Photography question

Stephen_Leak

I need to take some portrait photographs, to look like the studio publicity/autograph photographs of 1930's/1940's movie stars. Black & white, obviously, but does anyone have any advice on lighting the shot, and any "post-production" effects?

I have a Fujifilm S7000 Zoom and Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 to work with.

[Deleted User]

Well here's some real photos to give you an idea:

http://www.rarefilmposters.com/category1930107.html?page=5

From the look of them, they're a mix of sepia and black and white images. I like the lighting on this one:
http://www.rarefilmposters.com/product166100107catno1930107.html

So you'd want a black background and a bright light to one side of the subject and a reflected light source (e.g. window light) on the other side.

Post production, you could add some grain. I use this free plugin to make B&W and grain effects:

http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

evilgoose

just adding to whats been said - alot of the old publicity pics are extremely crisp. use a tripod and a low 'film speed'. try using a diffused light from a low or high angle to create a level of shadow on the facial features.

For post production, i'd just go for basics to tweak contrast and brightness to make the background appear almost completely black. and adding sepia etc as ringo has mentioned

Stephen_Leak

Noted with thanks, guys.

The photo's of Marian Nixon and Lawrence Olivier are what I am aiming for.

The lighting on the photo' of John Gielgud is simply stunning.

evilgoose

I prob telling you how to suck eggs, but you need to have a very small Depth of Field - now I always get this mixed up but I think its the lower F numbers which give you a wider apeture which in turn gives you a small depth of field. This will have the effect of putting the background out of focus and keeping the subject in focus. I think it looks good for portraits. It does have a knock on effect of slowing the shutter speed so if you do have a tripod it will help as you can use a lower film speed.
you'll have to post the finsihed results!