Film a night shot...

C

Chax424

New member
Hello,
I'm new to this forum and have a quick question.
Any sudjestions or advice would be greatly apreciated.

I am making a short film which partially takes place in a canyon at night.
A road runs though the canyon, I wont be trekking anywhere, so transportation isnt an issue.
My questions is this:
How do I pull off this night shot?
I am a hihtschool student, so money is a bit of an issue.

I have heard there is a way of filmin night shots during the day, and by using filters ,editing colour and contrast the right way, it can creater a convincing night shot.

Thanks, Chax
 
Yea, you could always use a filter or change the color correction in post, using aftereffects or a similar program. However, depending on your resources, lighting could also help. Are there going to be any streetlights or anything? or is it just a desolate stretch of road?
 
ok. in that case, your best bet might be to set up some sort of light rig with a blue gel, to emphasize the moonlight. although that wouldn't really work if you're shooting in the daytime. Though there are filters available, you want it to at least be sort of dark out before you're able to make it look believable. I mean, if you took a shot at high noon and tweaked the colors in post, it wouldn't look natural, and would probably make everything look too dark. If it's at all possible, try to shoot that part in the evening, so that the image is closer lighting-wise to where you want it to be.
 
In your post you refer to pulling off this "shot", which implies that it's just a brief shot and not an entire scene? In that case:

Assuming that you don't have a bajillion dollars to buy enough light to flood an entire canyon at night (which obviously you don't), I'd say try to shoot at dusk/dawn. When there's just enough ambient light that you can see, but so that any practical lights in the scene (like car headlamps) still pop. i.e. a tad darker than what people call the "magic hour".

Ken Rockwell, who has a very informative photography site, has a great article here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/timing.htm

It discusses getting perfect twighlight shots, and how critical timing is... even just a few minutes one way or the other. So, in your case, if you have more time than money, I'd say the thing to do is to just film a lot as the sun is setting shoot the shot 5 times repeatedly.... then review the footage and pick the one that balances the 'night' look with the 'visible' look. ;)

-Kevin
 
You will be shooting 'Day for Night' and correcting in post; it is a very simple and time tested tecnique

daycanyonfl4.gif
 
hemophilia said:
In your post you refer to pulling off this "shot", which implies that it's just a brief shot and not an entire scene? In that case:

Assuming that you don't have a bajillion dollars to buy enough light to flood an entire canyon at night (which obviously you don't), I'd say try to shoot at dusk/dawn. When there's just enough ambient light that you can see, but so that any practical lights in the scene (like car headlamps) still pop. i.e. a tad darker than what people call the "magic hour".

Ken Rockwell, who has a very informative photography site, has a great article here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/timing.htm

It discusses getting perfect twighlight shots, and how critical timing is... even just a few minutes one way or the other. So, in your case, if you have more time than money, I'd say the thing to do is to just film a lot as the sun is setting shoot the shot 5 times repeatedly.... then review the footage and pick the one that balances the 'night' look with the 'visible' look. ;)

-Kevin
Click to expand...


Thanks a lot.
I'm sorry, I dont know the correct terminogoly. I suppse its more than a shot, its a small scene.
Thanks, that link was helpfull.
 
Woa. I knew After Effects was good, I had no idea how good.
This is incredible, problem solved. Thank you.

One other question:
Should I do the day to night conversion after I edit it.
As in cut the shots and place them in the movie as i would, and THEN to the conversion
or
do it to each individual shot that I'm going to use them place the modified shots (now night) shots in the film?
 
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