Crime drama, Private investigators, gumshoes, the P.
I, shadows, smoke, the Femme Fatale, these are the stuff of Hollywood's Film Noir.
I have always loved the movies of the 1940's and 1950's.
Something about the dark and squalid world those films created still remains hugely attractive to me.
So today I decided to try to replicate some of the elements of Film Noir in my own work.
A good friend and colleague of mine will soon return to the U.
S from China and so I asked him to be my model for one last time.
First I must say how important a good model can be at improving your chances of getting the desired result.
Steven is not only highly photogenic, but he's also a very creative person which comes through in the images.
Film Noir, has many elements but shadows, and high contrast monochrome are probably the most easily recognizable, so these were the two things I decided to concentrate on.
Smoke would have been nice, but as my studio is also my apartment, my wife would have not been happy with a room full of cigarette or fake smoke.
My home studio which is not an ideal shape and size, 15ft X 12ft at the widest part, with an 8ft ceiling height and two opposing walls which are angled towards each other becoming somewhat narrower at the far end.
In the studio I have a JinBei Spark 400 studio strobe 120cm octagonal softbox Two portable flashes, a Nikon SB-700 and a Yongnuo 460 II A 70cm square softbox with egg crate grid Two Yongnuo RF-602N wireless triggers An 80cm Gold/Silver round reflector and a handheld 80cm triangular diffuser A background stand which is 3M wide and 2.
5M tall Various light stands etc Plain white paint on the walls Using a bistro table and chair from my balcony as props, I needed to find a way to create some nice harsh shadows in my studio.
I was not using the egg crate grid on my second softbox so I hung it relatively low to the ground and put the Yongnuo 460 II flash on a small Slik tripod about 2ft behind the grid.
The flash had its diffuser panel lowered in order to spread the light, and I set it at a 1/4 power, with one RF-602N to trigger it.
The JinBei was placed to the subjects left side at a distance of about 8ft and set to 1/16 power using the second RF-602N as a trigger.
Finally the SB-700 was set as a slave in manual mode at 1/8 power and fired through a snoot with a grid to highlight the actors face.
After completing the shoot a little post production work in Photoshop was done to enhance some of the shadows and contrast further.
There is no right or wrong way to do this, it's purely an artistic feeling when viewing the images.
Nothing very complicated, just adjusting the contrast, levels and clarity of the image to get the look I wanted.
I hope this article will provide some inspiration and ideas for your own work.
I, shadows, smoke, the Femme Fatale, these are the stuff of Hollywood's Film Noir.
I have always loved the movies of the 1940's and 1950's.
Something about the dark and squalid world those films created still remains hugely attractive to me.
So today I decided to try to replicate some of the elements of Film Noir in my own work.
A good friend and colleague of mine will soon return to the U.
S from China and so I asked him to be my model for one last time.
First I must say how important a good model can be at improving your chances of getting the desired result.
Steven is not only highly photogenic, but he's also a very creative person which comes through in the images.
Film Noir, has many elements but shadows, and high contrast monochrome are probably the most easily recognizable, so these were the two things I decided to concentrate on.
Smoke would have been nice, but as my studio is also my apartment, my wife would have not been happy with a room full of cigarette or fake smoke.
My home studio which is not an ideal shape and size, 15ft X 12ft at the widest part, with an 8ft ceiling height and two opposing walls which are angled towards each other becoming somewhat narrower at the far end.
In the studio I have a JinBei Spark 400 studio strobe 120cm octagonal softbox Two portable flashes, a Nikon SB-700 and a Yongnuo 460 II A 70cm square softbox with egg crate grid Two Yongnuo RF-602N wireless triggers An 80cm Gold/Silver round reflector and a handheld 80cm triangular diffuser A background stand which is 3M wide and 2.
5M tall Various light stands etc Plain white paint on the walls Using a bistro table and chair from my balcony as props, I needed to find a way to create some nice harsh shadows in my studio.
I was not using the egg crate grid on my second softbox so I hung it relatively low to the ground and put the Yongnuo 460 II flash on a small Slik tripod about 2ft behind the grid.
The flash had its diffuser panel lowered in order to spread the light, and I set it at a 1/4 power, with one RF-602N to trigger it.
The JinBei was placed to the subjects left side at a distance of about 8ft and set to 1/16 power using the second RF-602N as a trigger.
Finally the SB-700 was set as a slave in manual mode at 1/8 power and fired through a snoot with a grid to highlight the actors face.
After completing the shoot a little post production work in Photoshop was done to enhance some of the shadows and contrast further.
There is no right or wrong way to do this, it's purely an artistic feeling when viewing the images.
Nothing very complicated, just adjusting the contrast, levels and clarity of the image to get the look I wanted.
I hope this article will provide some inspiration and ideas for your own work.
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