Why Hollywood Glamour and Film Noir Photography rules

Hi everyone!

I promised a post why I think that this sort of photography rules and here it is :-)

The original Hollywood Glamour and Film Noir Photography is sort of a master-discipline for both the model and the photographer. You just can´t point the lights on the model and get started. It rather requires a lot of experimenting as it is so extreme light conditions and you have to find out what is most flattering. If you get it wrong your model rather looks Frankenstein than Marlene Dietrich ;-) So it is really time cosuming and you have to know what you actually want to archieve and have a plan.

For a model the deal is that you need a lot of patience and keep standing in the same position in what seems forever until the light is just right. In a usual photo-shooting the light adjustment is a matter of minutes, here a half eternity can pass by till it is just right. Once the light is set, it takes a lot of navigation. You can´t just jump into another position apruptly without adjusting the light. So while it is welcome on most shootings to do some "freestyle posing" you have to listen to the photographer exactly in this case. Fortunetly we are in a digital age nowadays. I assume it was WAY HARDER back in the golden days because you couldn´t see the finished result immediately.

However: The shooting was as allways lots of fun and I´d happily do it again! There is just so much allure in it that you hardly ever find in modern photos. The effort is totally worth it. Anyway here are the photos that I took with Werner and I´m sure you will agree with me that you just can´t beat the glamor of black and white.

There will be 5 other motives from our Shooting soon (featuring guns, pearls and fake fur), I just couldn´t wait and hence released this two ones already!

I will upload a selection of my latest photos to my website tommorow. Make sure you check them out in their full (sized) beauty as it seems that you can´t enlarge them in my blog for strange reasons.

P.s.: Anyone saw the Film Noir Photos by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair some years ago? Freaking awesome! There are photos that you look at and forget, but than there are things so epic that you allways keep them in mind!