how does she do it? i've done film test after film test, in an attempt to figure out how leibovitz is getting that green/dead look in her most recent photographs. like the cover of this month's vanity fair, wth the "legends of hollywood:", or the shot of liv ullmann in the interior...

does anybody have an idea what she's using? chrome or neg or polaroid? medium format or 4x5? lens filters or gels on lights? strobes or hmi's? done digitally or during the printing process?

unless there's one of her old assistants out there, we'll probably just battle it out. but if anyone's had similar results..

-- lee emmert (lbemmert@aol.com), March 14, 2001

Answers

How about posting an example- then we could all make our guesses-

-- Chris Yeager (cyeager@ix.netcom.com), March 14, 2001.

I have only seen the cover of the current issue briefly on TV and in miniature at their site. However, while I liked the cover photo, I didn't remember it being that unusual. Are you talking about something similar to the Pirelli calendar she did?

-- John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com), March 14, 2001.

I saw a couple of Leibovitz photos at the Jumbrella site... I guess she uses it for those huge group portraits. There was also an article in Salon a while back that had her shooting 6x7 or 6x9, as I recall.

-- Josh Wand (josh@joshwand.com), March 14, 2001.

I have not seen the VF issue, but I do know that she is noted for using RB and RZ Mamiya systems. I'll hafta take a peek.

-- Todd Frederick (fredrick@hotcity.com), March 14, 2001.

geez, that VF 2000 cover; "Send in the clones..."

-- Chris Yeager (cyeager@ix.netcom.com), March 14, 2001.

Well, it finally made it to the magazine racks. Yes, that's the same technique she used in the Pirelli calendar. I think she's both interested in the skin tones it brings out (if you can call them that - it really emphasizes the blues and greens of veins) and is also trying to make some statement about beauty. However, the older subjects look really bad with this techique. I bet they're not happy. (And I can guarantee you that Pirelli's never going to give a photographer carte blanche again either).

I came close to this by accident one time, by using uncorrected flash tubes with Astia. But I'm sure she's using a light green filter of some kind, along with a cold-tone film. (I started using E100 and gold panels in my soft boxes to avoid this look.)

-- John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com), March 22, 2001.

I suppose there are many ways of duplicating this look. However I would say she is getting a color shift by rating her slide film at half the ISO and pulling one stop in development. Depending on the film used, this would tend to induce a color shift away from red and produce flat and somewhat dark highlights. Here is another example.

-- Steve Bingham (steve@dustylens.com), July 01, 2002.