cinematography Filming at Night/Dark

SquaretheJon

SquaretheJon

Hi,

I'm in the process of filming a movie, and there are many scenes in the dark/at night. I try to use as much light as possible for my lens, but no matter what I do or try to do, the picture still turns out grainy. I'm sure my camera is capable of producing great image quality (Canon 60D), but I just don't know what I'm doing wrong when filming. Do I need more light?

Thanks,
Jon
 
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There's probably a combination of things you could do. First off, more light would definitely help. Connected to that is the type of lens you're shooting with. A faster lens will let more light in, giving you a better image. Another option is pumping up the ISO. This causes more noise, but it's helpful up to a point. I've never used the 60D in a dark situation, but you could probably get away with an ISO of 800.
 
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What he said ^.

ISO 800 seems to be the highest that most people around here recommend. Personally, I think 1600 can look OK. Anything higher, and you'll definitely see obvious grain.

So, yes, you need more light. Or, as SinEater mentioned, a faster lens (lower f-stop). Or both.
 
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Have you thought about shooting day for night? If you can figure out how to shoot at night, with as little light as possible, then go for it. But shooting day for night is a good, indie alternative!
 
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A little trick you can use to reduce grain on your image is by fooling the camera to think there is more light than there actually is.

Light the shot as you normally would, then lower the exposure and white balance the camera. Your shot's contrast will be a lot more even when you raise the exposure again. I used this on my first film- truth be told it wasn't an exterior shoot, we shot in studio, but because of the amount of contrast and glare we were getting, as the lights had to the so harsh, this really helped us out with great results.

In terms of keeping it simple, check you have lowered your gain setting when you're shooting, gain=grain. My advice would be not to compromise on lights, if you need them, get them, you will get better results- experiment with placement. If you have to use a more intense key light, consider the use of reflectors on your subject(s) and a diffuser on your light(s). A thought could be even to use a pale blue gel on your key or fill?

What is your setting at night? Street? Alleyway? If you have streetlights nearby, take them into account- if you want more light a tip I could give you is to throw a bucket of water under the street light and you will get a reflection from that, it will aid your lighting. If you choose to use this then obviously continuity is a huge thing!!

Your key to a successful night shoot is in the white balance and light placement in my experience.
 
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Two more things...

NeatVideo is a software that smooths out noise. The free type is found with Virtualdub, but it doesn't do as good a job. Applying multiple instances with different settings of noise reduction seemed to help somewhat.

The color of the light is critical. If you are shooting streetlights with sodium vapor filaments, you are going to get way more noise than if you had a daylight balanced professional light. The sensors are balanced for daylight 5600k (bluish looking). Other colors (orange, yellow, red) give more noise.
 
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