george hurrell

Oct

2022

Hollywood Glamour Portraits

Hollywood Glamour

These photos are from almost ten years ago. I’ve always liked the Hollywood and Glamour photography from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. My wife had purchased a dress for me, well, not for me specifically! 🙂

Knowing that I liked to shoot this style of black and white photography. I’d done some photos for this young lady's business. I liked her look and thought she'd look good in the dress. She allowed me to practice my skills on some of this Hollywood Glamor photography.

At the time I had a very small space to shoot in. These were done in a converted second bedroom that measured maybe ten feet by fifteen. For half the photos that I shot in this room, I was standing out in the hall to get a decent perspective. We make do.

One of my favourite photographers from that earlier era is George Hurrell. There is a link to a page below that displays his exceptional photographs. The photographers of that era shot with very large negatives. Often 8"x10". Part of the benefit of these large negatives was the ability of the photographers or their assistants to edit the negatives before printing the photograph. Some of these photo editors would spend hours on one negative, getting rid of blemishes on the movie star du jour. So, if you hear of a photographer spending a bit of time editing, please don't fault him or her.

More George Hurrell Inspired Photography

Dramatic Portraits here

Nov

2021

Hannah – Old Hollywood Style

Portraits with Hannah

These photos were taken New Years Day 1999. Billy, another photographer and I had been shooting and processing our photos in a darkroom for some time and we were both at a party the night before. Hannah was attending the event as well. We approached her, asking if she would allow us to shoot her the next day at our studio. We thought she had marvellous bone structure and would make for some great photos.

She showed up on time the next day on time and everything. I told her what I needed as preparation, some simple makeup. She told me that she’d never used make up! Although she did have lot of bits and pieces of things that her friends kept giving her. I’d had been studying some Kevin Aucoin books about the subject and although I’d never attempted it myself decided I would try some of the techniques out that I’d learned.

Hannah had enough of these stashed away in her small purse allowing me to go to work. It was fairly minimal, some eye makeup and blush, but it worked well for what we were shooting.

The portrait with the hands against the face is another tribute to the Hollywood photographers of the 1940s such as George Hurrell.

Old Negatives

The negatives have been in storage since that time and I scanned them in a couple of weeks ago. Pretty messed up. A lot of work in Lightroom fixing up the photos that you see here.

Lighting and Film

I don’t remember but likely two lights and possibly a reflector. I think Billy and I shot a roll of film each. I would have shot these on an old Nikon FE camera with a marvellous Nikkor 105 mm lens. Great lens for portraits. Pretty sure the film was Ilford 400 ISO.

Nov

2021

George Hurrell Inspired Photography

George Hurrell Hollywood Style Photos

George Hurrell worked for MGM in the 1930s and 40s and photographed pretty much every star of that time.

Joan Crawford and Humphrey Bogart & Marlene Dietrich, Veronica Lake, Robert Taylor, Douglas Fairbanks, Greta Garbo, James Cagney, Hedy Lamar, Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan), amongst dozens of others.

HIs photographic style has inspired hundreds if not thousands of photographers since then.

Editing a George Hurrell Negative

People often complain about the fact that software editing is over used. Unaware that the negatives of that day and age were worked on for hours before the photos were printed. Hurrell shot with 8x10 film plate cameras. Even sometimes used an 11x14. These negatives are huge by comparison to the negatives used through the 90s - up until the advent of the digital camera. Along with the large lenses used they would let a huge amount of light in.

So, with the large negative, it was easy to see blemishes. Back in the day the studios would have a team working with the negatives for hours to get the results in print that were desired. I remember some of the books I used to peruse. There were before and after photos of, I think it was Marlene Dietrich. One, printed before the negative was cleaned up - you could see what her skin was really like. And the next print was done after the ‘editing’ of the negative. Quite a difference.

So, below, I'm channeling my George Hurrell. These photos were taken in the 1990s of a friend. One light set up. The black and white photos were shot with Ilford film, likely 400 ISO. And the colour, I have no idea. I recently scanned a bunch but failed to note the type of colour film before throwing it out. My only regret is that I didn't take more photos at the time with her. Maybe at some point I'll get to do more photos with her. I hope you enjoy:

Lighting Techniques

Hurrell's and some other well known Hollywood photographers used some interesting lighting techniques. Often one can discern from the photo what direction lights are coming from and how many lights, etc. Much more difficult with many of these as you have other variables. One, being the cameras used, and the other being the extensive editing on the negatives. My advice to someone trying to emulate this type of glamour portrait, is to practice. Try different lighting set ups until you get one or three that that you really like, that communicates in a way you desire.

For something different have a look at our David Bowie inspired photoshoot.