Oh, Sean. You have no idea how much I appreciate your videos. I’ve been watching for years and learned so much. The last one from this series I was definitely there commenting on how much I appreciated it and wanted more. Thank you one more time for a second video on this series!
Fantastic video! I think with this reference it might have been interesting to mention hair and makeup - imo some of the choices made in those areas really make O'Neill's photo stand out
Thanks for the great video! My gut feeling is that the Michelle Pfeiffer picture was done with an even wider lens, something in the 24mm to 28 mm range. Michelle doesn´t have an unusually narrow face, if you look at other pictures of her. Everything else you did was magic! You got everything right! Well done. Additional information: Terry O´Neill states that his favorite lens was a 50 mm distagon lens on his Hasselblad camera. That would be 28mm in full frame.
Beautifully done, Sean. A quick note on Michelle’s pupils/iris size; the lighting may have been strobes too, I’m able to achieve her look with the modeling lamps constricting pupils too
This is fantastic. Would love to see more. Maybe a Platon recreation of his Bill Clinton shot where you see the distortion in the hands and knees compared to face.
Simplicity… you have this gift, my friend, and it’s definitely easy for me to understand what it is indeed complicated. Thanks for your time, love this contents.
You know what, you've not just successfully recreated a classic portrait. In fact (even if modern digital technology helped a bit), you made your already stunningly beautiful model look even better than the great celebrity in the original shot. The thing needed to pull that off is called skill, Sean, which you abundantly have.
Hi Sean. When I was a photographers assistant, in the early eighties, one of the last jobs of the day would be to do lighting diagrams that were then attached to the job sheet with the polaroids. For this shoot we would of copylit a white scoop for the background and had a diffusing brolly attached to the front of the keylight. Also, the model would of been seated at a table top with a white scoop covering the width of the table leading back to the camera that was a Mamyia 6x7. I also loved working on car shoots. Large cove studios, floating ceilings, tungsten film lighting on big crank-up stands, black out curtains along the side of the car to hide the crew and equipment; 10 x 8 Sinar. The best kept secret was being on location with little portable flash units made by Norman, great piece of kit.
This is a great look! I’ve found that a close silver beauty dish with a fine grid accentuates the light drop-off and really carves out the cheeks without the black boards on each side.
This was super fun to watch and a great photo challenge. Here's a tip when using a big softbox as a backlight to make sure you're not overpowering your subject: take a test shot and then sample the background color in your editing software. What you are aiming for is for each channel (red, green, blue) to register 255. Dial your lighting in until you are just under that, say 245, and then up the power just a bit. Since highlight detection flashes red for anything at 255 or above but doesn't differentiate just how far above that you are (it just keeps flashing), this is a good way to make sure you dont' blow out the edges of your subject. I often do this with product photography because my clients usually want a pure white background.
Thanks so much for another one of these Sean. I don’t even really shoot portrait photography but these videos are so interesting and fun both for the rationale and deduction of the lighting techniques and then the processes of taking and editing. So enjoyable and informative.
When I hit ▶️ on this I was hopeing to watch a good video on lighting, I didn’t, I actually watched a FANTASTIC insight to lighting via one of the very best YT’ers on the platform. Thx Sean, this has been the elixir that I needed for my photography.
Fascinating to see how much art and technique went into the original, but when you pointed out the pupil size issue, which maximises the eye colours, you suddenly realise that he probably recognised from the outset that that was something about her that was a defining feature and the crux of the original portrait. Look forward to the next one👍
This is brilliant, really interesting to see how you study & break down the original picture to then rebuild to create a similar one, which looks amazing. Thank you.
I don’t do any portraiture ….but I found this video absolutely fascinating to experience…with a truly stunning result ! It was almost like watching a meticulous forensic scientist examining a scene for clues. It really made me appreciate how much can go into great photographic art. ( for what its worth Sean, I preferred your result!) couple of ideas..Che Guevara by Rene Burri (1963) , Thomas Hoepker Muhammad Ali ‘s fist (1966) both seen in “Magnum contact sheets”..
