Can I Recreate this Famous Portrait? (Michelle Pfeiffer by Terry O'Neill)

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In this video I attempt to break down the beauty lighting in this famous portrait of Michelle Pfeiffer by Terry O'Neill, and then to recreate the same look using 'clamshell lighting' in my garage studio to see what I can learn in the process.
#portraitphotography #beautylighting #michellepfeiffer

[@upupawayandbeyond]

Oh, Sean. You have no idea how much I appreciate your videos. I’ve been watching for years and learned so much. The last one from this series I was definitely there commenting on how much I appreciated it and wanted more. Thank you one more time for a second video on this series!

[@Nitidus]

Love your profile picture!

[@tomosdavies1902]

Fantastic video! I think with this reference it might have been interesting to mention hair and makeup - imo some of the choices made in those areas really make O'Neill's photo stand out

[@aydenmcfly1362]

Yeah the hair styling makes such a huge difference

[@DanielLeivaCardozo]

I miss seeing your videos more often and honestly I love your portrait videos! Please more!

[@JoshPostVlogs]

This is fantastic. Would love to see more. Maybe a Platon recreation of his Bill Clinton shot where you see the distortion in the hands and knees compared to face.

[@seantuck]

Platon is on the list for sure.

[@anlenke]

Beautifully done, Sean. A quick note on Michelle’s pupils/iris size; the lighting may have been strobes too, I’m able to achieve her look with the modeling lamps constricting pupils too

[@markbaigent8373]

That was my thinking.

[@lensman5762]

Spot on analysis of the lighting. The light behind is a large rectangular strip light place behind the model and facing upwards giving that soft gradual gradient. I think, he shot this portrait with a Hasselblad 500 CM and probably an 60mm or 80mm Zeiss lens.

[@NickStreeter]

35mm equivalent?

[@lensman5762]

@@NickStreeter There is no equivalent of an 80mm on medium format for 35, simply due to the fact that the aspect ratios are so different. A 45mm lens would have the same horizotal FOV as the 80mm on 6X6, but if you want to get the same aspect ration as the original, then you'd have to use a 35mm lens and use the central square of 24X24mm on the 35mm format. If you have one these dangled fangled mirroless cameras, it might allow you to crop square in camera or even in the EVF.

[@photobritain]

Thanks for sharing this tutorial. I like your version over the original. Knowing exactly how far to push the image without spoiling it. Superb !

[@AnikiF]

Simplicity… you have this gift, my friend, and it’s definitely easy for me to understand what it is indeed complicated. Thanks for your time, love this contents.

[@colingerard7863]

Hi Sean. When I was a photographers assistant, in the early eighties, one of the last jobs of the day would be to do lighting diagrams that were then attached to the job sheet with the polaroids. For this shoot we would of copylit a white scoop for the background and had a diffusing brolly attached to the front of the keylight. Also, the model would of been seated at a table top with a white scoop covering the width of the table leading back to the camera that was a Mamyia 6x7. I also loved working on car shoots. Large cove studios, floating ceilings, tungsten film lighting on big crank-up stands, black out curtains along the side of the car to hide the crew and equipment; 10 x 8 Sinar. The best kept secret was being on location with little portable flash units made by Norman, great piece of kit.

[@berlincoachdrivergoescreat8721]

Thanks for the great video! My gut feeling is that the Michelle Pfeiffer picture was done with an even wider lens, something in the 24mm to 28 mm range. Michelle doesn´t have an unusually narrow face, if you look at other pictures of her. Everything else you did was magic! You got everything right! Well done. Additional information: Terry O´Neill states that his favorite lens was a 50 mm distagon lens on his Hasselblad camera. That would be 28mm in full frame.

[@SP-ll8nv]

Clearly one of the best tutorials I have seen. Clear, explicit and really seeking to educate and share your knowledge. Thank you.

[@luisarevalo6112]

Wonderful portrait! The break down from light setups to editing is excellent. Thank you!

[@DGLuxton]

This is a great look! I’ve found that a close silver beauty dish with a fine grid accentuates the light drop-off and really carves out the cheeks without the black boards on each side.

[@BrunoFriedmann]

It is really very instructive, and following you destructuring and analysing is a real pleasure. Please continue.

[@TheChosenOne_]

I love that in your tutorials you always drop tips and tricks which are just simple and quick. No need to overcomplicate or watch an in depth tutorial

[@FrankP83]

Love this kind of videos...!In this photo of Michelle, can be appreciated the perfect symmetry of her face...the perfect face

[@RameshBabu-gn5dm]

Your lighting abservation is great, and I liked the final result. Thankyou sean.

