articles/Fashion/hollywood-page3

Hollywood Headshots - part 3 of 1 2 3 4

by Tom Lee Published 01/12/2010

Our images are imported into Photoshop and processed as colour images, then converted to black and white using Silver Efex Pro from Nik Filters. I use this plug-in due to the nature of its inbuilt grain engine. This replicates the effect of most major monochrome film types and you can even tweak the result if you require more or less than the delivered standard effect. Nik Filters and onOne software also have a plug-ins that produce some nice soft focus and blur effects to soften the otherwise ultra-sharpness that modern optics produce.

For those of you who do not have these plug-ins, I have developed a technique for producing similar results with a couple of Photoshop 'actions' that you can download from my website free of charge. A pdf copy of this tutorial and the actions are available from:

https://www.tomleephoto.co.uk/tutorials.html

Download a hard copy of the 'Hollywood Portraits' Tutorial pdf and actions to your computer, then simply add the actions to your Action Palette and use as described on the next page:

Hollywood Mono

Choose a suitable colour image from your files and open and adjust it as you would in your normal workflow. When completed run the 'Hollywood Mono' action you have just loaded into your action palette.

This should produce a smooth black and white image with a slightly milky feel to the tonal range. A help panel will be displayed when complete. This reminds you that some areas may require 'painting back' to make eyes, jewellery, etc look slightly sharper. You can adjust the levels slightly to make the overall tone of the image lighter or darker if required at this point.

When you're happy, run the 'Grain/Vignette' action to complete the look. Another help panel will appear to remind you that the mask can be painted back to reveal more detail if needed.

Final Thoughts

Remember that this method of producing Hollywood-style prints will not be as good as using the bespoke digital filters, but will help you get a feel for developing this style of photography. The front cover of this issue of Imagemaker has been produced as a colour image from the same file. I will be launching a new PDF tutorial series at the January Convention where this and other actions, techniques and training materials will be available.

As we all know there are many ways to skin a cat and Photoshop has thousands of them. So choose the best method for you and practise it, stay true to the old ways whilst inventing new ways to do it and don't get too bogged down with technical issues. Photography should never be a happy accident!
vRegards - Tom

THE LIGHTS

As discussed on the previous pages, the lights for Hollywood-style portraiture are rather weaker than the massive flash powers available today. The reasons are discussed in the following section but suffice to say that apertures of f2.0 and less are needed to achieve the shallow depth of field and soft, out-of-focus backgrounds. Although Bowens Streamlites may be used for all manner of lighting tasks they are very suited to Hollywood portraits as well.

Two models were tested, the 530 and the 330. The former has five spiral fluorescent tubes, the latter has three, for equivalent light outputs of 530 and 330 watts of normal tungsten lighting. The 330 does not have controllable light levels but the 530 units does via the five rocker switches on the back - different light levels are achieved by turning bulbs on or off. The light may also be modified by means of the slip-on diffuser scrim which attached around the rim of the beauty dish for a remarkably soft effect.

Both lights were used to make the portrait of the little girl. The 530 was placed at 45° and about 51/2 feet from the ground, the 330 was moved away by about 8 metres (25 feet) to control its contribution to the fill light. Ambient light, via the studio skylight, also contributed and this mixed seamlessly with the 5600°K colour of the Streamlites

Overall then, the lights were straightforward, relatively cool in operation and with sufficient power for the job in hand, giving 1/30s f4.0 and 400 ISO. The only complaint was that the stands are a little unstable. With the rather top-heavy Streamlites, a tap on the stand required 25 seconds before it had stopped waving - the moving light pattern was a little disconcerting.

The Streamlites are available from most professional dealers and are priced at £170 and £225 (street price including VAT).

• Hollywood Headshots page 1
  
• Hollywood Headshots page 2
  
• Hollywood Headshots page 3
  
• Hollywood Headshots page 4
  

There are 52 days to get ready for The Society of Photographers Convention and Trade Show at The Novotel London West, Hammersmith ...
which starts on Wednesday 15th January 2025