archived-videos Day-for-Night

M

mad_hatter

With plans to shoot a horror film in the upcoming months, today I decided to try a little "Day-for-Night" tester.

I hope to shoot most of my stuff Night-for-Night (you know, properly...), but Day-for-Night is something I'd never tried before. I've seen it done plenty of times, but I've never been convinced. Having said that, I think the results aren't too bad. I'm hoping this means I'll be able to shoot in the woods, at dusk, and with a little Day-for-Night trickery, get the scene to look like midnight.

Anyway, here's my video. Shot on my 60D, set at f5.0, WB 2500K. Any thoughts? Any thoughts on Day-for-Night, in general? Would you be fooled?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28lZfFLbnkI
 
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Something that might help these specific shots would be adding a vignette around the candle and warmly color correcting it to give the illusion of the fire lighting. As far as the panning shot goes, you have it looking well like late evening. Some standard vignetting and pulling the shadows down a little more will help alot to give the night feel.

These look pretty good though!
 
Thanks all. I agree, it's not quite night, more like late evening. I'll have to work on it. I'll hopefully shoot some footage out in the woods tomorrow, see how that turns out.


Ferguson Films said:
Just remember in the woods Dusk turns to pitch black Night in a very small window
Click to expand...

Sure thing. I'm hoping to be able to shoot the majority of night scenes at night. Lighting shouldn't be too much trouble for what I'm aiming to do. I think my main use of day-for-night will be for the couple of scenes where people will be running through the woods, making lighting more difficult.

Cheers!
 
It'd be more convincing in the woods.

Get Magic Bullet Mojo, it helps a lot to achieve Day for Night
 
anyone have any links to good examples of complete night?

I have a night scene coming up scheduled to shoot in the day, but it's indoors which should be easier.
 
I find that adding bright practicals is a huge part of it. Car headlights, a strong flashlight, etc. When we see that a practical light is being used by the character, it helps sell the idea that it's night time.

Expose for the brighter lights and let most of the rest go black. Highlights here and there help define things without fully showing them. Silhouettes of trees, etc. Perhaps use some rim lighting, if you can.
Some folks spray things down with water. (Particularly leaves/foliage, roads, etc.) You'll get specular highlights/glints, which may also help get the idea across.
 
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Thanks again, people. I've shot some stuff in the woods today and corrected it to night...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhgQeuBYi4Q

I'm fairly happy with it. It was pretty rushed, both in filming and correcting, so some of it's too dark, but some of it looks alright. It leaves me feeling i a little more confident that I'll be able to create a nice day-for-night effect on the shots where it's required.


FrankLad - Yep, I've only got two moving shots in the woods, one of which will have practical lights in the scene. Using lights is an effect I'm aware of, hence the reason I actually shot a candle in my first video. The stationary shots will include a number of flaming torches. I'm hoping to key light with those, and use some battery powerd LED's for fill lights in close ups. Hopefully, that way I'll be able to shoot when it's pretty much dark anyway.

Kurt - I intend to shoot in some woods local to me, possibly the Lickey Hills in Bromsgrove, if that means anything to you...?


I've actually watched 'Kill List' again this morning, which uses minimal lighting in some outdoor forest scenes. I hope to achieve an effect similar to what they get in the last 20 minutes of that film. If I can get anywhere close to that, I'll be quite happy.
 
You can shoot the sky, or any other feature you want. The trick is that you have to track the shot, matte each different element, and correct them each separately. That and the light elements FrankLad was talking about. I see the flashlight in the shot you had, but it wasn't illuminated. Track the light and brighten that up significantly. Also add some glow and maybe some lens flare (sparingly) to it.

I'm sure you seen this, but it's still a great tutorial for showing the case for matting the different elements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggs80H7TMSw
 
Thanks Vegas, I have seen that before. I think its a little out of my league!

The flashlight I had just wasn't bright enough. It was quite a dull day here, but the difference between the light of the torch and the daylight just wasn't enough. Darkening off the daylight darkened the light too! Oh well! I've still got plenty of time to figure it all out!
 
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