[@liamoshea1000]

Thoroughly enjoyed this video. Everything is communicated well. Thank you.

[@mrdev9843]

Your enthusiasm is infectious 👍👍

[@v2gbob]

Love these lighting videos! FYI: The blog, "Guess the Lighting," that Sean mentions can be found on the Internet Archive.

[@richtea3741]

I really liked this style of video. I thought your depth of explanation was pitched perfectly.

[@iandavis1355]

Thanks Sean! I thoroughly enjoyed this video and I'll check out the other "dissection". MORE PLEASE!! Cheers.

[@billmcfadden4791]

panels used to be used as backgrounds with usually two lights in 1990s, At one point, there was a background that was designed for that purpose rectangular, bounced light off back through the front using 2 to 3 strobes

[@rajdeepchakraborty3259]

absolutely love these kind of videos. please do continue to post such tutorials.

[@anitago]

Beautiful portraits, both. And great tutorial! Thank you!

[@captaincook6283]

Great video one of the best channels for learning photography on KZbin appreciate so much that you are one of the few photographers that actually give us real information to let us grow instead of just doing self advertisement like so many others do here. I would really love to see more of that how to series ❤

[@renzoodorico7848]

Excellent video. I really appreciate the simple techniques and restraint in the retouching. Thanks.

[@panagiotistsiverdis]

The square format tells me it's probably a Hasselblad image. I think the 80mm lens was the standard normal lens back in the day. I know that wide-angle lens for portraits is a relatively modern approach but, my impression is, that in the 90s they all wanted longer lenses to make the face more flattering. I bet this is shot on an 80mm or 120mm prime mounted on a 6x6 Hassi and the fact that you needed to crop that much to match the framing I think supports that assumption. Other than that, I agree with all that you've said Sean and I really enjoyed your video.

[@NickStreeter]

35mm equivalent? 70mm?

[@chrislarkin4582]

Thanks so much for another one of these Sean. I don’t even really shoot portrait photography but these videos are so interesting and fun both for the rationale and deduction of the lighting techniques and then the processes of taking and editing. So enjoyable and informative.

[@jimlasala844]

Many thanks Sean for your great tutorial. I would love to see some Hurrell type lighting for b&w.

[@adibassman]

Another fantastic reference video. Thank you Sean.

[@sgurrtours]

Brilliant work, really interesting seeing how to replicate a lightning set-up 👍🏻 great work, thanks very much. Ryan.

[@richeretrudeau226]

I absolutely love this type of content as I am always trying new lighting styles. Thank you so much for the tips on not doing too much retouching.

[@antonioharris5936]

Thanks Sean, this is my style of shooting and you've brought to my attention some techniques I'll be implementing in the future.

[@discomfortzone]

Wonderfully done mate. I prefer your shot to be honest. Ailona is stunning. Can’t wait till the next one.

[@scottgray4877]

Great video! I’m going to start analyzing some portraits and see what i can come up with.

[@flol3266]

This format is just amazing. Please more!

[@amazindon]

This is brilliant, really interesting to see how you study & break down the original picture to then rebuild to create a similar one, which looks amazing. Thank you.

[@andyprime56]

When I hit ▶️ on this I was hopeing to watch a good video on lighting, I didn’t, I actually watched a FANTASTIC insight to lighting via one of the very best YT’ers on the platform. Thx Sean, this has been the elixir that I needed for my photography.

[@gharrop1]

I don’t do any portraiture ….but I found this video absolutely fascinating to experience…with a truly stunning result ! It was almost like watching a meticulous forensic scientist examining a scene for clues. It really made me appreciate how much can go into great photographic art. ( for what its worth Sean, I preferred your result!) couple of ideas..Che Guevara by Rene Burri (1963) , Thomas Hoepker Muhammad Ali ‘s fist (1966) both seen in “Magnum contact sheets”..

[@HarleysMomIM]

Thank you Sean for this fantastic tutorial! Love your style of teaching and your creativity!

[@michaelechteld]

Thanks so much for this video. This really helps me push myself into new territories in portraiture. The whole idea of guessing, arguing, trial-and-erroring the lighting of a great portrait (photography *and* painting perhaps!) is just very educational and fun. Still, there's something I miss here. If the assignment is 'recreating a portrait', than recreating the mood and expression is also important. *Very* important I think. So I would have loved to see bits of the actual shooting session and hear how you direct your model. What I see is that the expression of Pfeiffer is strong, whereas you models expression is softer, and perhaps a tiny bit sad, but that's my interpretation. Btw, I love her natural expression and look. The angle of the head and the vertical position of the camera is also important here, I guess. Wrt to pupil size: the AD200 doesn't have a modelling light. Would that have helped? I also saw a photographer shine the flashlight of an iPhone in his model's eyes seconds before taking the picture. I'm not sure if that would work for me, because it would disrupt the communication I have with my model. Again, thanks for this, and I'll look out for more video's like these!