I just wanted to thank you for creating such an informative and inspiring video on portrait photography. Your demonstration on how to recreate the iconic Michelle Pfeiffer portrait by Terry O'Neill was truly impressive, and your insights on light and shadow usage were incredibly helpful for me as a hobbyist landscape photographer who is also interested in portrait photography. Your practical approach to teaching and sharing your knowledge is truly admirable, and I appreciate the effort you put into creating such high-quality content. Your video has not only helped me in improving my lighting techniques, but it has also served as a great source of inspiration for my future photography endeavors. Once again, thank you for sharing your expertise, and I look forward to learning more from you.
Nicely done, this set up is one of my go to lighting for my portraits for clients in Los Angeles. You can also use a soft box in place of the silver card at 1 1/2 less power than your main light. I’m sure this video will be very informative to photographers who don’t normally do this so they can ad this to there bag of setups!
In regard to your comment about the large pupils - a more powerful modeling light will also allow the pupils to close if you are using a strobe that has that feature. Or you can use another light source, like a flashlight or a room light that is bright enough to get the eyes to react, but is overpowered by the strobe burst. There are options that do not require constant lights.
Thanks Sean, I really enjoyed and got a lot out of this video just like the last Ernest Hemingway recreation. If you are looking for ideas for future portraits to emulate then a couple come immediately to mind. The first is the stunning face on portrait of Samuel Beckett by Jane Bown (one of my favourite portraits by one of my favourite photographers) and the other is the B&W portrait of Nick Cave by Anton Corbijn which has the harsh shadow of Mr Cave on a Santa Monica house clapperboard wall next to him.
A really helpful video Sean. I think you can learn so much by analysing great portraits such as this one you have chosen by O'Neill. I also love how you have applied various PhotoShop techniques to get as close as possible to this style. Great work.
Thanks so much for this video. This really helps me push myself into new territories in portraiture. The whole idea of guessing, arguing, trial-and-erroring the lighting of a great portrait (photography *and* painting perhaps!) is just very educational and fun. Still, there's something I miss here. If the assignment is 'recreating a portrait', than recreating the mood and expression is also important. *Very* important I think. So I would have loved to see bits of the actual shooting session and hear how you direct your model. What I see is that the expression of Pfeiffer is strong, whereas you models expression is softer, and perhaps a tiny bit sad, but that's my interpretation. Btw, I love her natural expression and look. The angle of the head and the vertical position of the camera is also important here, I guess. Wrt to pupil size: the AD200 doesn't have a modelling light. Would that have helped? I also saw a photographer shine the flashlight of an iPhone in his model's eyes seconds before taking the picture. I'm not sure if that would work for me, because it would disrupt the communication I have with my model. Again, thanks for this, and I'll look out for more video's like these!
Really Great... I am so pleased that your thought process was so familiar to mine in reverse engineer photos.... going to have to look up "Guess the Lighting". Thanks!
Oh, Sean. You have no idea how much I appreciate your videos. I’ve been watching for years and learned so much. The last one from this series I was definitely there commenting on how much I appreciated it and wanted more. Thank you one more time for a second video on this series!
Love your profile picture!
Fantastic video! I think with this reference it might have been interesting to mention hair and makeup - imo some of the choices made in those areas really make O'Neill's photo stand out
Yeah the hair styling makes such a huge difference
Thanks for the great video! My gut feeling is that the Michelle Pfeiffer picture was done with an even wider lens, something in the 24mm to 28 mm range. Michelle doesn´t have an unusually narrow face, if you look at other pictures of her. Everything else you did was magic! You got everything right! Well done. Additional information: Terry O´Neill states that his favorite lens was a 50 mm distagon lens on his Hasselblad camera. That would be 28mm in full frame.
