Golden Age of Hollywood Portrait Lighting Tutorial Using 6 Hard Lights

In today's video I break down this classic Golden Age of Hollywood studio portrait from this headshot shoot that I did with Etherio with six Elinchrom monolights. After I breakdown the flash look, I also breakdown how I lit the video of me talking with continuous lights.
To buy my Lighting Handbook please visit johngress.com/...
Search "Harcourt Photographe Behind The Scenes”
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set.a.light 3D
I talked to the makers of set.a.light 3D to see if they could provide you with a discount code (I saw a friend had one) and they agreed! I don't make anything off of this offer.
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The code is: john-15
The code has a value of 15%
Models:
/ etherio_noon
/ fer_nahndo
GEAR:
Canon EOS R5 camera amzn.to/3vPGmeb
RF 28-70mm F2L USM lens amzn.to/3vkEWbE
Light Meter
Sekonic L-308X-U Flashmate Digital Light Meter amzn.to/3Djrt6B or adorama.rfvk.n...
Lights:
Elinchrom ELC 500 amzn.to/2PzMLGP or adorama.rfvk.n...
Elinchrom ELC Pro HD 500 amzn.to/3AJJTft or adorama.rfvk.n...
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Fresnels:
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Nanlite Fresnel Lens for Forza 300 and 500 adorama.rfvk.n... or amzn.to/3JciMyQ
Aputure F10 10" Glass Fresnel adorama.rfvk.n... or amzn.to/3mnYiJT
Snoot
NiceFoto SN-29 Flash Concentrator Conical Snoot amzn.to/3aCtOM0
VFlats: bit.ly/3fXqaid
Music: Evolution by Bensound bensound.com/

[@anevent1]

I would have never thought these many lights need to be used. These pics look amazing.

[@JohnGress]

Thank you so much! Sometimes it blows my mind, the other day I used 3 background lights

[@marchinderickx8193]

Set.a.Light 3D is fantastic software. One of the best that I have acquired. I started with version 2.0 which was already very good but with each new version it gets even better. Any studio photographer should use it.

[@JohnGress]

Great to hear!

[@petemcknight803]

That plaid jacket! Man you are suave! Great video John!!

[@JohnGress]

Thanks Pete! I really appreciate it! I had to match the vibe.

[@KostasKarageorgiou]

Love the light meter readings! So practical and useful! Thank you so much for sharing!!! 🙏🏼📸🍾🤘🏻

[@JohnGress]

You're so welcome! Thank you for understanding what really matters!

[@lumenlarry6197]

Thanks for book offer, this is super helpful and just what I needed. Great content and easy to understand thanks to your teaching skills.

[@JohnGress]

You're so welcome! Thank you!

[@jerrybezdikian9371]

Thank you for the special offer on the two books, for which I gladly placed an order. The books are highly informative, wonderfully produced, detailed and well written. Special pricing or not, I would urge everyone to avail themselves of this opportunity.

[@JohnGress]

Thank you so much Jerry! Glad you like them. Happy New Year!

[@KeysPete1]

Hi John. Hope you had a good Christmas. Thanks for this video. This is very George Hurrell, using fresnels and hard lights. Some of my favourite portrait work from back in the 40's and 50's. Interesting you used 6 lights! I have tried this style not that long ago but only had three lights, with a fair amount of work done in photoshop (not too much of a problem for me as retouching was my first job in the world of photography). As for the light meter, since I always tether now, I find that I can take reading of highlights in C1 and adjust the lighting accordingly to suit my needs but I do still have a Sekonic in the office that still works! By the way, I used 2 Godox AD600 pros, one with a projector and gobo and an AD1200 pro for my main. They never missed a beat and never over heated, thanks to the fans (if rather noisy, I grant you). Consistency is +/-75k, so I was extremely happy with them and ended up purchasing them. Just a little food for thought 😉. Anyway, once again thank you for the upload and take care. Wishing you a happy new year.

[@JohnGress]

Thanks Pete! I hope you had a happy Christmas too! I was searching google for more inspiration the other day and to my surprise, I found the Harcourt images to be a lot more interesting to me than the Hurrell images, even though I think of him as the standard for this genre. Great to hear about the Godox lights and good tip about looking at the peaks on the computer. I always think of the meter as step one and then find tuning on the laptop as step two. Best of luck in 2022 and I will see you then (in my next video)!

[@jer3006]

Love this shoot! My TV recorder is set to record the weekly Sat night Film Noir classics on the Turner Classic Movie Channel (TCM-Noir Alley) hosted by Eddie Muller so I see this cinematic classic look every chance I get. Then your video appeared like a Christmas present! Thank you-enjoyed seeing your set.a.light.3D setups, a program I use to remember my fave setups. I also took advantage of your other Christmas present, the 50% off deal on your books. All in all, this has been a great visit to your channel. ⭐x 5

[@JohnGress]

Glad I got you something nice for the holiday! Thank you so much and see you next time!

[@jamesmonahan9408]

Merry Christmas John! This video is pure awesomeness! Thank you! Yes in studying the holly wood photos you can tell they use multiple lights. Typically hard light too. I have a hollywood portrait book of george hurrell. One pic of Jean Harlow spent 6 hrs in editing. That was film too!

[@JohnGress]

Thank you so much James! Merry Christmas!

[@picasary]

I'm subscribing from the Manny Ortiz channel. Your content is amazing, John.

[@JohnGress]

Thank you so much and welcome!

[@petemcknight803]

Dang. For a second I thought I was watching an episode of the Twilight Zone. 😂

[@JohnGress]

There's a gremlin on your wing

[@shajimaheswaranPhotography]

thanks 🙏

[@JohnGress]

No problem!

[@shajimaheswaranPhotography]

@@JohnGress 🙏

[@rodmehta5356]

A man with a camera walks into a bar... Thanks, I got the whiskey out!

[@JohnGress]

That's always a good thing!

[@Jimmy-de5bo]

If you’re watching this, wait for the spelling. Its Harcourt not hardcore.

[@JohnGress]

What the F#$% is hardcore?! LOL

[@Ian-ub4cn]

@Jimmy, owww NOW you tell us!!, better wipe my history!!

[@gerhardsteinhofer]

Thank you for this video. The only thing I would like to say is that the look of the model (dreadlocks) and his styling is not coherent to the old Hollywood glamour style. Nevertheless, a great video.