How much of this was done in the darkroom vs. studio?

Most is done with the lighting, look at the face, chest, and shoulder etc. Tose photographers were masters of Hollywood style lighting and set building.

Ian

 

Lighting should always do all or most of the work. There's nothing more satisfying than to have crafted the light so well that burning/dodging really aren't needed... straight print. That said, life doesn't always work this way. "Some" DR tweaking is usually needed.

 

There is one other technique that may also be involved - retouching the negative.

The retoucher's art is one that was practised much more routinely in days gone by.

Matt

 

i guess it could be done with heavy darkroom manipulation or
negative retouching, but probably it was just someone who
knew how to use his lights ..

side lights + key
background light
hair lights

the left side lights her face / key
and you can see the shadow of her arm on her leg
the right side light fills gives form to her right side and legs
she looks up to the hair light
and the other background light is behind her projecting up
and moves her away from the background.
which is a few feet behind her ...
(no shadows on the background from the other lights )

this kind of lighting was typical of the 30s-60s in most portrait studios.

the person i worked for did this sort of thing ( multiple lights &C )
- sans the starlet and the starlet pose -
all the time even in the 80s ...

 

There is a flah head equipped with a fresnel glass which is placed right behind the model and aimed at the background .
The fresnel glass enables to focalise the light as you would do with a torch light only much much more accurately and with a much nicer effect of course!!