Beautifully done, Sean. A quick note on Michelle’s pupils/iris size; the lighting may have been strobes too, I’m able to achieve her look with the modeling lamps constricting pupils too
That was my thinking.
Thanks for sharing this tutorial. I like your version over the original. Knowing exactly how far to push the image without spoiling it. Superb !
Wonderful portrait! The break down from light setups to editing is excellent. Thank you!
Beautiful portraits, both. And great tutorial! Thank you!
This is fantastic. Would love to see more. Maybe a Platon recreation of his Bill Clinton shot where you see the distortion in the hands and knees compared to face.
Platon is on the list for sure.
Simplicity… you have this gift, my friend, and it’s definitely easy for me to understand what it is indeed complicated. Thanks for your time, love this contents.
I love that in your tutorials you always drop tips and tricks which are just simple and quick. No need to overcomplicate or watch an in depth tutorial
Clearly one of the best tutorials I have seen. Clear, explicit and really seeking to educate and share your knowledge. Thank you.
You know what, you've not just successfully recreated a classic portrait. In fact (even if modern digital technology helped a bit), you made your already stunningly beautiful model look even better than the great celebrity in the original shot. The thing needed to pull that off is called skill, Sean, which you abundantly have.
Love this kind of videos...!In this photo of Michelle, can be appreciated the perfect symmetry of her face...the perfect face
Hi Sean.
When I was a photographers assistant, in the early eighties, one of the last jobs of the day would be to do lighting diagrams that were then attached to the job sheet with the polaroids.
For this shoot we would of copylit a white scoop for the background and had a diffusing brolly attached to the front of the keylight. Also, the model would of been seated at a table top with a white scoop covering the width of the table leading back to the camera that was a Mamyia 6x7.
I also loved working on car shoots. Large cove studios, floating ceilings, tungsten film lighting on big crank-up stands, black out curtains along the side of the car to hide the crew and equipment; 10 x 8 Sinar.
The best kept secret was being on location with little portable flash units made by Norman, great piece of kit.
This is a great look! I’ve found that a close silver beauty dish with a fine grid accentuates the light drop-off and really carves out the cheeks without the black boards on each side.
This was super fun to watch and a great photo challenge. Here's a tip when using a big softbox as a backlight to make sure you're not overpowering your subject: take a test shot and then sample the background color in your editing software. What you are aiming for is for each channel (red, green, blue) to register 255. Dial your lighting in until you are just under that, say 245, and then up the power just a bit. Since highlight detection flashes red for anything at 255 or above but doesn't differentiate just how far above that you are (it just keeps flashing), this is a good way to make sure you dont' blow out the edges of your subject. I often do this with product photography because my clients usually want a pure white background.
Wonderfully done mate. I prefer your shot to be honest. Ailona is stunning. Can’t wait till the next one.
I absolutely love this type of content as I am always trying new lighting styles. Thank you so much for the tips on not doing too much retouching.
Excellent video. I really appreciate the simple techniques and restraint in the retouching. Thanks.
Thanks so much for another one of these Sean. I don’t even really shoot portrait photography but these videos are so interesting and fun both for the rationale and deduction of the lighting techniques and then the processes of taking and editing. So enjoyable and informative.
Many thanks Sean for your great tutorial. I would love to see some Hurrell type lighting for b&w.
Thoroughly enjoyed this video. Everything is communicated well. Thank you.
Another fantastic reference video. Thank you Sean.
Great video! I’m going to start analyzing some portraits and see what i can come up with.
Thanks, Sean. I really like the way you explain the lighting.
Thank you Sean for this fantastic tutorial! Love your style of teaching and your creativity!
When I hit ▶️ on this I was hopeing to watch a good video on lighting, I didn’t, I actually watched a FANTASTIC insight to lighting via one of the very best YT’ers on the platform.
Thx Sean, this has been the elixir that I needed for my photography.
Excellent Sean. Great job and beautiful model!!! Ailona is so beautiful as Michelle is!!! Congratulations👏👏👏
I miss seeing your videos more often and honestly I love your portrait videos! Please more!
