Fascinated by the apparently magical properties of this process, Angus wanted to be able to take pictures of people and sold a gold watch left to him by his grandfather to raise the five pounds necessary for the equipment.

[6] At the age of fifteen McBean took part in the amateur dramatics productions at the Lyceum Theatre in Monmouth, where he was mostly involved in the creation of sets, props and costumes.

[2] In 1925, after his father's early death from tuberculosis, contracted in the trenches during the First World War,[2] McBean moved with his mother and younger sister Rowena to a three bedroomed cottage at 21 Lowfield Road, West Acton.

Cecil offered him an assistant's post at his New Grafton Street studio[8] where McBean learnt how to retouch large glass negatives and other useful techniques,[9] whilst working on his own photographs in the evenings.

Having learnt the secrets of Cecil's softer style, McBean set up his own studio 18 months later in a basement in Belgrave Road, Victoria, London.

Through the late 1940s and 50s he was the official photographer at Stratford, the Royal Opera House, Sadler's Wells, Glyndebourne, the Old Vic and at all the productions of H. M. Tennent, servicing the theatrical, musical and ballet star system.

[12] Despite the decline in demand for theatre and production art during the 1950s, McBean's creative and striking ideas provided him with work in the emergent record cover business with companies such as EMI, when he was commissioned to create Cliff Richard's first four album sleeves.

[14] In his later years he became more selective of the work he undertook, and continued to explore surrealism whilst taking portrait photographs of individuals such as Agatha Christie, Audrey Hepburn, Laurence Olivier and Noël Coward.

In 1984 McBean appeared, credited as "special guest", in the music video for "Red Guitar", the debut solo single by British musician-composer David Sylvian.

In 1990, McBean fell ill whilst on holiday in Morocco, and after returning to England, he died at Ipswich Heath Road Hospital on his eighty-sixth birthday.