Landscape Film Noir
Eugene Atget
On this section of Film Noir, I am focusing on landscapes, the reason being is that landscapes and background were a necessity. In the films, this is the focal point and the landscapes in the sections are all distinctive.
Eugene Atget was a French photographer born in Linbourne 1857. He has a range of landscape photography in Paris. He uses monotones, these being sepia and grayscale. All of his photographs consist of vantage point as he went to take pictures at a certain time of the day in order to achieve his intentions. He went early morning so that the streets are clear of people which focuses on the buildings or streets. His photographs are all isolated and it makes them mysterious, of an obscure nature. Atget captures a totally different side to Paris that people haven't seen, his subject was old Paris and the suburbs. Paris is known for being very beautiful and picturesque. Atget is unique as he has captured the back roads of Paris, the desolate side and this might be reflective to his personality, you could interpret that he might be a introvert person.
By using contrasting tones, a sense of isolation exists and his photographs are rather eerie. He viewed the world in monochrome which made his photographs very successful. There is a consistency of soft light in his photography, this brings out texture, it is made more effective by technique such as an increase in contrast which affects the tonal contrast. The black and white effect draws attention to the shadows.
There was a significant event during the period of his photographs. This was preparations for WW1 which meant that the landscape was going to change drastically. Atget captured history before it was destroyed. His work was very meaningful.
Although he was an amateur, many of his photographs reflect the six rules of photography. For framing the subject, it isn't obvious however, you could say the dark shadows in the corners could be framing it. Filling the frame has filled the whole photograph up and there is no unwanted information. For vantage point, he took it as if someone were to walk down the stairs and the view from the top. Depth of field is shallow and he has considered what is in focus.For rule of thirds, the tree is on the left hand side and the floor is all in level dividing it equally. I believe that these photographs are similar to the landscapes seen in Film Noir.
By using contrasting tones, a sense of isolation exists and his photographs are rather eerie. He viewed the world in monochrome which made his photographs very successful. There is a consistency of soft light in his photography, this brings out texture, it is made more effective by technique such as an increase in contrast which affects the tonal contrast. The black and white effect draws attention to the shadows.
There was a significant event during the period of his photographs. This was preparations for WW1 which meant that the landscape was going to change drastically. Atget captured history before it was destroyed. His work was very meaningful.
Although he was an amateur, many of his photographs reflect the six rules of photography. For framing the subject, it isn't obvious however, you could say the dark shadows in the corners could be framing it. Filling the frame has filled the whole photograph up and there is no unwanted information. For vantage point, he took it as if someone were to walk down the stairs and the view from the top. Depth of field is shallow and he has considered what is in focus.For rule of thirds, the tree is on the left hand side and the floor is all in level dividing it equally. I believe that these photographs are similar to the landscapes seen in Film Noir.
I went to various locations that I felt looked like Film Noir landscapes. I took the photographs all in monochrome as I wanted to get the same effect as usual Film Noir films. I believe that taking the photographs in Black and white built more mystery and this also looked very effective. I took photographs on empty streets and usually the films include one model that is isolated on a street. As I didn't want any models in these specific shoots, I couldn't get the same effect and atmoshpere of seclusion however, I believe that the isolated streets look even more effective. The location that I had taken these photographs in is London, London is usually a very busy place and so I found it very difficult to find empty street. I used different compositions and angles to change the perception of each photograph. By this, I mean when I took it at a low angle, the buildings looks bigger which makes it look superior. I used different compositions within these photographs such as use of line, rule of thirds etc. All the photographs above have been inspired by Atget.
This photograph is one of my most successful photographs from my atget shoot. It was inspired by film noir.What really stand out to me in this photograph is the composition, the way in which the camera was angled captured the street as it was closing in. The contrast between the buildings are very evident, it also adds to the film noir aspect of the photograph, by looking old get glamorous and antique. I could arugably say that this photograph is actually beautiful, everything within the photo seems to compliment one another as well as
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I took this photograph at a low angle so that the light and the building looks very superior, I believe that this angle has complimented the atmposhere that I wanted to create. I wanted create the illusion of a mysterios quiet isolated place. Initially, when I had taken the photograph, the sky was white and so I used photoshop to manupulate the colour and change it ever so slightly to a grey dull colour, this allowed me to create a sense of mystery and exxagerate the depth of this photograph.
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I believe that this photograph is successful in the terms that it looks quite effective due to the monochrome look and the composition. Everything looks very vivid, it looks quiet and the black and white look combines it all together, it all compliments eachother. However, this is also unsuccessful as I believe that the photograph looks very flat, there is no real depth to it. I could change the composition slightly, possible take it from a much lower angle. I used rule of thirds in this composition but I still feel that it is not as effective as I had hoped for.
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Photoshop Experimentation
I used photoshop to manipulate this photograph as I felt that it needed something extra as it didn't look as effective as I had hoped for raw. Unfortunately, the empty street still looks quite modern and there was still people that was surrounding the place therefore, it was not possible for me to take a photograph of an isolated street. As I wanted this to look very Film Noir like, created smoke through layering the photograph, changing one layer to black and chaning the options so that it goes cloudy. I then changed the opacity and the opacity of the rubber and attempted to make it look as subtle as possible.
I did not carry on with this section as I felt that landscape is not my strongest area. The reason why I had taken these photographs is because I wanted to grow a closer connection to Film Noir and I nwated to realise and identify all aspects of this and landscapes was a vital area. I believe that this section has helped me greatly but unfortunately, I have not carried on as I believe are not the best. The reason being is that they are not in-depth and not as effective as I had hoped they would be, I used different compositions and kept in mind the six rules of photographs such as use of line and rule of thirds.