Thanks Sean! I thoroughly enjoyed this video and I'll check out the other "dissection". MORE PLEASE!! Cheers.
Fascinating to see how much art and technique went into the original, but when you pointed out the pupil size issue, which maximises the eye colours, you suddenly realise that he probably recognised from the outset that that was something about her that was a defining feature and the crux of the original portrait. Look forward to the next one👍
Wonderful tutorial. Yes, please continue with this series.
Thank you so much as always, Sean. Excellent result here.
This is EXCELLENT!! Wow, a lot of practical learning in there! Thank you so much….
Excellent work! Thank you!
Your lighting abservation is great, and I liked the final result. Thankyou sean.
This format is just amazing. Please more!
Thank you!! Wonderful video!
Very helpfull Sean, thanks! Hope you will continue this series..
Sure do more of these videos, i always learn a lot of it for myself and my own photography journay. Thank you for your work.
Wow, so awesome! Thank you for the tutorial and the inspiration
This is brilliant, really interesting to see how you study & break down the original picture to then rebuild to create a similar one, which looks amazing. Thank you.
Great tutorial. Thank you very much!
This channel is such a gem. Hard to believe that all this amazing content is available for free.
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Very nice. I do like the breakdown of where the lights are positioned and the lighting levels. I look forward to more like this. thank you.
It is really very instructive, and following you destructuring and analysing is a real pleasure. Please continue.
Great analyses of the light settings, Sean!!! I learned so much from these details, thanks a lot. Cheers, Dirk
Absolutely love this! Thanks for taking the time to break it down so clearly.
That was gold (again!) Sean! Thanks for sharing and we could definitely do with more of these videos! ❤📸
Once again, an excellent video. I use you techniques in many of my portraits. Thank you!
Excellent excellent walk through! Really makes me want to try it myself.
I don’t do any portraiture ….but I found this video absolutely fascinating to experience…with a truly stunning result ! It was almost like watching a meticulous forensic scientist examining a scene for clues. It really made me appreciate how much can go into great photographic art. ( for what its worth Sean, I preferred your result!) couple of ideas..Che Guevara by Rene Burri (1963) , Thomas Hoepker Muhammad Ali ‘s fist (1966) both seen in “Magnum contact sheets”..
Thanks Sean, this is my style of shooting and you've brought to my attention some techniques I'll be implementing in the future.
This video was fantastic! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do this again! Doing Platon image next would be very interested!!!
Excellent video Sean - very inspiring- thank you and would love to see more like this.
Your enthusiasm is infectious 👍👍
Excellent.. thank you always learn something from you.
Seeing how you work these is certainly something I would appreciate
Love this, more of these please! Long time viewer, first time commenter.
I absolutely loved it! I’m going to try and recreate it. Thank you so much for awesome video
Fantastic video! Thanks Sean! Love your channel!
Very nice idea Sean. Lot to learn with this approach. Many thanks.
Nice to see you again on here Sean
Great work Sean! When you were making some adjustments, you converted her image to black & white and that image was amazing! She is beautiful!
Brilliant work, really interesting seeing how to replicate a lightning set-up 👍🏻 great work, thanks very much. Ryan.
Thank you so much Sean for the awesome video and your tips for shooting! God bless you!
Sean, you did a great job! Excellent, insightful!
Fabulous! love it... So much to learn from these videos. Thank you!
Wonderful, good job, well explained.
absolutely love these kind of videos. please do continue to post such tutorials.
Enjoyed very much. Lovely work, well presented!
Great video Sean thanks so much for walking us through the process.
Exceptional video! You articulate your thoughts and methods so well.
Keep it up this helped me so much with seeing the light in portraits
Excellent work. Definitely enjoying the series.
super video Sean, thanks for posting
Thanks! I really enjoy your message and your content!
