Luke Adams – Photo Assignment #1

Inspiration from George Hurrell

I decided to try to emulate the work of George Hurrell, an American photographer prominent in the 1930’s and 40s. Hurrell was a Hollywood photographer that showcased the beauty and glamour of celebrities with many different techniques that he developed over time. One of the things that he invented was the use of a monolight, a singular light placed above and shining down on the subject, creating a spotlight type look. This style of lighting makes the images have natural vignetting, creative shadows, and higher contrast. Another noteworthy thing that Hurrell mastered was his use of a retouch pencil. He would draw in small and big enhancements like more glamorous eyelashes, smoother skin, skin texture, hard shadows, and more. 

My Imitation


Although I feel like both images capture George Hurrell’s style accurately, I think that the first image (on the left) has the best connection to the original inspiration. When I learned of Hurrell’s use of the monolight, it inspired me to step out of my usual comfort zone within portraiture. For portraits, I mainly use a speedlight with an umbrella to capture a full face of light, focusing less on shadows and more on even lighting. To emulate the monolight look, I used a snoot on my speedlight to condense the light into a beam or spotlight look. This allowed me to capture creative shadows, while still having good lighting, contour, and balance between dark and light. Hurrell focused on the subject not being directly facing the camera, but having an angled pose to accentuate jawline, something I think I was able to capture in these images.

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