We also wanted to do a very soft, sexy headshot. For that I used a Strip light horizontally and set it within a tunnel of fill. Bright card for bottom fill and side fill cards to brighten the face from all sides. I also used a ‘zebra’ umbrella for the hair light and kept the ratio 1:1 for most of the shots.

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The shoot was a lot of fun and you can see how many ways that these simple tools can be used to make images that are unique from each other, with only a tweak to the lighting.

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The goal for the lighting for me is to provide a vehicle for the beauty of the woman to come through. To do this, I would practice with lots of different lighting schemes and tools. Here you see five of the ones I really liked.

The last image (smoking) was shot on a 4×5 on Polaroid Type 55 and printed on silver gelatin paper.

In all images you see here, the camera was an F3 with a 180MM, 2.8 lens. Most times I was using E6 film with no lens modification.

Headshot – Two Umbrellas
This was a variation on the single light glamour that I do these days. It is a matched pair of small umbrellas, little 20″ ones from a shop I found in New York. I had seen another shooter using 4 of these little guys and thought I would give it a shot. As you can see in the eyes, the umbrellas are down right on the camera and I am shooting from between them. You can see the reflections in the shiny board in the eye as well. Model is sitting on the floor and holding the flowers. I am using a small white umbrella for hair light and it is 1 stop brighter than the light in front. This would be a great lighting scheme for speedlights as well. Very close fill boards on each side.

Large Umbrella Glamour
A very large single umbrella very close to the model with me shooting from below it. It is a 54″ white umbrella and there are strong fill cards on both sides. You can also see the bright bottom fill card in the eyes as well.

I ‘dumped’ a few heads into another room to get the light to be as small as possible, and was able to shoot at f-4 for limited DoF. The hairlight is a beauty dish at equal power to the front light. As you can plainly see, this light is quite beautiful and easy to replicate.

Giant Softbox
This shot was for a client and we wanted to feature the colors of the scarf and hat. I used a studio built softbox that was 7feet high and 4 feet wide for the main light. It had three heads in it and was double scrimmed. Dang it was gorgeous light… and it weighed a freaking ton. Had it on wheels to move around, but this was before the collapsible softboxes we are all so used to these days. You can see the huge soft highlight in her eyes. I knew that a strong side light was needed to keep the light under the brim and provide a strong, soft light for the face – and the scarf. The image ran full page.

Movie Lights
I owned a few movie lights in the late 80′s and loved to use them. This shot uses 2 Mole Richardsons – one in the front and one in the back. The back one is 1/2 stop brighter than the front light. I cut window panes out a large piece of fome core and placed it in front of the forward Mole Richardson. I believe these were my 2K lights, so I had 4000 watts of light going on here. Hot? You betcha they were hot. I have the model looking straight into the light and I am standing on a ladder to shoot down toward her.

Hot Lights and 4×5 Camera
Shooting on 4×5 can be a really exciting experience – or it can be miserable. This model made it the former as she could hold her position after focusing for what seemed like long minutes. Light was a single 2K Mole Richardson with a very sheer ‘scrim curtain’ in front of it. There was a large fill card to camera right and I adjusted it to give me a rather defined shadow exposure.

And before I get a bunch of ‘flames’ for encouraging smoking, I don’t. It was shot for a specific client showing the antique hat. The smoking was very popular amongst the Hollywood actresses of the time this ‘look’ tries to capture.

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