How to Create Vintage Old Hollywood Portraits

A model approached me about taking more vintage-styled portraits, and I remembered an older photo of my great-aunt from the early 1940s. It felt like it was straight out of the Old Hollywood era. I was excited about the concept and wanted to add my own twist to it.

I used that photograph as the inspiration rather than trying to recreate it exactly, and then built the shoot around the lighting, styling, posing, and overall mood I had in mind.

Building the Vintage-Inspired Set

For the studio setup, I used a 20×10ft. Kate abstract fabric backdrop along with a smaller, brighter Kate collapsible backdrop.

Most of the final images used the larger backdrop, while the wine glass shot was taken with the collapsible backdrop.

I switched to the brighter collapsible backdrop because I wanted both dark and bright backgrounds in the series. I was thinking about the way vintage films could move between darker, more dramatic scenes and brighter, more illuminated ones.

I also used an old vintage chair my mom had from the 1940s, which had been inherited from older generations of my family.

The model wore a timeless black dress and long gloves, which helped her embody the role we were going for.

Keeping the Lighting Simple

For the lighting, I kept things simple with a one-light setup. I used an Amaran 200D positioned slightly off to the side of the model.

I like when my portraits have a slight highlight on one side of the subject and a subtle shadow on the other, creating a more dynamic look. With the Aputure Light Dome II, I aimed for a Rembrandt-style lighting pattern.

I also switched from the Light Dome II to the reflector that came with my Amaran 200D when I wanted more defined shadows.

I made that switch because I wanted the more theatrical, spotlight-style look and harsher shadows I associate with vintage films and portraits.

Using the softer Light Dome setup and the harder reflector setup gave me two different lighting looks to work with during the shoot.

Rafael switched between the Light Dome II setup and a harder, more direct light depending on the shadow and spotlight effect he wanted. Behind-the-scenes images from Kosinski Photography.

Creating Abstract Shadows With Cardboard

For fun, I also used a cardboard cutout with different shapes cut into it to create dappled lighting.

I wanted more abstract shadows as a tribute to the heavy contrast often associated with film noir.

I placed the cardboard in front of the light on a stand and played with its distance from the light depending on how defined I wanted the shadows to be.

Giving the Model a Character to Play

For posing, I told the model to keep the poses more pin-up-like, playful, exaggerated, and even theatrical at times.

It also helps to give your model a prop to interact with. For this shoot, that included different positions of the chair, a rose, and a wine or champagne glass.

It can even help to come up with a backstory for the subject so they can believe in and feel the role they are playing.

I thought of her character as a young Hollywood starlet, maybe a few years before her debut, when she was more flirtatious and unrefined before taking on that polished, perfected look Hollywood had at the time.

Paired with the model's styling, including the black dress and long gloves, she was able to really embody that role.

Making a DIY Diffusion Filter

The true secret to this shoot, however, was the custom filter I made.

I wanted the portraits to have the soft, glowing look I associate with classic Hollywood photography. Instead of putting anything directly on the lens, I used plastic food wrap that I already had around the house.

I bought a cheap UV filter and cut a piece of plastic wrap to the size of the filter. No glue was needed because the plastic naturally adhered to the UV glass.

The more imperfections and air bubbles in the plastic, the better!

For this shoot, those imperfections were part of the soft, cloudy effect I was looking for.

I used the plastic-wrap filter for all of the final images in the series.

Rafael’s homemade diffusion filter: plastic food wrap placed over an inexpensive UV filter. Image from Kosinski Photography.

Finishing the Images in Photoshop

Because of the custom filter, the images could look fairly cloudy straight out of the camera, so I added quite a bit of contrast and sharpening in post.

I took the photos into Photoshop and converted them to black and white.

For sharpening, I used a High Pass layer set to Overlay.

Once I had the contrast where I wanted it, I used Curves or Selective Color to soften the deepest blacks. I wanted those darker areas to feel a little more faded rather than having a very deep black.

Skin retouching was also part of the look I was trying to create. For these images, I used Dodge and Burn.

Finally, depending on taste, I added a slight orange, brown, or green tint to some of the images.

How far I pushed that depended on how aged I wanted the photograph to feel—whether I wanted it to look closer to a portrait from the 1940s or like an old print that had been pulled from a scrapbook years later.

One of the finished portraits after Rafael’s black-and-white conversion, contrast work, sharpening, and retouching. Image from Kosinski Photography.

Have fun and try it!