hollywood black and white developing

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I once did some portrait work with an interesting development process whose details I don't remember. The goal was to take black and white portraits that gave the subjects the kind of porcelain skin quality that many early hollywood glamour photos have. I believe that it involved either pushing or pulling the exposure by two stops and then pulling or pushing the development of the film two stops. I can't remember the details.

-- Elie Seidman (elie@epana.com), March 28, 2001

Answers

Most of the look you refer to resulted from the use of orthochromatic film and, even more, from the extensive retouching done on the 8x10 negatives. Schemes of filtration and lighting using modern film are presented in various sources, such as the recent book "Hollywood Portraits - Classic Shots and How to Take Them," by Hicks and Nisperos, published by Amphoto.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols@iopener.net), March 28, 2001.

I'm hoping to start photography again after a 12 year break. Back then I got some good results with soft box light, FP4 developed in Perceptol 1+3 for ~24 mins, don't remember exposure. Need to do tests to get the skin tones up to the shoulder so that they compress. Some would consider this pulling development - I just think of it as appropriate dev for low contrast subject. Need to be precise; back then I wasn't and overdoing the dev left the tones too gritty.

Would be very interested to hear others views on this subject.

For Hollywood style do you keep this strong dev contrast with highlights on the shoulder and shadows on the toe? If so, any film/dev/time recommendations?

-- Herbert Gibson (herb@nireland.com), March 28, 2001.


Kieth's response above is right to the point. This is not a matter of the right film/development combination. The look that George Hurell and others got was the result of harsh "hot" lights, underexposure of the ortho film used at the time, under development (yielding thin negatives) and heavy retouching. Often the majority of the density on the negative was made of pencil lead! Hurell did not allow his subjects to wear makeup. All of that was drawn in later during retouching.

I am not convinced that these are images that you can trully recreate without using the same methods (ortho film can be simulated with filters.) You can come close, your clients might not see a difference.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), March 28, 2001.


no doubt, film and lighting can be used to achieve this effect. however, I am certain, having done it myself, that a good deal of this effect can also be achieved using an exposure development combination.

-- Elie Seidman (elie@epana.com), March 28, 2001.

Even using small-format, modern films and processing, you can certainly approach the look you want by controlling your subjects' hair, makeup, costume, and pose, and by lighting correctly. The photographer Mark Vieira, who wrote the recent bio of George Hurrell, was and may still be emulating the Hurrell style using 8x10 film, etc. I've not seen any of his work. Others are probably doing it, too.

-- Keith Nichols (knichols@iopener.net), March 28, 2001.


In Whitney Stine's book "50 Years of Photographing Hollywood, The Hurrell Style," a small bit of technical info is given for each photo that is included. The film he used for most of the photos was Kodak Super-X 8x10. Late in his career he down-sized to 4x5 and used Royal Pan and eventually to 2 1/4 square using Tri-X. His key lights were usually 750 or 1000 watt spots. Though he usually photographed Joan Crawford sans makeup, a lot of the work he did in the in-house studios was of actors and actresses made up for filming. Many times he was alotted only short sessions between filming takes, so he had to work quickly with whatever he was offered. I feel that most of his best work was done in his own private studio sessions after he moved out of the in-house studios.

-- Ken Burns (kenburns@twave.net), March 28, 2001.

Orthochromatic film will darken, not lighten, caucasian skin, and is typically reserved for *male* subjects when a "rugged" or "bronzed" appearance is desired. Hurrell abandoned orthochromatic film for panchromatic film quite early in his career. He also abandoned soft- focus lenses for sharp "commercial" lenses at about the same time, which is less well known. Most of the Hurrell "look" results from heavy graphite retouching of his large-format negatives. The best way to duplicate this effect is, of course, with heavy graphite retouching of *your* large-format negatives.

-- James Meckley (jmeckley@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu), March 29, 2001.

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