mine Gene Johnson. Anyway I had her come over one day to do some Hollywood glamour stuff, but these were done with film and a digital camera. can you guess which ones are the film shots? I scanned the negatives, not the photographs.

Shoot Date: 1/13/2007

These shots were done with 3 Altman Fresnel Lamps, a key light, a hair light and a background light.

anyway have a look and I hope you enjoy.

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Enjoy!

Darkman…

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Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom » Black and white hollywood glamour

Jean Harlows Bearskin Rug Negative Commands $57,500 at Auction

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Evie Lovelle Gallery and Shoot – Hollywood Glamour Photography

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Model: Jasmine Worth

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Hollywood Glamour Lighting Video and Diagrams

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Model – Katie Kasket

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Model – Lindsey Lou – Limited Edition Collectible Prints

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Lighting Techniques for Hollywood Glamour Photography

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Hollywood Glamour Photos and How To Take Them.

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Model: Guy Chapman – The Film Noir Villain

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