The recent J16 Studio Workshop on shooting 1950 style Pin-Ups was a great success ...so I am going to share a few tips with on how this is best done in the studio.
The first thing to remember is that the original pin-up images of the period were usually painting based on a black & white photograph so colour was added later, the overall appearance of being a high key image with very few shadows.
Background colours tended be pastel or sometimes just off white I would recommend buying a couple of rolls of suitable background paper as this gives favourable results for the 50's look.
The main ingredients for a successful shoot are:
A suitable model who understands the "cheesecake" poses of the period.
A wardrobe of period cloths and matching accessories.
A good number of period props to set the scene.
Styling & make Up from a Make Up Artist who is also familiar with hair and makeup techniques of the period.
The lighting is very straight forward for all these images it was a 2 or 3 light set up, a large softbox acted as a fill to reduce the shadow and for the key light a diffused beauty dish was used both at around 45 degrees to the model, the dish being direct to where the model is facing. A third light can be placed high up with a snoot to lighten the background behind the model. The third light isn't essential but I found with the yellow background it did much to give that "sunny day" look.
The lighting obviously moves with the model so for low shots like this one on the studio floor the lights have also all been lowered. As rule because pin-ups are usually full body shots the lights are positioned at a hight midway to the models position, so for instance when the model is standing the key light is just above waist hight.
Likewise for this image of the model under the hair drier the key light was brought slightly lower to ensure that the face and the the inside of the drier was sufficiently lit.
1950's pin-ups have a good degree of humour associated to them and are always situational with props very much helping to set the scene as in this baking scene:
But just the smallest of props like this hat box can make a big difference to the image :
If you are fairly proficient with Photoshop this will also be useful in creating the 1950's pin-up look (any pin-up look really) because pin-ups really are a fair few steps from reality so general skin smoothing should be used as well as the removal of any obvious blemish to model, prop or background.
I would like to thank our model Crystal Cupcake & make up artist Karen Hegarty of Simplydivine for their expertise and hard work ensuring all that attended this workshop left with some great images.
