How to Change Day into Night

Day for Night is a technique used in cinema to visually convey nighttime - whilst actually being shot during the day. The reason we can do this is because both sunlight and moonlight share a very similar quality of light, due to their distance and apparent size to us on Earth.

This means there are a few ways we can use daylight in place of expensive lights and setups to create a night scene - this usually requires a lowering of exposure and cooling down of the image using white balance and other techniques, to sell the look of night and how our vision perceives such a low level of light in reality.

This is just one aspect of what can contribute toward a cinematic feeling - check out the other episodes in the Lighting for Cinema A - Z series to learn more about what makes cinema feel a certain way:

Lenses used:

Samyang 24mm t/1.5 VDSLR MK2
Samyang 35mm t/1.5 VDSLR MK2
Samyang 50mm t/1.5 VDSLR MK2
Samyang 135mm t/2.2 VDSLR MK2

Cameras used:

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro
Panasonic Lumix S5 (BTS)
iPhone 15 Pro Max (BTS)

Lights used in the video:

Nanlite Alien 300C
Nanlite Forza 720B

Video Contents:

0:00 How Do We Represent Night?
0:34 Moonlight Looks Like Sunlight
3:42 Day for Night Example #1
4:42 Day for Night Example #2
5:21 Night Doesn't Have to be Blue
5:38 Day for Night Example #3
7:08 Day for Night Example #4
8:45 Wrap Up
9:23 Support me on Patreon

[RobEllisCinematographer]

There is a version of this video on Patreon that doesn't have YouTube compression artifacts :)




Day for Night is a technique used in cinema to visually convey nighttime - whilst actually being shot during the day. The reason we can do this is because both sunlight and moonlight share a very similar quality of light, due to their distance and apparent size to us on Earth.

This means there are a few ways we can use daylight in place of expensive lights and setups to create a night scene - this usually requires a lowering of exposure and cooling down of the image using white balance and other techniques, to sell the look of night and how our vision perceives such a low level of light in reality.

This is just one aspect of what can contribute toward a cinematic feeling - check out the other episodes in the Lighting for Cinema A - Z series to learn more about what makes cinema feel a certain way:

[zaiENT]

the only thing left out/not mentioned is the ambient sound, if you are in a Forrest and you hear birds chirping you will think its day, hearing crickets makes it feel like night.

[NPC_averagemale]

This is insane, I always wondered how they shoot crystal clear night scenes without any noise.

[thehandleiwantedwasntavailable]

Really nice explanation. On Fury Road, we overexposed a little in shooting the day for night scene. It rounded out the highlights which felt more natural once graded down.

[Miika_Ullakko]

One trick also to so, is to let the actor use ND contact lenses so he would't have to squint his eyes. Face expressions are important, because we humans have learned to read faces so well

[HumzaYousafFilms]

One of the best cinematography video that I have watched in my 15 years of career !

[t.l.screations]

Bro you’re giving free masterclasses. Thanks for your every video❤
From 🇮🇳

[rTangle]

The ultimate challenge: Turn Night into Day

[adventurefilmclub]

I'm doing day for night on my second short film, and I 100% found it looks better on a bright sunny day, ideally in a forest to break up the light. The highlights sell the moonlit look so much better than an overcast diffused light day. Obviously keep the sky out of shot if it's sunny, but even then if there are clouds in the sky to pick up those highlights it can look good. The 'blue' look to everything can be a bit of a trap too, as it looks more naturalistic with some colour in the image and a more 'silvery' look.

[TroyQwert]

This video should be a must see for all those Hollywood directors and editors who shoot night at night and show us black screen. 😊

[ThroughtheLensProductions]

As someone who's contemplating shooting a short film next week at a location at night or doing it day for night, this was something I really needed to see today.

[bijan]

It was seriously eye-opening when you pointed out that external lights brightening the face makes the background seem dimmer/more night-like. Super valuable information!

[xx]

Didn't expect to see such in-depth explanation on light and shadow. Gotta save it for watch later.

[FrancoE.Zapata]

Love the video as always, i´ve recently been investigating the technique Jarin Blaschke used in The Northman for achiving realistic nightime, he use a custom made cyan filter and desaturate it in post, it also ment that he had to compensate for the warm tones makening them a lot more red. There is a very cool article in the American Cinematographer about it.

[JumpingJaggi]

This is a stunning look at how day/night converge, thank you for the clear explanation Rob Ellis!

[NovaStrike]

Fun fact: The sun is as farther from us than the moon, as it is bigger than the moon. This is why a solar eclipse produces that nearly perfect ring in totality. This, in practice, means that their sizes are almost indistinguishable from one another. This also helps in the effect.

[baxslatton]

I really really love this. For some reason, I just couldn't wrap my head around doing day for night on a small budget. Thank you for always hitting us with the best lighting content!!

[ekumusicYT]

This seemed to me like the most difficult situation to shoot and grade, but now that you have made a video about this as well, I have a very clear understanding and plan now for future projects with nighttime scenes! Many thanks🤗

[crushedcrystalstudios]

I appreciate the focus on your in camera techniques as opposed to post production. That's a step that I've stumbled on in the past. My team and I utilized methods from example #4 in our latest feature, and it's by far the most convincing day for night we've been able to achieve!

[RajeshMaallah]

I have always known it but this is the clearest practical way to explain it to the masses. I love the concise and to the point nature of this tutorial. I have never seen a tutorial made this good. EPIC!