Jack Watson - Jack Watsons Complete Guide to Creating Black and White Female Glamour Images: From Nudes to Fashion

Jack Watsons Complete Guide to Creating

Black and White Female Glamour Images

From Nudes to Fashion

By Jack Watson

Jack Watsons Complete Guide to Creating Black and White Female Glamour Images From Nudes to Fashion

Jack Watson

Copyright 2013 Jack Watson

Published by Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.

1210 SW 23rd Place Ocala, Florida 34471

800-814-1132 352-622-1875Fax

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SAN Number: 268-1250 Member American Library Association

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be sent to Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc., 1210 SW 23rd Place, Ocala, Florida 34471.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Watson, Jack, 1947- photographer.

Jack Watsons complete guide to creating black and white female glamour images - from nudes to fashion / by Jack Watson.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-60138-902-2 (alk. paper) -- ISBN 1-60138-902-7 (alk. paper)

1. Photography of women. 2. Black-and-white photography. 3. Photography of the nude. 4. Fashion photography. 5. Women--Pictorial works. I. Title. II. Title: Complete guide to creating black and white female glamour images - from nudes to fashion.

TR681.W6W385 2012

778.924--dc23

2012037981

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

18 U.S.C. 2257 Statement

In compliance with the Federal Labeling and Record-Keeping Law (also known as 18 U.S.C. 2257), all models shown in this book were 18 years of age or older during the time of photography. All models proof of age are held in Ocala, Florida by Atlantic Publishing Company. All content and images are in full compliance with the requirements of 18 U.S.C. 2257 and associated regulations.

The Adobe Photoshop name and logo is a trademark and property of Adobe Systems Inc. The Nik Silver Efex Pro name and logo is a trademark and property of Nik Software, Inc. The Dfine name and logo is a registered trademark and property of Nik Software, Inc. The Viveza name and logo is a registered trademark and property of Nik Software, Inc. The Color Efex Pro name and logo is a registered trademark and property of Nik Software, Inc. The Sharpener Pro name and logo is a trademark and property of Nik Software, Inc. The Facebook name and logo is a registered trademark and property of Facebook, Inc The Sekonic name and logo is a registered trademark of Sekonic Corporation, Japan.

Dedication

To my wife Leigh who set the standard for beautiful women. Thank you for loving me...

Acknowledgments

Without the assistance and encouragement of the following people this book would still be an unpolished and unpublished idea. To Meg Buchner, book layout artist and dear friend you make me look good. Thank you. To my friends and fellow photographers Craig Davis, Rick Healy, Han Li, and Mark Pernal, who each provided a single color image for the book so I could show the reader how you can convert anyones images and add another dynamic (photographers input) toward creating a beautiful monochromatic photo. All of you are extraordinary photographers and will hopefully carry the torch of legitimacy in female glamour photography long after Im pushing up daisies Thank you for your beautiful contributions, I hope I did them justice in the conversion process. To the staff at Atlantic Publishing that make a writers job easy and painless thank you for your patience and input. My lovely wife Leigh deserves a special applause for minimizing the honey do list while I was writing and converting images for this book. A special thanks to my publisher, Doug Brown, and his beautiful wife, Sherri, who made my wife and I their friends, and kept me motivated with their endless encouragement. My best friend, Les Levy, deserves special thanks for always being a photo critic I can trust; he is there for me when I need an honest opinion. Last, but certainly not least, a special thanks to the many extraordinary models that appear in this book. I hope this book honors your beauty and endures with time, keeping you ageless in our dreams. You are my angels.

Authors Note

Those of you who have had the opportunity to read one of my previous books from Atlantic Publishing titled Hidden Cuba know I have a great love for black and white photography. The Hidden Cuba book received a prestigious Presidents Gold Medal Book Award from the Florida Publishers Association. I would like to think the award was for the photography alone, but the book designers at Atlantic Publishing did an amazing job on the layout. Most of the images in that book are black and white photographs along the lines of a photojournalists perspective. This book is a little different, well actually a lot different.

Hidden Cuba strives to tell a harsh, bold, and courageous story of the people of Cuba, this book is all about beauty and the female form. I hope you have a chance to read both books, and will be inspired by what you see, hopefully trying your hand at this basic of all photographic imagery May your dreams be in color and your appreciation of glamour photography be black and white.

Jack Watson

Celebrity/Glamour Photographer

2012

Introduction

THE BEGINNINGS

Over the years, glamour photography has cycled through varying degrees of acceptance depending on the content of the imagery. From Playboy to Vogue the female form has always been the mainstay of glamour photography. At the early beginnings of the motion picture industry, billboards, flyers, and print photos in fan magazines made both male and female stars famous. Even if an aspiring film star were a terrible actor, as long as she looked glamorous in publicity photos, and magazines, she was guaranteed a box office draw. This was long before television, and black and white images on the silver screen or in cheesy tabloids were the only visual medium around.

Pioneering studio still photographers like female photographer Ruth Harriet Louise (who at the time was the only female stills photographer in the motion picture business,) Clarence Sinclair Bull, and George Hurrell worked in the stills department of big studios and were among the early true pioneers of black and white glamour photography. Tasked with creating stunning black and white images to hype, and generate excitement for studio releases, their images were created primarily in camera with careful and selective placement of light (oftentimes placed by the director of photography [DP] on a hot set that served as an expedited backdrop). At least thats how it started. Truth be known, as still images evolved, the cadr of studio touch-up artists grew in number. Still photographers (for a short while) would have a little more control of their lighting, and actors frequently would make their way to the stills photographers (often tiny) studios for a portrait sitting between scenes while principal motion picture photography was taking place elsewhere. Studios liked to tout that the images they released for the medias use were un-retouched (adding to the mystique, and allure of their stars perfect complexion, body, etc.) As we now know, very few stars, or people in general, are as perfect as these photos proclaimed.