Kirsty - 1930s femme fatal

Quality reduced for Blog

In preparation for second year I have been considering where I felt my strengths really lay in first year. One of my more successful projects from first year was a studio-based lighting task - which surprised me as I didn't expect to engage with such a technical module.

Although the images to be generated from the task were purely to show skills learnt (ie no idea or theory, simple lighting set ups to show you have learnt the basics) I decided to spend a little more time on this project and tailor my studio set up to something that I was genuinely interested in. My first thoughts were to shoot a 1940s style pin-up image however I felt this has become a little cliche during the current resurgence of vintage wartime memorabilia and I wanted a deeper subject matter

I discovered a book about Hollywood studio lighting - I have always had a very keen interest in classic portraits and they have a very distinctive and strong stylistic element to them - therefor in order to truly replicate a shot from a bygone era, my lighting would have to be bang on the money or it would appear as a crude and gawdy replica. I realised this was a fairly ambitious task but carried on researching regardless (I'm a glutton for punishment it would appear ...)

This book served as a great concise resource - researching a number of different era's and how techniques progressed and became markers of time - One area interested me greatly - The 1930's.

The slight soft focus, directional hard light creating some very dramatic portraiture instantly resonated with me. The girls from the 30s looked like true characters from a film noir adventure. The lighting was so very dark and seductive - draping them yet forcing you to focus on a certain area. Strong shadows and ivory-cream midtones pouring across the sheets. I was spellbound...I had found my time...

I chose to shoot a friend - Kirsty. I didnt know her very well so there was a certain amount of healthy distance between us and I was keen to keep the shoot as professional as possible. Replicating tungsten lighting techniques with modern high-powered flash was no easy feat and we worked long and hard to really create the depth and dramatic shadows that became the markers of '30s photography.

So I guess its time I showed some of the results ...

*Quality reduced for web*

On the whole, I was very pleased with the results. I think we managed to capture the quiet drama of the 1930s woman (the images looks a little flat here but the RAW files have a nice depth to them) The tone in the shadows works well and the overall composition and atmosphere of each shot works quite effectively. I like that the images have a soft 30s feel, coupled with a stronger contemporary aesthetic - this marriage of styles was difficult to create but works well. Kirsty was a brilliant model and understood the feel of the images that we were looking to create. A couple of tutors were surprised that we managed to capture this quality of light with the available studio flash units and this was a big compliment and gave my ego a sizeable boost! I overcame many of technical worries during this module - I am now a lot more confident using studio flash and I may look into studio shooting in the future.