The Concept: Portrait of a Sin City Detective
Model Sebasteaan van Arnhem portrays a Sin City detective in this dramatic portrait. This black and white, neo noir style portrait is part of the Sin City photo session. The photo session was inspired by the movie Sin City and organized by Megan Alter‘s workshop series. The photo session took place in the Haarlemmerbuurt neighborhood of Amsterdam. As part of Megan’s team of instructors I was responsible for teaching photographic lighting concepts to the participants. In addition to participating as an instructor I had the chance to work as a photographer and to develop my own work.
The inspiration for my personal work came from the film noir and neo noir cinematic styles. These are characterized by low-key lighting, hard shadows, dark tones and black and white photography. In order to prepare for the photo session I spent some time watching the movies, studying lighting patterns and lighting techniques. In addition, to help develop my ideas I study the characters and their stories in both movies.
Scene and Lighting
To light the scene for this portrait I used a single, relatively small light source. To set the key light I used a Nikon SB-910 speedlight, positioned on the right-hand side of the model’s face. My goal when lighting this portrait was to bring a sense of mystery, suspense and drama to the scene. So what I did to achieve this was to light the subject from one side, leaving part of him in darkness. To setup the mood of the scene I asked the model to turn his head slightly to his left while looking straight at the camera.
Model: Sebasteaan van Arhnem
Other portraits in this series include: a Black and White Portrait of a Sin City Detective and a Suspicious Man Hiding Behind Wall.