“I’d rather regret the things I have done than regret the things I haven’t done.” — Lucille Ball

Hard light and defined shadows certainly goes against the grain of the prevailing ideas of portrait photography.  A large light source can produce beautifully flattering light, with a gentle shadow edge.  However for a change the harder light that characterised the Hollywood glamour era can be a welcome difference.  Hollywood glamour is defined by a small main light source on the subject face, an accent/hair light on opposite side of the subject and a background light for better figure ground relationship.

Here are some shots if Stephanie, a makeup artist and model.

The first 2 images are created by a hard light on Stephanie.  Other last three images are a large octabox directly above Stephanie and a flash on the background gelled blue.

This image with Ingunn was had a flash in a snoot as the only light.