An online search and a trip to the library turned up plenty of vintage Hollywood portraits for study. A closer, objective look at the photographs revealed a few surprises. This is a pretty common part of the process for me. You see, I had an image in my head of what a vintage portrait looked like and it was pretty accurate, overall. But the camera angles, in particular, were lower than I would have thought. Eye contact with the camera wasn’t as common as I’d envisioned. Research pays off.
Study reinforced that depth of field was generally shallow in the vintage images because large format cameras were used. High contrast was the order of the day because of the photo materials available and to “blow out” details in the skin.
