A vintage look but not feel?

[findinghumility]

This is from my first photo session ever. I've always loved photography and would like to do more, but am trying to experiment a bit and work up a portfolio of some sort. While she's wearing a vintage 1940's hat and I love the look overall I'm wondering if it would have been better with different lighting. I realize this lighting is not at all in line with a normal 1940's look from what I've seen....but does it work as a modern take on a vintage look or should I really try to figure out a different way to light? Any other critiques regarding composition, cropping, editing etc are very welcome. I have no training and we were lighting with a homemade set-up that involved flood lights, handmade diffusers, and duct-tape...yes I said it...duct-tape..


Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
We did several with the veil down as well. You can see the rest of the shoot at the following link if it would be helpful. Thanks in advance! Miss K - a set on Flickr

[CaptainNH]

I have the same amount of training and experience of shooting vintage headshots as you - so please feel free to take or leave my comments as you see fit

Firstly, I think you have some great images in your set, your homemade lighting setup has served you well. In their own right, the shots in your flickr set are great shots, I like the lighting and poses and the focus & DoF is great..

In terms of the vintage look, there are a few things that come into play:

Posing - for a 1940s shot, I think the camera angle might be too high - most of the 30s/40s headshots I have seen (which isn't that many) are shot at eye-level or very slightly higher. I think, from my very limited knowledge, that the high camera angle might be too modern?

Image Quality - the IQ of modern digital cameras is simply too good - which means that the image is lacking the grain or character that a vintage shot would normally have. Depending on what PP software you have, there are different ways of adding grain to your image. Similarly with focus - your shots are nice and sharp, "vintage" lenses would generally give a softer focus.

Colour & Tone - again, the colours out of dSLRs are too close to real life. Vintage photos tend to have less contrast and saturation than those produced by modern cameras. Adding a touch of yellow will give that faded look.

These are just my initial musing - when I'm home, I'll see if I can add some of the effects that I've mentioned to your shot.

[CaptainNH]

Ok, home now. Hope you don't mind, but here is my take on a vintage look to your shot.

I'll take it down if you like




Key adjustments are:

Contrast - decreased
Saturation - decreased
Curves - blacks lightened
Noise - slight grain added
Vignette - slight vignette added

(I sharpened the eyes slightly too )

[zona5101]

Larry "Darkman" Clark is a DPS member. He does some amazing work and he shares some of his tips and equipment on his website. Very good stuff!

Photography Lighting Techniques: Hollywood Glamour Photography

[Benji]

Today's photographers use the lighting that is easily available to them, what they learned to shoot with and what works best for them, so we use softboxes and umbrellas and get that nice soft lighting that everyone loves. The Hollywood photographers of the 1930's and 1940's did the same thing, that of using the same lighting they learned to use which was what just about everyone else used at the time, the lighting that was used on the movie set. It was already there and there were lots of lights so they didn't have to buy anything! Since the film was black and white, color balance was not a problem. The lights they used were hard light sources with fresnel lenses across the bulbs to narrow the beam of light and concentrate it. These lights left hard harsh deep dark shadows. You can rig up a fresnel lens on a flash unit which will make it perform just like one of the old hot lights of yesteryear.

To prove my point the image below was done on a Hollywood set in the early 1940s. It is of Greer Garson. I purchased this image on ebay several years ago and scanned it. I did not shoot this image (I wasn't even alive then) but it shows how hard the light source was (note the shadow under her nose.)

Benji

[findinghumility]

Thanks for the great feedback! I did alter the camera angle on purpose..kinda forgot about that. I started trying the straight on and slightly below angles and just wasn't happy with how they looked. And in the end my goal was to give her a picture she was pleased with so I went for something we felt was more flattering. That being said I didn't really give it enough of a chance and should have taken more shots from a lower angle just to experiment if nothing else. I like the edit you posted also. I had a hard time switching some of the images to a more grainy look or even black and white as I thought her skin just looked so lovely. She did get all of the images in both color and black and white. I'll have to experiment some with the effects you mentioned!

Everything said makes a lot of sense! Thanks!

[findinghumility]

Originally Posted by zona5101

Larry "Darkman" Clark is a DPS member. He does some amazing work and he shares some of his tips and equipment on his website. Very good stuff!

Photography Lighting Techniques: Hollywood Glamour Photography

Fantastic link! Thanks!!