I just wanted to thank you for creating such an informative and inspiring video on portrait photography. Your demonstration on how to recreate the iconic Michelle Pfeiffer portrait by Terry O'Neill was truly impressive, and your insights on light and shadow usage were incredibly helpful for me as a hobbyist landscape photographer who is also interested in portrait photography.
Your practical approach to teaching and sharing your knowledge is truly admirable, and I appreciate the effort you put into creating such high-quality content. Your video has not only helped me in improving my lighting techniques, but it has also served as a great source of inspiration for my future photography endeavors.
Once again, thank you for sharing your expertise, and I look forward to learning more from you.
Nicely done, this set up is one of my go to lighting for my portraits for clients in Los Angeles. You can also use a soft box in place of the silver card at 1 1/2 less power than your main light. I’m sure this video will be very informative to photographers who don’t normally do this so they can ad this to there bag of setups!
Great video! Beautiful photo.
In regard to your comment about the large pupils - a more powerful modeling light will also allow the pupils to close if you are using a strobe that has that feature. Or you can use another light source, like a flashlight or a room light that is bright enough to get the eyes to react, but is overpowered by the strobe burst. There are options that do not require constant lights.
Great breakdown of the lighting. Love your straightforward explanation of your process for lighting and editing.
Loved the video! Keep them coming! Thank You!
Love these lighting videos! FYI: The blog, "Guess the Lighting," that Sean mentions can be found on the Internet Archive.
Thanks Sean, I really enjoyed and got a lot out of this video just like the last Ernest Hemingway recreation. If you are looking for ideas for future portraits to emulate then a couple come immediately to mind. The first is the stunning face on portrait of Samuel Beckett by Jane Bown (one of my favourite portraits by one of my favourite photographers) and the other is the B&W portrait of Nick Cave by Anton Corbijn which has the harsh shadow of Mr Cave on a Santa Monica house clapperboard wall next to him.
Wonderful work and demonstration!
Yes, I found this very informative and presented is a very clear and precise manner. Thank you.
Fantastic tutorial, learned alot. Please keep doing these!
A really helpful video Sean. I think you can learn so much by analysing great portraits such as this one you have chosen by O'Neill. I also love how you have applied various PhotoShop techniques to get as close as possible to this style. Great work.
Love this series of videos.
I like your version more to be honest. both are great. Just my preference is all. Great video.
Very very interesting video. Thank you!
Excellent video, Sean 👍
Very well done..Congrats Sean.
Nice idea and work! Thanks for the tipps! 🙏
Amazing as always! We learn about posing, composing, lighting, and editing. It’s an outstanding series and you are a great teacher. Thanks!
Thanks so much for this video. This really helps me push myself into new territories in portraiture. The whole idea of guessing, arguing, trial-and-erroring the lighting of a great portrait (photography *and* painting perhaps!) is just very educational and fun. Still, there's something I miss here. If the assignment is 'recreating a portrait', than recreating the mood and expression is also important. *Very* important I think. So I would have loved to see bits of the actual shooting session and hear how you direct your model. What I see is that the expression of Pfeiffer is strong, whereas you models expression is softer, and perhaps a tiny bit sad, but that's my interpretation. Btw, I love her natural expression and look. The angle of the head and the vertical position of the camera is also important here, I guess.
Wrt to pupil size: the AD200 doesn't have a modelling light. Would that have helped? I also saw a photographer shine the flashlight of an iPhone in his model's eyes seconds before taking the picture. I'm not sure if that would work for me, because it would disrupt the communication I have with my model.
Again, thanks for this, and I'll look out for more video's like these!
Really Great... I am so pleased that your thought process was so familiar to mine in reverse engineer photos.... going to have to look up "Guess the Lighting". Thanks!
this was really great Sean !! thank you.!! love another "seeing the light" session if possible !
Absolutely fantastic video, Sean! Thanks so much for sharing all the knowledge!
Fantastic example, thanks for step by step with explanations!
Really like how you explain things.