[@englishforthestupid7057]

Thank you sir for all your videos. Finally someone i can understand when it comes to editing in Photoshop.

[@shawnvine4918]

Very nice. I do like the breakdown of where the lights are positioned and the lighting levels. I look forward to more like this. thank you.

[@jogrev]

Excellent Sean. Great job and beautiful model!!! Ailona is so beautiful as Michelle is!!! Congratulations👏👏👏

[@cartercooperpa]

Fantastic example, thanks for step by step with explanations!

[@Greenroomvideo]

Love this, more of these please! Long time viewer, first time commenter.

[@gerarddesilva5193]

Brilliant and masterful. Many thanks for sharing.

[@ebouwens]

Wonderful work and demonstration!

[@KarolDecyk]

Sure do more of these videos, i always learn a lot of it for myself and my own photography journay. Thank you for your work.

[@Sckliz]

I think this shot was taken with a medium format camera. That's where the perspective distortion from the lens comes from, it's close enough but distorted. And the square format can also be like that from the beginning. Thanks for the video!

[@BruceWalkerPhotography]

Enjoyed very much. Lovely work, well presented!

[@WilliamBurdine]

Really Great... I am so pleased that your thought process was so familiar to mine in reverse engineer photos.... going to have to look up "Guess the Lighting". Thanks!

[@dennislee8253]

Fantastic man, I think you nailed it. Really impressed, cheers!

[@AmedeeBoulette]

This is EXCELLENT!! Wow, a lot of practical learning in there! Thank you so much….

[@codenamebravo2212]

Excellent job your an ACE Photographer. Im going to replicate this with my girlfriend the weekend, I’m a complete beginner when it comes to Portraits, thanks for the advice and great tutorial.

[@philipgowdy]

Very well done..Congrats Sean.

[@localnavy433]

Keep it up this helped me so much with seeing the light in portraits

[@schst]

This channel is such a gem. Hard to believe that all this amazing content is available for free.

[@alwinbakkenes6319]

Hj j

[@edgorochowski9709]

Yes, I found this very informative and presented is a very clear and precise manner. Thank you.

[@alexugljesic]

Sean, this is very, very, very good video. Great job!

[@jasonlacey5979]

Excellent.. thank you always learn something from you. Seeing how you work these is certainly something I would appreciate

[@Ralf_Baron]

Sean, you did a great job! Excellent, insightful!

[@baddpie]

Excellent excellent walk through! Really makes me want to try it myself.

[@vassilikilampropoulou9707]

amazing video. it came the right time for me. to have a photographer explain how a picture was taken by another photographer is most helpful. especially when it comes to studio lighting. i m going to try and recreat this photographe. and i m hoping that you ll make some more videos like that. thank you very much.

[@TheT2tracer]

Always great videos. For me I like less editing. We all have imperfection and I think thats what makes all of us unique. I like the two week fix but the rest I would have left. She's a beautiful woman as is and your an awesome photographer and teacher. Keep the lessons coming. I am still on the struggle bus with my flash/lighting.

[@jessicawolf3755]

Thank you!! Wonderful video!

[@timdeibler9221]

Exceptional video! You articulate your thoughts and methods so well.

[@davidjones8070]

Now that you pointed out the pupils I really do like the results you got better.

[@chriscard6544]

I want to see more, I love the concept

[@puck528co]

Great tutorial. Thank you very much!

[@joshuagutierrez8407]

Great video. Very insightful. If I may add my .02, I’m thinking more of a focal length around 50mm, if not longer. The reasoning - at a 1x1 crop, at 35mm, you’d really only see the distortion 3/4 to the outer rim of the 35mm 2x3 ratio, not really in the center. Maybe shooting at 21/24 mm would you see noticeable barrel. When comparing the two images, the original has a more flattened appearance where your final image has a more roundish look. I do lots of wide-angle portraiture work and am used to having to setup keystones in order to artificially flatten and straighten images, so…it’s easy to spot wide angle lenses used in other images. And I agree with the silver vs. white beauty dish. The original appears to have a very strong and crisp look to it, where your image shows a flatter look across the face. I feel like the beauty dish could be lowered ever so slightly. Also the black flags need to come in closer to her face. And if this was done commercially, instead of in some studio, chances are she’s have a white sweep, which would would need to be evenly lit from both sides or a single light behind her. But either way, she’s most likely pulled out further away the background as the background is not stark white, but more of a cream look, which you’d may not get from a scrim. The bottom reflector from the clam shell appears to have a more roundish look in the original instead of your teardrop…plus it has a soft reflect, which indicates a white reflector instead of silver. Not sure about the 2.8 aperture…I’m thinking f4/F5.6. 5.6 is a common studio setting. It would be easier to create the softening effect from the eyes to the hair using a longer focal length then using a 35mm up close. For anyone reading this, this is not a dig at the photographer. This was an excellent tutorial and I wish more photographers tried recreate images as it’s a masterclass in learning how to recreate images everytime. One last thing…your white balance is off. It’s too warm. I’m thinking the original is around 5400-5600k where yours looks like 5800-6000k. I too shoot with godox ad200’s for on the go shoots and find they shoot a bit warmer then I like.

