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STUtJlO PORTRAITS
By CARLISLE JONES
Whether he is photographing the newest cutie on the Warner lot or the Statue of Liberty, Charles Scott Welbourne, head portrait photographer of that studio, believes that the proper use of light and shadow is the answer to most of his problems.
Light and shadow, explains Welburne, is all that may make the expensive — and expressive — face of a Bette Davis, for example, different from the ordinary face of Sophie Glutz, that long-suffering nonentity who is always available for comparative purposes. The varieties and possibilities of light and shadow for the camera, he adds, never have been exhausted by Hollywood or by any photographer.
The commercial portrait photographer and the studio portrait man have much in common, but they must work differently because they have different objectives.
The commercial artist works to get realism. What he wants, because he knows it will please his customers, is a more or less exact likeness.
The studio photographer, on the other hand, is willing — even anxious — to sacrifice an exact likeness for a glamorous appearance, a seductive smile, a menacing glare or whatever it is his subject has the most of.
The studio photographer works with the worlds most expensive faces and he knows he can add or take away many thousands of dollars in value by the way he pictures those faces.
Mood and frame of mind of a subject are vital to good results, Welbourne believes. Almost as important as lighting but not quite. The photographer, once he has started the sitting, shouldn't putter too much with the camera because the faster he works the better will be the animation and expression of the subject.
The photographer can't fit every subject into the same mold, he adds.
"Not every player looks good on a bear rug."
It is important, Scotty thinks, to get and keep his subjects in the right mood. He has a phonograph handy and a supply of records — all kinds of records — so that he can fit his music to the mood the player is in or that Scotty wants the plaver to feel.
The man who has photographed almost every one of the great and near-great names in Hollywood, believes that he should "press the bulb" when the general effect he wants is before the camera regardless of small details. He likes to think that each picture tells a story but he won't attempt to interpret all the picures he makes.
Scotty once made 686 pictures of Carole Lombard in one day. This is not as ex
travagant as it sounds, however, because the demand for pictures of motion picture celebrities is greater than most people realize. A fleeting, twisted smile on Errol Flynn's handsome face caught by Scotty's camera, will eventually please a Hula maiden, a Chinese peasant and a hundred other types and nationalities. It may circulate for ten years.
In his big. square, lofty gallery on the Warner lot, Scotty doesn't think of all these things before snapping each picture. He is a young man but an old hand at the business and most of it comes to him by habit now. It is only when he is asked to explain his work that he tells, haltingly, of his theories and practicss.
"It's just light and shadow," he insists, "whether the subject is Merle Oberon or the Statue of Liberty. Only I would rather photograph Miss Oberon. Or even Jimmy Cagney. Jimmy's face has enough animation to keep it interesting — even if it isn't very beautiful."
One other thing is important to the studio photographer, in Scotty's expert opinion. The photograph or the photographer never must overshadow the subject in importance. He believes it is important that his credit line read, "The lovely Olivia de Havilland — portrait by Scotty Welbourne," and not "A new Welbourne portrait of Olivia de Havilland."
He thinks the latter credit line "puts the cart before the horse," and he says this without meaning to call Olivia a horse. He thinks that the studio portrait man must always be of secondary importance to the star he pictures. That's one reason he holds the job he does.
Scotty Welbourne "shooting" Ann Sheridan
International Photographer for March, 1941
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