{"id":62741,"date":"2015-09-29T09:46:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T14:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=62741"},"modified":"2015-09-29T09:46:34","modified_gmt":"2015-09-29T14:46:34","slug":"cinematography-tip-why-day-for-night-is-a-horrible-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/cinematography-tip-why-day-for-night-is-a-horrible-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinematography Tip: Why ‘Day for Night’ Is a Horrible Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thinking about converting your daytime footage to nighttime footage? Think again.<\/h2>\n

‘Day for night’<\/strong> is the process of making daytime footage look like it was shot at night\u00a0by either using a filter, post-processing, or both.\u00a0While there\u00a0are some examples in modern cinema<\/a> of good day for night<\/strong> conversions, usually\u00a0day for night<\/strong> will only give you poorly colored footage that isn’t very cinematic. Let’s take a look at why day for night<\/strong> is a bad idea and offer a few creative alternatives.<\/p>\n

1. You Can’t Shoot the Sky<\/h3>\n

\"Day<\/p>\n

One of the biggest differences between shooting at night and shooting in the daytime is the sky. Shocking, right?\u00a0The daytime sky is, for the most part, almost always going to be overexposed \u2014 even if you are underexposing your subject. This means you will need to avoid the sky if you’re trying to shoot a nighttime scene during the day. It will be solid white, which will greatly reduce your creative flexibility. Sure, you could tint your footage to\u00a0tone down the white sky, but a real night sky doesn’t work like that.<\/p>\n

In most shooting circumstances, the sky at night will be brighter on the horizon and very dark in the actual sky. If you’re shooting day for night,<\/strong> there’s really nothing you can do to simulate this nighttime occurrence other than do a lot of post-processing which will take forever and likely look terrible. We’ll discuss this further below.<\/p>\n

2. Shadows Will\u00a0Look\u00a0Off<\/h3>\n


\n<\/a>\"Day
\n<\/a>Screenshot from\u00a0Surfaced Studio Day for Night Tutorial<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

One of the biggest problems with day for night<\/strong> conversions is the shadows.\u00a0As you probably already know, shooting in direct sunlight during the daytime is generally a bad idea. Your subject will get some very unflattering shadows \u2014 specifically raccoon eyes. Moonlight normally doesn’t work like that. When it does, it still looks strange on camera.<\/p>\n

There will be other weird lighting occurrences that happen in the daytime that don’t occur during the night, like harsh reflections and possible lens flares. On the flipside of this, you’ll also have to worry about portions of your subject being overexposed. You’ll have to crush the whites in post in order to fix this. And as you can see above, that solution will almost always look really bad.<\/p>\n

3. The Color Cast Will Look Terrible<\/h3>\n

\"day-for-night-anim-01\"<\/a>
\nImage from Lynda.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Color is really where day for night<\/strong> conversions start to fall apart. At its core, a day for night<\/strong> conversion is either a dark blue filter that’s put directly in front of the camera<\/strong> or a post-processing technique where you give your footage a dark blue tint.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, no matter how you do it, dark blue footage is not what\u00a0nighttime footage looks like. There are\u00a0a lot of colors at night, not just blue. The example above from Mad Max: Fury Road<\/a> is a great example of poor day for night<\/strong>\u00a0conversions in modern cinema, but then again…\u00a0maybe that’s the point<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. It Will Take a Lot of Time in Post<\/h3>\n

\"Day
\n<\/a>A\u00a0still from Video Copilot’s Day for Night tutorial<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In light of all of the hurdles we’ve mentioned above,\u00a0the biggest challenge to making day for night<\/strong> footage look convincing is the post-processing.\u00a0There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to do ‘good’ day for night<\/strong> conversions. A good conversion will:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Do a blanket color grade\/correction<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Track and replace the sky<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Rotoscope various silhouetted elements to avoid awkward edges <\/strong>(See Refuge<\/a>)<\/li>\n
  4. Selectively track and level distracting elements<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Add\u00a0the film’s specific cinematic grading features<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Even after you do all of this, you’re still going to be hard-pressed to make your day for night<\/strong> look convincing. Even the best\u00a0After Effects teachers out there have a hard time making convincing day for night conversions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Day for Night Alternatives<\/h2>\n

    Sony a7S or a7S II<\/h3>\n

    \"Sony<\/a><\/p>\n

    The good people at Sony are technological wizards when it comes to camera sensors. Case and point: the Sony a7S<\/a>. The a7S is an incredible camera that can shoot under moonlight. Don’t believe me? Check out this video shot by the a7S:<\/p>\n