[@yvanrouxel]

Very nice idea Sean. Lot to learn with this approach. Many thanks.

[@2mcarp]

Thanks, Sean. I really like the way you explain the lighting.

[@BR-uz9nj]

In regard to your comment about the large pupils - a more powerful modeling light will also allow the pupils to close if you are using a strobe that has that feature. Or you can use another light source, like a flashlight or a room light that is bright enough to get the eyes to react, but is overpowered by the strobe burst. There are options that do not require constant lights.

[@wendystumbaugh695]

Awesome recreation!!! I love your thoughts and attention to the size of your model’s pupils at 18:48. Love you videos, Sean!

[@lwp411]

Wow, so awesome! Thank you for the tutorial and the inspiration

[@JayMacroPhotos]

Super cool!

[@tristanwaschkowitz8034]

one of the portraits of richard avedon series in the american west would be interesting to see

[@seantuck]

Agreed. Good idea.

[@andrewkeating8952]

Excellent video Sean - very inspiring- thank you and would love to see more like this.

[@katemaxwell6061]

Great video, thank you

[@mateuszkozio2089]

Thank you for a very educative video! Would be cool to see your approach on Plato style.

[@seantuck]

He's on my list:)

[@epradeep]

Really like how you explain things.

[@kbqvist]

Very helpfull Sean, thanks! Hope you will continue this series..

[@richardpinder9242]

Fantastic tutorial, learned alot. Please keep doing these!

[@iShootWild]

Great work Sean! When you were making some adjustments, you converted her image to black & white and that image was amazing! She is beautiful!

[@jolyoncox]

Thank you so much as always, Sean. Excellent result here.

[@dirksparenberg294]

Great analyses of the light settings, Sean!!! I learned so much from these details, thanks a lot. Cheers, Dirk

[@terryjstudios]

I absolutely loved it! I’m going to try and recreate it. Thank you so much for awesome video

[@EightTwoFourWeddingStudios]

This video was fantastic! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do this again! Doing Platon image next would be very interested!!!

[@estevetravesa513]

Fantastic video! Thanks Sean! Love your channel!

[@fredwilsenack8634]

Wonderful tutorial. Yes, please continue with this series.

[@bartbrinkmann8101]

Sean, what a great video. I really appreciated the way you broke down the lighting in the original and showed us your setup. I always tend to shy away from Photoshop and do a lot of my edits in Lightroom just because they're easier to carry over from one image to the next. I see a lot of videos like this that show how to nail a single edit, but I don't see many that show us how to carry those same edits over to another image in the series. I tend to provide my clients with a series of images rather than 1, and I'd love to see a video on how to carry over all of these steps over to the next image in the series.

[@seantuck]

Every edit has to be custom in photoshop. There is no copy paste settings so you need control in each image so you can have consistency across the set. There is no shortcut tutorial though.

[@ВадимБеликов-т9я]

I always enjoy your work, this was excellent.

[@rugs108]

Hi seanjust came across you Chanel a few weeks ago . Love your videos and how you give an honest opinion on things and the pace you do your videos, thanks

[@thatcreole9913]

Absolutely love this! Thanks for taking the time to break it down so clearly.

[@Euphabone]

Great breakdown of the lighting. Love your straightforward explanation of your process for lighting and editing.

[@MWB_logic_reason_respect]

Nice to see you again on here Sean

[@guyivie8987]

Excellent video, and a beautiful result. Very effective use of simple techniques. Suggestion for another one: Irving Penn's portrait of Jessye Norman (1983).

[@geomantilla]

This is incredible. Thank you so much ❤

[@petercripps5556]

A really helpful video Sean. I think you can learn so much by analysing great portraits such as this one you have chosen by O'Neill. I also love how you have applied various PhotoShop techniques to get as close as possible to this style. Great work.