This photo was taken in Sumner during the Film Noir Workshop.  I had scouted out some locations earlier in preparation beyond the train station and found this alley that connects to Main Street. (See photos below.) I knew I wanted to take photos there.  I called my brother-in-law Gerry to see if he and his wife would be interested in being models.  Gerry has done on stage theatre acting for many years so I knew he would have that special acting mode for my photos.

I knew the brick wall in the alley would make a good background to work with for these photos.  After a couple of test shots, I decided to have the flashes at about a 45-degree angle off the left side of Gerry.  This created the large shadow onto the brick wall.  It also caused his glasses to reflect some of the flash light becoming solid white.  I knew I wanted harsh light lines in the photo and captured many of those throughout the photo. I think this guides your eye through the photo.

I used two flashes vertically handheld by an assistant.  I used a Sigma 17-70 lens,  set to 19 mm with the following camera settings:

ISO 100 1/125 sec at F2.8 and I used my tripod, of course!

I shot this photo RAW.  I knew when I started to do post work that I did not want to make it Black & White.  I used Photoshop to pull it more Reddish Brown & White to pull the brick wall and Gerry into similar colors.  I did crop it down from the original size to give it more of a portrait look.

I have always liked the look of Film Noir.  The light and the shadows playing together to bring out the story of the photo is fun.  I shot 62 photos including this one that night.  It was fun!