Night Shooting
- Thread starter STiVo
- Start date
if you shoot at magic hr - keep sky out of frame ... darken slightly in post to your taste in post .. i see you're on the west coast - guessing you will have about 30-45min to shoot ( for it to look real) at this time of year .. the closer you get to the end of that 45 min you will NOT have to darken in post ...
khmuse
Tech Guru
Where is this car in terms of the environment called for in the script? Is it on a lonely road with only moonlight or in the middle of a well lit city?
Shooting the car alone at magic hour could work, but introducing a group of human subjects is going to add a bit of a problem as you will need to radically change the color temperature to get the scene to "play" as night when shot at magic hour. This creates a number of problems with the headlights in scene.
You might be able to shift their color temperature down enough with some CTO so that when you push the scene up, the headlights won't look so blue.
I would recommend that you shoot at night and light appropriately as I doubt that the golden hour shot will work for this situation.
Whatever you decide, test your setup all the way through post to see if you like the results.
Shooting the car alone at magic hour could work, but introducing a group of human subjects is going to add a bit of a problem as you will need to radically change the color temperature to get the scene to "play" as night when shot at magic hour. This creates a number of problems with the headlights in scene.
You might be able to shift their color temperature down enough with some CTO so that when you push the scene up, the headlights won't look so blue.
I would recommend that you shoot at night and light appropriately as I doubt that the golden hour shot will work for this situation.
Whatever you decide, test your setup all the way through post to see if you like the results.
khmuse
Tech Guru
You need to consider the overall illumination level of the outside environment. Typically, you would want a high color temperature hard source to simulate moonlight. Perhaps a warmer source to simulate a street lamp. You would also want to try to take advantage of any practicals on the outside of the house. Interior lights can be practicals if they show through the windows or just a warmer source if they are just shining through window coverings.
If this location is established, you might want to post a still showing the frame size you are trying to cover. If you need to reverse the shot, then it might get to be a bigger job, so you might want to think about how you can frame it so that a reverse wouldn't be needed.
If this location is established, you might want to post a still showing the frame size you are trying to cover. If you need to reverse the shot, then it might get to be a bigger job, so you might want to think about how you can frame it so that a reverse wouldn't be needed.
khmuse certainly is the person to listen to on these things but I will add.... think of the natural way light will work then bump it a little to make sure your actors are lit.
So say a wide shot of the house sees an an interior light reflecting out then to CU people will see the same CT light as natural - so then you introduce your lighting to ensure a lit actor.
So say a wide shot of the house sees an an interior light reflecting out then to CU people will see the same CT light as natural - so then you introduce your lighting to ensure a lit actor.
Joshua Provost
Veteran
You also have those headlights and you can bounce a lot of that light back at the car to light people's faces, if you have no other additional lights. That has the advantage of matching the color temp of the headlights to that on the faces, since it's the same light. No mixed light problems.