Beauty flares

[Alexander Disenhof]

Hi all,

 

Just curious to all out there who have done a lot of beauty and fashion stuff, what are your favorite methods of getting that flared, washed out image that you see so often in beauty work? Obviously the lenses you choose matter, but what kind of lighting tricks do people use? Has anyone used a flashlight right next to the mattebox?

 

See this image for reference:

[Alexander Disenhof]

Another example:

[Benjamin Davis]

That effect isn't just the flare, but the glow from the light when the actual lamp isn't shown. I couldn't be entirely sure as to what lights they used in those particular shots, but the blocking is done to have the light source very close to the edge of the frame but not in the shot. A lot of the time a flag is used to remove that light so you can obtain a particular look without having that huge glow enveloping your picture. In this case it emphasizes the model somewhat, so I can see why they are called beauty flares.

 

Or... it was done digitally and the effect is something composited into the shot. Seems easier to just do it in-camera to me, though!

[Stuart Brereton]

That looks like the sort of veiling flare that you get from bright overcast skies or large soft sources. You might try putting a lamp through a 4x4 diff frame, right on the edge of the shot, and maybe even remove the mattebox from the camera.

[Nathan Blair]

I've worked a lot with in-camera flares of this sort in music videos. Here's one of my videos, all the flares done in camera: http://vimeo.com/23251398

 

You would think that a normal household bulb would create a more specular flare, but Benjamin was right in his post. To create washes over the frame, I always place a simple clamp-on work lamp just outside of the field of view, very close to the camera. I just rig it to a light stand and move it around as needed.

 

I have been searching for a better method because incandescent bulbs tend to heat up the camera quite a bit... it's probably a very inefficient way to do this!

 

Anyone have other techniques?