I'm doing a recreation shoot of some old betty page shots and just old school pin up in general.  What i'm looking for is having my octolite as my main light in front of the model.  The thing is i'm not sure if the image will come out flat or not, what i was thinking was using my second flash as a back ground light.  Any thoughts on this?  My main concern though is having the lighting look flat but I want that front on lighting.

if you use the octo, put it as close as possible to the model. Of course this gets tricky if you are between the Octo and the model.

The background will determine if you need the second light as a back light.  for example if you have the model next to a wall - no need for a background light.  a background light helps create separation - making sure your model does not bleed into the background.

Another approach - use the octo to create an even flat lighting over the scene - then use your second strobe with a hard reflector, snoot or grid to focus light onto the face/torso of the model. This will create a more contrasty light in that area - the idea being the Octo is just an overall fill

All that being said, I have a book on old school pinup artists and it seems from the reference pictures that many of the pin-ups were lit with pretty hard lighting.  Experiement and see if a bare-relector gets the look you want first, then move to the softbox if the effect is not what you like.

You're correct.  Most of the old glamour shots were done with parabolic reflectors, with and without diffusers.

Paul

If you look at the images in my portfolio here, all of them were shot with a Photek octagonal softbox (very large size) as the main light.  If you put it at about a 45 degree angle, it does beautiful soft shadows.  If you put it face on, you can simulate the soft look of the old pin up shots.  Steven's right, they were done with harder lighting, but the lenses were softer (sometimes even soft focus lenses, which came in different strengths.)  To me, a softbox with silver interior gets you there - the highlights spread out and soften in a way similar to what the flare in the older lenses did.

You might try your second light as an up backlight or down backlight, that'll give you some separation from the backdrop, and a little sparkle.  (The shots on my portfolio against the white backdrop ended up that way - the space was so small I couldn't get the models far enough away from the backdrop, and I ended up with rim backlighting on some of the images where they stepped too far back.  Not a bad look.)

Most of the pin up shots were pretty evenly lit, with minimal shadows, if memory serves.  Only the hollywood look got shadows for drama.

Yeah i wish i had some grids.  Most of the shots will be done on a bed or couch.  I was also thinking of using a white umbrella for a backlight or a silver umbrella.  Now as for using the octo as the main and and the second strobe focused on the model,  you mentioned contrasty light, i'm not sure i understand that.  You wouldn't have an example of what you mean would you?

If no grid or no honeycomb system, try a mount for your slave flash. silver or white umbrella and a flashmount, slaved with you primary flash hot, you should be great at flattening out the image.

My choice, for old school feel, bounceboard a couple of Arri 650's , a bank of color corrected flourescents and a Deardorf 8x10 field camera.

Not to sound like a nerd or anyhting but here are a few pointers and books to look at. The "Bernard of Hollywood Pin-ups: Guide to pin-up photography" is a great how to book. It shows the picture and there is a small image to the left with the light set up and what wattage the lights were.

Another book that is a little more Noir is "Hollywood Portraits: Classic shots and how to take them". This book is more retro in how they disect how the images was created. The Bernard of Hollywood book was written by Bernard himself.

If you want flat light there are two classic positions. The "Paramount" lighting where the key light is above the camera angled down on the subject so as the model looks at you the nose shadow is centered under the nose. It was called this due to the fact that most Paramount Studio photos used this lighting in the early days.

Another lighting tecnique is called "Loop Lighting. The light is placed high and to the side of the camers to create a small rounded shadow below and to the side of the nose. This shadow was described as a loop shape.

Personally I would suggest use hard lights to get the look of the vintage that you want. You can take the front diffuser of your soft box if you need. I would say use a reflector instead of soft boxes. Keep your model and couch away from the background to allow you to light it seperately. A classic look os to allow the roundness of the light from the bell to distort on an angle and creat an oval shape on the back wall.

O.K. Enough babble. I gotta get back to work!