On this photoshoot, I utilized an ideal photography lighting kit to achieve an ideal Hollywood-style portrait. We added canned aerosol to add additional texture in the background, while I used gelled photography and lighting effects to set an appropriate atmosphere and atmosphere for each shot.
Hello all, my name is Sal Cincotta and today we will begin creating two unique looks – I prefer not to call them old Hollywood looks as much as Hollywood glam looks and we will do some really neat things here. Lauren, model turned photographer is here judging my skills today so it is up to me to bring my A game but together we will accomplish something really incredible!
Hollywood Glam: Look 1
Westcott presents their brand new Mod Lighting Kit: Pro Light Mods. I don’t understand why anyone gives me products to write about as I have no clue! Have you ever encountered a parent who just talks nonstop and calls everything by its wrong name? Well, that’s me – and will continue to be as I age. Anyway, we used their Pro Light Mods in the background here, and gelled one to create this effect. So as not to have all one color of light, I added orange gel that we gaff taped onto a wall in order to achieve different looks and color tones. Meanwhile, our main light will be the Westcott Optic Spotlight which we will use to recreate that old Hollywood vibe and will use daylight balance lighting conditions.
On camera, I am using a Canon R5 with a 50 millimeter lens. We will take two approaches for our second look; first by removing mod lights from behind her and using optical spot/sidelighting techniques instead – however let’s get down to business right now and start doing that instead!
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Image-wise, everything looks fantastic; I love how everything’s coming together on your screen. Now it’s time for some real glamour! Let’s add canned atmosphere aerosol and shake well to add even more glam – don’t use this when your fire alarms are set off though; otherwise you may set them off by mistake! All right then; we will spray this back here, spray high, allow time for it to settle down before spraying again back here – more cans always works better in my experience. Lauren came over Friday night and I didn’t need anything more from this scene as these images are absolutely killer.
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Hollywood Glam: Look 2
I want to do something completely different this time and want to change color temperature, although I have no idea how that’s going to look. Nobody in the studio trusts my judgment; not even my wife has faith. Brandi, our hair and makeup team, has faith. So here’s my plan: put CTO gel on an optical spot light; we’ll set the camera to 3200; that should neutralize it; then I will remove gelling from these lights behind her, thinking cool shadows instead – that way nobody notices change here either!
What I plan on doing now is firing and washing red paint across the background, hoping that some actually leaks through and hits her. For now, however, I don’t know whether I need both colors so for now I will disable one or the other. At this point, it’s just about experimenting. Although we didn’t discuss my settings on camera – F3.2 1/200th second ISO 200 – and taking some test shots here to see what we have. That really is what I’m after here – even though the light in the background may be far too hot; but that color I want. My best guess would be that the CTO gel I put on optical isn’t true CTO so I may lower power significantly on that backlighting source.
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Now we’re cooking with grease! Lauren will take over. All right. I really like the blue tones; however, they could use more intensity here on the right (I feel that light on that side doesn’t produce enough of it). Now she has balanced out that color-balance with more atmosphere! Beautiful Lauren. She is absolutely incredible at creating atmosphere!
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
Settings: f/3.2 @ 1/200, ISO 200
All right everyone, that’s it for this video. Feel free to let me know in the comments which was your favorite, and stay tuned for next month’s one!