Evaluation

For this assignment our topic was on film noir which is a very old fashioned genre of films, books and photography that is based in the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Many of these film noir films were used for the use of crime and the unique thing about the film noir genre is the use of the black and white low key use of lighting and unbalanced compositions. The film noir normally displays absurd attitudes and behaviours along with sexual motivations. At the time the film noir genre was popular was during the great depression. The setting of film noir is usually in suburban settings as film noir was mostly based on crime. Also film noir involved femme fatale which is a mysterious seductive woman persona who is normally one of the main characters. In the film noir they normally use corresponding little things for example, suits for men to be wearing, seductive dress wear from the woman, hats, smoking pipes, alcohol, drugs, weapons, and violence. 

I researched film noir films in general and looked at different images that I thought were easy to replicate and try to photograph. I looked through hundreds of photo's and saw that more or less the same props will be needed. However the final 4 images that inspired me are these 4 below. I really liked how every shot was different and looked quite easy to replicate. I thought in mind that these images will be simple to do and that I am capable of producing. I like how they're all different in ways that make all my images stand out. For example I like the use of the hands create the dark looking shadow, I like how the use of the one lighting at the top makes the effect of the person look mysterious, I like the reflection just in general being a reflection and in general I couldn't find another image so I just went with the old style sofa they would have used in the 1940's - 1950's. 



The main uses of lighting for film noir is the use of the strong keys and back light as the aim is to exaggerate the contrast to make the low light key look. The use of the hard and soft lights will create the mysterious shadow effect. The use of barn doors with a light would also make an effect of highlighting a key part of someones face or make a certain feature stand out more than others or darken features that dont want to be seen by moving the lighting on the right place. The three light technique starts with the key light that is the main light used in the technique, there is the fill light that is used for secondary lighting and is placed opposite the key light that is used to fill the shadows from the key light. The final light is the back light which is placed behind the main object of the photograph and lights it from the back and highlights the outlines of the object.

My ideas for my photoshoot were to recreate the 4 images above. I was going to re create the shadow with the hands and the sofa shot within the college. I knew exactly what I was going to do and what locations in the college I would need. I knew that I could go to a dark room in the college and take two people with me to use them for help with taking the photo and then making the flashlight effect so I can make the image look more accurate. I knew that I could just use a place in the college that there was a sofa and at the time all I could think of was using the black ones in the waiting area where students wait before going into lessons. My ideas were to take the mirror reflection image outside of college and get someone to take the image for me. I then had the idea of taking the man walking up the stairs image out of college as I knew where I could take it so that the images would sort of look a like.

The things I had to take into account for the first image with the stairs is that I would have to go out and capture it at late at night so that it would be quiet dark so I would go out around 8/9o'clock ish, I would have to take into account that I would need a light at the top of the stairs to create the key light, I would need the use of a flashlight for the use of the backlight to make the outlines stand out of the person modelling. I would need to take into account that I would need the props of a film noir style hat and a long coat and the final thing I would need to take into account would be the narrow stairway. For the sofa image the thing I would need to take into account would be the need of needing a sofa in general really. I could also take into account that I could need a use of a light being the role of a fill light at the side of the sofa and maybe a key light. For the shadow picture the things I had to take into account was the use of a flashlight doing the role of the key light to create the shadow. I would need a dark room with no natural lighting as it would effect the image, and I would need a model which would be me. For the last image I needed to take into account that when taking the shot it would need to be took as a close up shot, that it would need a flash light being the role of the key light, I would need either a mirror or window for the reflection effect and again I would need a female model.

