Noir-Inspired Photos

[I Adore Film Noir]

Inspired by a picture of Bogart

This is wonderful! You have the jaded, seen-it-all gleam in your eye.

 

[I Adore Film Noir]

Very fine photos here!

I'm very new about artificial lighting yet; here some examples I did with photoflood lamp (one #1, plus a screen as a reflector). Of course very far from perfect; this is a difficult task... Difficult to manage the high contrast.

Your second photo is definitely noir. Is she waiting for the cops? Her dangerous partner to split the loot? The man who's blackmailing her?

 

[Atomic Age]

I often use open faced dish reflectors with photo floods. So did guys like George Hurrell.

[/url]

This image was photographed with a 12 inch spun aluminum reflector dish with a 500 watt photo flood for the key light. It is sitting about 4 to 5 feet from the model. The hair or back light was a 250 watt photo flood, in a 5 1/2 inch reflector dish. There is an additional 500 watt light throwing shadows on the background. I used no fill light on this shot at all. However when I do, I often just use a white foamcore board to bounce a little light from below into the eyes.

This image was shot with 2 strobes. The key light strobe was diffused slightly with a Gary Fong light sphere. I used some blackwrap around the light sphere to create a snoot to keep the light from spilling on the backdrop. It sits about 6 to 8 feet from the model. The hair light is a full power strobe on a boom arm above and behind the model. Again no fill light was used on this image.

[/url]

This image was shot with a 1000 watt focusable light with barn doors at set about 10 feet from the model. The hair light is again a 250 watt photo flood on a boom arm. There is a 500 watt flood throwing shadows on the back drop. Also this image was originally color, but I converted it and added a bit of filtration with a photoshop plug in called virtual photographer.

One thing to remember is that the farther back from your subject the key light is, the harder the shadows are going to be. Also I created a black and white setting in my camera that is fairly contrasty. But you have to be careful with this kind of thing because it is VERY easy to blow out the high lights.

I highly recommend two books, Hollywood Portraits: Classic Shots and How to Take Them.

http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Portraits-Roger-Hicks/dp/0817440208/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1299880739&sr=8-1

Painting with Light by famed cinematographer John Alton.

http://www.amazon.com/Painting-Light-John-Alton/dp/0520089499/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299880830&sr=1-1

Doug

 

[Atomic Age]

Inspired by a picture of Bogart

Very nice!

Doug

 

[Marcus]

These are great! I would love to do a shoot like this.