Day for night

While I don't think this is a perfect tutorial, it isn't bad either and can get you going in the right direction:
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/day_to_night_conversion/

I find that shooting day for night is usually bad for outdoor scenes. To pull it off right, you need that production design team to color physical objects properly and that just costs a lot of money and work.

If you have no way of shooting properly at night, these are the things I suggest doing:
1. Go with a photo camera to the location and take photos of it at night proper. You need to understand how the place actually looks at night. Study where light sources come from, as opposed to daytime. Look at which colors show up and which don't - particularly which colors are seen on close objects and when things begin going completely black/very dark blue and further objects. You will want to mimic all of these things in post and it will take dedication and time, probably a lot of rotoscoping to go around if you don't physically color things on set.

2. If you are shooting on a day with clear skies, you will have trouble with sharp shadows on all objects lit by the sun. You must use anything you can to soften/get rid of those sharp shadows. It will be tougher, the wider the scene is. I would put a 8x8 (or larger) over the scene to cast a large shadow over everything, and bounce back in some light from the sun if needed.

3. Prepare to spend days on post production just to properly color this scene.
 
If you are trying to make it look exactly like or very closely to a real night. Usually it's done as a cost saving measure and can look very good even though it doesn't look that realistic. You can see it on TV-shows all of the time if you know what to look for.

I can't remember which film it was, but when working in Universal Studios, I was told that a film once shot on the New York Street lot day for night. They colored all the buildings in black paint! That's crazy.

It doesn't always save shooting day for night; if you are doing the post work for free, than yeah, it will save money if you have endless time to work on it then. However, if you have a very complex scene, with plenty of camera movement, a lot of wide shots in an complex area, you might end up being better off just renting the equipment.
 
You can achieve a fairly decent look by simply white balancing on an orange card instead of white card (like a manilla envelope). This is essentially what that video was suggesting. Although moonlight isn't blue per se, we have all come to expect moonlight to be blue in movies, so it works.

The biggest problem is the sky, no matter how you expose or adjust in post, it will still be lighter than the rest of it. If you've shot with a high quality 444 camera, and the sky was clear, or if the horizon is fairly easy to roto out, you can key it and replace it. Or just apply a filter to it to make it dark.

The softness of the shadows I don't necessarily agree with, the moon is still far enough away that it is essentially a hard light like the sun, just with a lower intensity. Of course, as with the sun, the diffusion will be directly affected by the cloud cover, and that definitely should be taken into account when you do your sky replacement, if any.

Night is tricky. D4N is tricky to pull off, real night is expensive and requires lots of planning, lights, power, cameras that can pull it off, etc.

CraigL
 
Lot's of movies do it, but they do it with an experienced visual effects supervisor in the mix. If you hire experienced pros they should be able to pull it off and save you money vs actually shooting at night. Though done right, shooting at night is almost always better.
 
I searched for Day for Night, but couldn't find any threads about it....

I hate to be the one to say this, but clearly you didn't look hard enough. I'd estimate that there is at least a million threads about day for night here (one of which is mine!). The search function of the forum isn't perfect; it doesn't recognise three-letter words. But searching for just "night" finds plenty of threads. Even better though, a quick Google search reveals plenty. Try Googling: indietalk "day for night".
 
I hate to be the one to say this, but clearly you didn't look hard enough. I'd estimate that there is at least a million threads about day for night here (one of which is mine!). The search function of the forum isn't perfect; it doesn't recognise three-letter words. But searching for just "night" finds plenty of threads. Even better though, a quick Google search reveals plenty. Try Googling: indietalk "day for night".

you need to work on your google fu

try this instead..

"day for night site:indietalk.com"
it will restrict your search to the domain

;)
 
I hate to be the one to say this, but clearly you didn't look hard enough. I'd estimate that there is at least a million threads about day for night here (one of which is mine!). The search function of the forum isn't perfect; it doesn't recognise three-letter words. But searching for just "night" finds plenty of threads. Even better though, a quick Google search reveals plenty. Try Googling: indietalk "day for night".

You are right. I don't have all day to try and dig around here. Obviously there are people on here all day who know where everything is...

Too busy to share your link?
 
"day for night site:indietalk.com"

Nah... That would take an extra two seconds to type....


You are right. I don't have all day to try and dig around here. Obviously there are people on here all day who know where everything is...

Too busy to share your link?

Not too busy, no. But it would be much quicker for you to click my name and find it, than it would for me to do it for you, then post the link here. Did you Google it yet?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not having a go because you asked a question; you're absolutely entitled to. That's what forums are for. But you said you'd searched and found nothing, so I've tried to help you out on that front. That's all. And it'd be much quicker for you to Google it, than it would for anybody else to do it for you, then have to share the links.
 