For the test shot's for the stair shot, I took action with having the props of a long coat and the film noir style hat for the photograph, I took action with having a location with stairs and the use of a key light at the top of the stairs like in the original image, I took action with going out when the natural lighting was low and was around 9 ish o'clock. I got one of my friend's to help me with the effect of the back light as she shone a light behind the camera whilst shooting to get the outlines of me whilst I was modelling for it. I couldn't take action with having a male model so I tucked my hood into my coat and It made it look like I had broad shoulders so I looked in some sort of way masculine and I didn't take the image in landscape like the original, I took it in portrait instead. For the mirror reflection image I forgot to take it outside of college so I just took it within college as it wasn't hard to do. I took action with having a female model as I borrowed a class member to help. I took action with having a mirror to do the reflection effect and then I used the effect of taking a close up in landscape. For the sofa image I took action with having a sofa prop as there was one within the college, lucky for me there was a sort of burgundy red sofa so it made it better for my photograph rather than shooting a black one. However I did not take action of using any lighting techniques for this one. For the final test shots with the shadow image I took action with having two people to help me as I borrowed two class members to help, I took action with having a dark room with no lights on, I had someone holding a flashlight of there phone for the key light in front of me to make the shadow effect and I took loads of different images holding my hands in different ways so I had a different style of shot if I preferred. However the only thing that went wrong is that whilst Dom was taking the photograph's is that my head was in the shadow and not just my hands and arms alone.

For the final image of the sofa shot I edited the brightness and contrast of the image as I didn't use any form of lighting technique so I just edited the brightness and contrast until the photograph looked lighter. For the final image of the mirror reflection shot I messed around with the brightness and contrast again to make it look sort of dark ish and I then changed the image to black and white to match the original. For the final shot of the walking up the stairs I just again messed around with the brightness and tried to make the image better but in the end I couldn't alter it. Then finally with the last final shot of the shadow I used the morph effect and tried to push out the shadow of my face a little and I used the effect of cutting out a similar looking shade of color and just putting it over the shadow I didn't want so It looked like the facial shadow wasn't as bad as it was. I used the crop tool to crop out the unneeded parts of the image. Then finally I made that image black and white to match the original.
Here are the finished edited images I had shot and edited in photoshop.

If I was to do this again I would manage my time keeping and shoot the images earlier than I did as I fell behind and had to shoot 3 in college and just 1 outside of college. I would manage my time keeping with all the tasks infact as I fell behind massively and had to quickly put together a poster for the film noir on photoshop and make contact sheets as I think one week I forgot my SD card so I couldn't get the images so I fell behind then when that was the week everybody else was making their contact sheets and posters. I would spend less time on researching because I researched too much and used up alot more time than I should have. I would look more into the settings in which I took the images on because if im honest I had no idea what setting's I used at all. I would have looked at the images before shooting them as I looked before but I couldn't get an exact image from memory so I had to just stick with the images I had taken and I think that's where I was lacking making the images more accurate as some of the images I had taken was needed in landscape or portrait and I had taken them the wrong ways, I had taken them from the wrong angles, forgot about the lighting I needed so I was definitely take a copy of the image with me before I shoot it. I learnt that I need to manage my time keeping more as I lacked it more than anything and I had to keep catching up. I learnt that timing of taking the photo's is important because of the lighting that's needed by natural lights. In general I learnt from my mistakes last time I did the first assignment and improved but again I can improve on my mistakes this time round and make my next assignment more efficient. 

In my opinion my final images are ok but I would have wanted to have done better but I had to adapt to what I had taken instead of fussing and messing and wasting time when other things needed to be done. For my sofa image that has been edited I think that one looks sort of alike to the original. I think the picture of the person walking up the stairs could have been better as I didn't use a professional camera when I should have so the detail isn't as good as it could have been. The use of the key light was also brighter than I thought so it effected the picture. The shadow picture I couldn't remember the way the original was holding the hands so I had to think randomly and just hold my arms out and also the photographer didn't know exactly what shot to capture as I didn't know myself as I could visually remember it. The reflection image in general I was happy with so I dont mind how that turned out. In my proposal they match with what I wanted to do and that every image I wanted to shoot and re create I did. The only thing I didn't plan was taking the extra shot in college rather than out as I didn't manage my time keeping but that is what I will improve on next time. I didn't plan my cover for the film because I didn't again manage my time keeping but I managed to create one and throw it together quickly and I like the outcome of that.