Shooting outdoors day for night

F

furystudios

Member
Okay, so heres the deal. My current shoot requires a few night shots. They are to take place outside at night. I have heard that shooting day for night is much easier, especially since I have no budget for lighting equipment as I am already in debt. The only problem is that I have never done this before. Anyone have any advice on how to go about shooting this successfully?
 
Re: Shooting outdoors day for night

There has been some discussion on this is another thread and I cant find it  :P

If I was shooting DFN I'd:

1. Underexpose by at least a stop and a half or so
2. Color Correct in Post although you can WB to achieve a similar look
4. Shoot at Dawn or Dusk
5. Try not and show the sky (establish night exterior location and then reel in the close-ups

This is just what I would do.  :D
 
Re: Shooting outdoors day for night

And you'd do a pretty effective job of it. That's basically the rules.

Practice, practice, practice. If you can get the look you like, then go for it.

It's tough to do an actual, convincing DFN shoot, and you really don't get much time, the sun doesn't stay put for very long, and dawn/dusk give the best opportunities because the sun is low and gives the best side-light (straight overhead noonday sun doesn't look anything like what Hollywood has conditioned us to think of as "moonlight").
 
Re: Shooting outdoors day for night

Nice work John :)  Only thing I would add is keep an eye out for things that would normally be on at night.. like streetlamps, house lights, headlights, etc. Its ok to use them if they sell.. just make sure they are actually on.
 
Re: Shooting outdoors day for night

Well, if you couldn't tell from the first couple sentences, I was very tired when I typed this post. I forgot to mention the fact that I will be shooting in the woods, which will hopefully make this much easier. Because I will be in the woods, it will not be likely that the sky will be in many shots. Also, we will not have problems with street lights etc. Thanks for all the help.
 
Re: Shooting outdoors day for night

if your going to be in dense woods, you might need to shoot when the sun is a bit higher in the sky, otherwise all of the useable hard light can be cut out by the canopy within a few minutes, if you wait too long.
 
Re: Shooting outdoors day for night

Just make sure to expose more for the highlights and you should be fine. Nothing wrecks a DFN shot worse than overexposed sections of the sky or face.
 
Re: Shooting outdoors day for night

You'll be in the woods so lights aren't an issue. But for those who are out of the woods (sorry about that one), dawn or dusk have the advantage that indoor lights will show up. Mid day, you're not going to get a light shining out of house windows. That's not something you want to be messing with in post. My family and I watch Bewitched on TVLand and they often do DFN. It's really bad. But the lights on the house show up pretty well, so I'm sure it was dawn or dusk. You can be farily sure that in the late 60s they weren't creating the house lights in post. Funny thing, my wife and kids never noticed the DFN, as poor as I though it was. I thing those house lights are what made it believable.
 
Re: Shooting outdoors day for night

Just because I haven't had enough back to back posts on this thread, here's another. For a great nighttime clip with a DVX100:
http://www.linnproductionsmedia.com/
scroll to bottom and click on:

   commercial clips for web

At the start of this, you will see some outstanding footage outdoors at night with the DVX100 (this whole clip is outstanding work with the DVX100 - looks like film!)

By the way, we should get the Linn folks (Carolyn, Michael, and Marc) to join us. They use the DVX100 (among other things) and looking their portfolio, they've done stuff with the networks. Their other site is:
www.linnproductions.com
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top