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Hollywood Glamour Photography, Behind the Scenes with Daisy Devine

Darkman — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 22:48:21 +0000

I thought I would post some behind the scenes shots from a shoot I did a while back, in fact several years ago, with one of my favorite models, Daisy Devine. In this shoot we were going for a Joan Crawford Hollywood Glamour type shoot. We had planned it out and chose Daisy for the shoot as we felt she would portray Joan Crawford best.

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 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.

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Check out the list of recommended
Hollywood Glamour Photography
Books and Videos Here

Click here to visit craftandvision.com - David duChemin.

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Model – Lindsey Lou, and Glamour Lighting Diagram

Darkman — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:25:55 +0000

In this post I wanted to show how I lit this Hollywood Glamour shot of Lindsey Lou, with just one Fresnel studio lamp. Fresnel Studio lamps can be purchased at B&H Photo and Video, at various sizes and various wattage’s. These are what I use to get that Real Authentic Hollywood glamour photography look.

In this image you can see the Butterfly Lighting Pattern under then Nose, a nice crisp clean edge to that shadow, however if you look at the over all edges of the shadows you will see a soft falloff about them. This is the difference between using Fresnels and Strobes.

With a Strobe and a Grid, you get either a hard shadow with a no soft falloff, or if you use a Strobe and a Softbox, you get soft falloff but no Hard Lines where needed.

I also used my favorite bamboo plant to great a little drama on the left side of the image, on the white bearskin covering, as well as to balance out the images with the leaves just barely coming into the image. This is also to show where the shadows are coming from, sort of telling a story.

Lighting Diagram Below…

Lindsey Lou #1 - Darkmans Darkroom

Lindsey Lou #2 - Darkmans Darkroom

Glamour Lighting Diagram for Lindsey Lou

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Check out the list of recommended
Hollywood Glamour Photography
Books and Videos Here

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A Day with George Hurrells Last Assistant

Darkman — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:09:23 +0000

Back in December 2009, I was given one of the best Christmas Presents I think I have ever gotten. I was given the opportunity to spend the day with George Hurrells Last Assistant, Richard Settle. Not only did I get to spend the day talking with Richard about George Hurrell and his techniques, I was able to watch never before seen footage of George Hurrell Shooting some big time celebrities and musicians, in the last part of his life.

Richard served in the U.S. Navy 1967 to 1971 as the unofficial ship’s photographer, and then worked at Capitol Records from 1973-1980. From 1980 to 1992 Richard and his partner ran a photographic rental studio, in which photographers could come in and rent space for a day and photograph their subjects. I was at this time when George Hurrell came into contact with Richard and the rental studio.

Visage, a photographic agency that represented Hurrell at that time, contacted Richard and told him they needed a studio for George to shoot in. Richard was a little struck, but shortly after the phone called George Hurrell pulled up in his station wagon with his gear, and proceeded to unload.

George Hurrell shot at the rental studio from 1981 up to just before his death in 1992. At this time George has just finished filming a documentary about his work and life called “Legends in Light: The Photography of George Hurrell”. Richard also was a part and can be seen in another documentary called the Hollywood Fashion Machine: George Hurrell. Legends in Light can sometimes be gotten through Amazon, but the Hollywood Fashion Machine is not in print and can only be gotten through certain channels.

I sat and watched about an hours worth of Never-Before-Seen edited footage of Richard assisting George Hurrell shooting movie stars and musicians such as John Sedler, Emilia Crow, Glen Scott, Natalie Cole, Jeff Fahey, Ry Cooder, Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, Jefferson Wagner, David Duchovny, Bryan Murphy, Tony Peck, Dean Stockwell and Mario Van Peebles. It was funny to listen to some of the stars talking to the camera and to George, their just ordinary people, doing a movie stars job. “uhh, what’s the camera for?” hahahaha.

Below is a video I took of Richard and I at the end of the day, I wish I could share the video with the rest of the world but I can’t, hopefully some day Richard will get the releases to create a video for the world to see one of the best Hollywood Glamour Photographers of all time, George Hurrell.

I want to thank Richard Settle for his generosity and gift of memories.

Thanks Richard!!!

Richard can be reached here: http://home.earthlink.net/~resettle

Natalie Cole Shot by George Hurrell

The Oscar shot in the rental studio of Richard Settle

George Hurrell surrounded by his work

George Hurrell shooting Ann Sheridan

George Hurrell Shooting Ann Sheridan and James Cagney

Richard Settle Standing next to his photo of George Hurrell and his photo BY George Hurrell.

Richard Settle Photo by George Hurrell

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Check out the list of recommended
Hollywood Glamour Photography
Books and Videos Here

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Largest Collection of George Hurrel’s Hollywood Glamour Photographs Auctioned Off

Darkman — Wed, 05 May 2010 04:54:43 +0000

Last month the largest collection, in one auction, of George Hurrell’s Hollywood Glamour Photography Images, Negatives and other items were auctioned off to the public for nominal prices. I was happy to go to the auction preview.

While the original photo images may have been made from a Hurrell Negative, Hurrell didn’t print these, nor did he sign them. One such print is the one I am standing next too, with the inset images of George Hurrell standing next to a large version he had printed. The images sold at auction were authentic photos from Hurrell and various other photographers, such as Clarence Bull, and others, the preview show had the images that were “Giclee’s”, pronounced “zhee-clay”. A Giclee is nothing more than a high end ink jet print. That’s right folks, an Ink Jet Print.

I know I’m a little behind the time with this post but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to say, because a few things upset me about this auction, but I won’t go into that here. I will say though that the auction catalogs ARE a huge piece of history and you might still be able to get one for 50$ from the auction house.

I have included the links to the PDF format of the auction catalog, as they can also be used to valuate, authenticate and locate lost pieces someday. These catalog may come in handy for all sorts of things and if you can get your hands on one, it’s probably the largest book of Hollywood Glamour Photography Images around.

Also of note there were some other images from other photographer there, but the majority were of George Hurrell’s work. Some images that I had no idea he did, which sorta surprised me. Images from Death Valley, a ghost town in Nevada called Rhyolite. I have also been and photoed the very same images he did, but I didn’t know it until the auction preview. The image I was happy to see was the general store across from the bank.

Here are links to the catalog in PDF format and a PR Media Print which talks about Hurrell.

Enjoy…

PS. images following links.

Media Print Download:

PR Media: http://www.profilesinhistory.com/docs/media_print/74BWHurrell-8.pdf

Download a copy of the catalog here:

Day – 1: http://www.profilesinhistory.com/docs/catalog_archive/A39_Day1_Lots_1-649.pdf

Day 2: http://www.profilesinhistory.com/docs/catalog_archive/A39_Day2_Lots_650-1337.pdf

The Whole Catalog in one file: http://www.profilesinhistory.com/docs/catalog_archive/A39-1-265_lores.pdf

Me at the Auction Preview, Hurrell in Inset

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Check out the list of recommended
Hollywood Glamour Photography
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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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Check out the list of recommended
Hollywood Glamour Photography
Books and Videos Here

Click here to visit craftandvision.com - David duChemin.

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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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Check out the list of recommended
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Books and Videos Here

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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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Please leave a comment below!

Check out the list of recommended
Hollywood Glamour Photography
Books and Videos Here

Click here to visit craftandvision.com - David duChemin.

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Hollywood Glamour Photography | Darkmans Darkroom » Hollywood Glamour Photography

Hollywood Glamour Photography, Behind the Scenes with Daisy Devine

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