Film Noir
Film Noir is another meaning for "black film". Film Noir uses low-key lighting schemes commonly linked with the classic mode which is used in the tradition of chiaroscuro technique using high contrasts of light and darkness. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir.
The audiences view of the typical noir hero was underscored by the use of high-key lighting, the most notable visual feature of film noir.
The audiences view of the typical noir hero was underscored by the use of high-key lighting, the most notable visual feature of film noir.
The use of the low-key lighting techniques was used to inspire the genre. The lighting also helped to define the character’s identity, including tilted cameras to present the images more clearly and a dark atmosphere in which only the faces of the actors were visible.
These lighting effects were used in Hollywood by cinematographers such as Gregg Toland, John F. Seitz, Karl Freund, and Sid Hickox .Classic images of noir included rain-soaked streets in the early morning hours; street lamps with shimmering halos; flashing apartment buildings; and endless streams of cigarette smoke wafting in and out of shadows.
Such images would lose their indelibility with realistic lighting or colour cinematography.
^^^ The image above shows a use of high and low key lighting. Although the woman is in a dangerous place (railway track) the high key lighting is used on the woman’s body and actions.
The low key lighting is used on the train track and to shadow the out the things behind the woman, making the audience more focused on what the woman is doing and why is she is there.
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