Taking an “Old Hollywood” approach to portraiture can give your images a sense of timelessness. These elegant and powerful shots are a combination of hair, makeup, wardrobe styling, and lighting mixed together for striking results.

I’ve fixated on Old Hollywood visuals for a while now, and you can check out my dedicated lighting guide at http://lindsayadler.photo/oldhollywood or some of my other FREE videos on the top    • Light Modifiers for an Old Hollywood ...  ,    • 5 Light Old Hollywood Style Glamour S...  .

While women tend to get a lot of our attention for Old Hollywood vibes, a men’s portrait or fashion image is perfect for these classic approaches. In this shoot, I used 3 strobes and a specialty filter to give my model Jeffrey this cinematic, Old Hollywood look. Here’s how:

Background
I used a Savage Universal Fashion Gray seamless background. This is an extremely versatile background because I can light it to be brighter, or feather/grid the light for it to become darker. It is very easy to add or take away light for ultimate control.

Styling
Always begin with the styling around your concept. Can a particular hairstyle sell the ‘vibe’? Can you find a piece of wardrobe that doesn’t feel too modern or perhaps nods to a more traditional style? Of course, you can aim for contrast and shoot much more modern clothing in this style, yet beware that it may create a contradictory visual message.

Lighting
I used 3 Profoto D2 strobes. Each one was carefully placed to reinforce this vintage vibe.

Main: Magnum Reflector + Grid
Many Old Hollywood images used a hard main light, typically a Fresnel or something called a “scoop” (large hard light dish modifier). For this image, I selected a Magnum Reflector (a slightly larger silver dish modifier) because it produces hard yet smooth light that is similar to a ‘scoop’.

Adding a grid to this modifier allowed the background to appear dark and I had a more concentrated area of light with dramatic falloff.

Background light: No modifier, on Floor Stand
I wanted to create a dramatic gradient of light on the background, with the background appearing brighter toward the bottom of the frame and fading toward blackness at the top of the frame. To achieve this I used a strobe with no modifier on a floor stand. Pointing this strobe toward the ground gave me the dramatic gradient I sought and is seen often present in Old Hollywood setups.

Hair Light: 1x4ft Strip Softbox from above
Old Hollywood and Film Noir are nearly synonymous with bright hair lights! Often there would be many hair lights in a single shot. To keep it simple, for this image I used a single hair light from above to illuminate the top of the subject’s hair and shoulders. The modifier I selected was a 1x4ft Strip Softbox with a grid (to control the unwanted spill of light).

Filter
I used a Tiffen Black ProMist (1 Stop). This filter is typically used for more cinematic shots when you want the highlights on the images to glow or have halation. For this setup, I used this filter because the digital images were ‘too perfect’ and ‘too sharp’. Adding this filter would give a softfocus look. Furthermore, it would make any bright highlights slightly glow, a characteristic of many old lenses during the “Old Hollywood” portraiture era.

PostProcessing
To really sell a more authentic feel, I converted my image to black and white & added noise/grain. Try the program “Exposure” if you want a variety of simulated film grains and processing formulas.

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✘ PRODUCTS USED:

Canon R5
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Canon RF 24105
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Profoto D2
https://adorama.rfvk.net/qvB7y

Profoto Magnum Reflector
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Profoto Magnum Reflector Grid
https://adorama.rfvk.net/WD9PaO

Profoto 1x4ft Strip Softbox
https://adorama.rfvk.net/DVBVQa'>https://adorama.rfvk.net/DVBVQa

Profoto 1x4ft Strip Grid
https://adorama.rfvk.net/DVBVQa'>https://adorama.rfvk.net/DVBVQa

Manfrotto Floorstand
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Avenger D600
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Avenger Roller Stand
https://adorama.rfvk.net/NKkaEK

Savage Universal Fashion Gray
https://adorama.rfvk.net/9ZeX3

#portraitphotography #lightingtutorial #adorama

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Photographer: Lindsay Adler
Check out indepth photography tutorials, guides, and more at: http://learnwithlindsay.com

Videographer: Samuel Bouret
  / samuelbouret  

Makeup: Yvonne MacInnis
Hair: Linh Nguyen
Styling: Raytell Bridges
Model: Jeffrey Casciano

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THANKS SO MUCH FOR WATCHING!