Suggestions?

It still looks like day because there's a large frontal source shining at the actor and illuminating everything in the scene. Night time lighting tends to be more directional became presumably the light source is leaking in from outside or from light fixtures in the room, so more shadows is needed. The cliche way to do it is just to slap some CTB gel on to give everything a slight blue tint to stimulate moon light. Turning on a few lamps and having that in the shot can also help with the illusion. The main thing is to block off all outside ambiance light so the room isn't evenly lit.
 
Gotcha. So I should light it so I have shadows that would be cast from fixtures? Do I need the blue if the scene is indoors at night with lights on?
 
Indoors the blue won't make sense, I wouldn't use it. Make sure no light is spilling from outdoors, since that doesn't exist in your world. If you have black trash bags you can put those in the windows to help isolate your lighting system, I've done that for other types of projects.

Do use blue if the indoor lights are off for whatever reason.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Cassius, that's kinda what I was thinking. Unfortunately yes I do have to shoot during the day. The room I'm shooting only has that one window, and I covered it with a blanket to get that effect. I'll also have an establishing shot outside at night to help "sell" the illusion. Thanks guys
 
It's really not that much more work to shoot during the day. Infact, the extra work is even worth it. You won't get good work out of your crew or good performances out of your actors if you have them up all hours of the night. I can tell you for a fact I don't function very well at 2 or 3 am.

People do this all the time though, and Huy is pretty close on. Maybe try building a tent around one of your windows and then stick either an HMI or a tungsten lamp gelled maybe half or full blue outside. Then you can have some moonlight spilling in to the dark spots of your frame and then just motivate some tungsten sources gelled with some light straw to make it a little bit orange and tungsten feeling. Fill pretty minimally and you'll have yourself some night time.

The whole window thing spilling in is just an idea. I didn't watch the video and I don't know if that's the exact location, but just keep it directional with your tungsten sources and very soft with your moonlight and things should be good.
 
Sorry El Director but it looks like any time of day when you put 2 large sources infront of you with no motivation and just close blinds. Its not hard at all to do day for night indoors its just that that is bad lighting right their. Way to flat you turn into the couch. Put a lamp to the side of the couch and fake the practical with a 150-300 W fresnel with a CTO on it. Position it on a 45 degree angle so it is shooting at the back of your ear. It will create a key light on the left side of your face as well as a subtle back light. Then possibly put a larger source farther away with a half CTB to fake a TV as a fill light and throw it on a dimmer and have someone make it flicker. That is how I would do it.
 
One major problem is your light down below "to cancel out some of the shadows." The key to conveying night (and darkness) is the very thing you tried to eliminate. We need shadows to imply darkness.

What you're trying to accomplish is easier than conveying total darkness. Like Lair said, motivate a source (like a table lamp). You can try exposing for the in-camera source and then use an off-screen light to actually provide light on the subject (or "carry" it). Direction is up to you but shape the light so it doesn't spread light over the whole room.

Also, if you want to incorporate hollywood blue nighttime, consider a subtle edge or back light on the subject.

Good luck.

~~Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top