Film noir lighting - our own attempt

In this shot the light is at a low angle to the right side of my body, the light is mostly on my face and so no significant shadows were created. If the light was held up abit more and tilted, then my shadow would probably show.

In this shot i'm looking straight forward to the camera, the light is at a low angle beside me but also looking straight at the camera. The light is so bright that it then takes centre of attetion, I myself am made into a shadow. If the camera was closer to the camera, then I could have been made into a silhouette.

In this shot, the camera is higher due to it being lifted higher towards my face. This unlike the first picture actually creates a shadow behind me you can see the outline of my hat and head on the wall. This in my opinion was the most successful attempt at lighting for a film noir. If this picture was edited to make it black and white and changed my clothes it would be much more believable. But the main point is that in out OTS this kind of lighting is the most effective.

In this picture the light was also lifted higher from the floor, however it was further away from me.Because the light was at a higher level and higher angle a shadow is created. This shot is good if you need a scene with mid shot.

This picture has a much darker background to the rest and so as a result no shadow was created. This shot is still effecteive if you have a scene which is possibly more sinful.

Film noir is a style of film making characterised by elements such as femme fatales and heroes, lighting effects, frequent use of flashbacks and plots. This phenomenon occurs when the lighting for the shot is directed at the camera from behind the subject, causing the figure, in the foreground to appear in semi-darkness or as silhouettes, or highlighted; with back lighting, the subject is separated from the background.

We decided to attempt creating our own film noir inspired lighting pictures, using myself as the subject. We found a small dark room in the school with lights that we could use at different angles to create different effects. They went well because each light placement created a new look, however they were all in similar places and so the effects weren't changed dramatically. We decided to bring a prop, the hat is intially the kind of hat that you would familiary see in a film noir.