Nah... That would take an extra two seconds to type....




Not too busy, no. But it would be much quicker for you to click my name and find it, than it would for me to do it for you, then post the link here. Did you Google it yet?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not having a go because you asked a question; you're absolutely entitled to. That's what forums are for. But you said you'd searched and found nothing, so I've tried to help you out on that front. That's all. And it'd be much quicker for you to Google it, than it would for anybody else to do it for you, then have to share the links.

This exchange brings up a really, really good point... I know from various forums that information gets buried quickly and that the search function sucks. Heck, even searching on google sucks. I've done quite a few searches regarding video production and so many results coming up with outdated info.... ah well...

All that said, I know that this forum is categorized... but is there a way to tag posts? Like with some subcategories?

As we all know... video production eats up a lot to time... surely there is a way to make the information more accessible here?
 
All that said, I know that this forum is categorized... but is there a way to tag posts? Like with some subcategories?

No, you can only tag threads upon creation. Not individual posts.
Every time you click 'search' there is a tag search there a little lower.

but no one ever tags their threads so it's useless :yes:
Many times you're better off in an advance search and searching title only.. because otherwise tons of unrelated threads come up
 
Day for night videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z13xHXlNW9w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2nD6dH26RU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK1jhiBi2QY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RWl27LlJR8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIVTyztlWLI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CH11N8OHFs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPzzvdYklDo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RRh7NmXXp8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2xOhbT1V2A


Various articles and explanations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_for_night
http://www.videomaker.com/article/10368-shooting-day-for-night
http://www.videomaker.com/article/8150-hollywoods-dark-secret-shooting-day-for-night
http://www.steves-digicams.com/know.../production-how-to-shoot-day-for-night.html#b
http://film-lighting.wonderhowto.co...ht-and-night-for-day-for-movie-making-161973/
http://www.microfilmmaker.com/tipstrick/Issue12/sht_ngt.html
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-shoot-day-for-night-in-your-dslr-film.html


Programs you can use to achieve day for night through grading:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/
http://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html
http://hitfilm.com
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve

Filters:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/613132-REG/Tiffen_77CDFN_77mm_Day_for_Night.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/683376-REG/Cavision_FTG4X4DB09_4_x_4_Day.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/657579-REG/Formatt_BF_72_2_COOLD_72mm_Cool_Day_For.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/668932-REG/Formatt_BF_77_3_COOLD_77mm_Cool_Day_For.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/613238-REG/Tiffen_52CDFN_52mm_Day_for_Night.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/748736-REG/Tiffen_55CDFN_55mm_Day_for_Night.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/613088-REG/Tiffen_58CDFN_58mm_Day_for_Night.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/613123-REG/Tiffen_62CDFN_62mm_Day_for_Night.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/751788-REG/Tiffen_67CDFN_67mm_Day_for_Night.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/613125-REG/Tiffen_72CDFN_72mm_Day_for_Night.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/613120-REG/Tiffen_82CDFN_82mm_Day_for_Night.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/683373-REG/Cavision_FTG4X4DB06_4_x_4_Day.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/683377-REG/Cavision_FTG4X4DB12_4_x_4_Day.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/702783-REG/Cavision_FTG4X5_65DB03_4_x_5_65_Day.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/702789-REG/Cavision_FTG4X5_65DB06_4_x_5_65_Day.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/702790-REG/Cavision_FTG4X5_65DB09_4_x_5_65_Day.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/981574-REG/cavision_ftg4x565db1_2_4_x_5_65_day.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/655952-REG/Formatt_BF_3_1_MONOC_Day_for_Night_Monochrome.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/655958-REG/Formatt_BF_3_1_COOLD_Day_for_Night_Cool.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/buy/Day-for-Night/ci/17472/N/4026728344

Threads:
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?p=78096
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=18840
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=25332
http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=41679

Tips:
Avoid the sky
Make sure not to overuse
The image should be flat with little contrast
Don't over or under saturate
Lights (such as headlights), should not have a blue tint
Don't push the blues too far
Watch some bad and good day for night videos, and see what bad them good/bad
Make a secondary color grade for the sky, darken, and feather. Then correct the whole image, and add in lights if there are lamps or car headlights, etc. etc. etc. in the scene.

D4N is hard to pull off, even with the technology we have now. Even the slightest difference can ruin a scene and can ruin the believability of the film. Very hit or miss.
 
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