That means you can effectively grade your material to pull off a realistic night look, either using custom adjustments, or automatically using my color grading LUT. One of the tips I outline in the piece above, is to shoot during golden hour when possible, or under clouds/shade to avoid giving yourself away.Īssuming you’ve followed the protocol I laid out in my previous article, your footage will have been shot in a way that is optimized for the day-for-night look. For instance, if you shoot your talent under harsh direct sunlight, it will be virtually impossible to pull off a day-for-night look. The above article outlines the importance of lighting, framing, and other on-set elements that need to be taken into account if you want the best possible results in post. While it’s not possible to perfectly replicate a true night time look without actually shooting after the sun has gone down, you can get relatively close by making the right decisions in production, and knowing how to push your footage in post.Ī few years back, I wrote a short article on the production side of this, which can you read here.

Shooting at night can be extremely costly and challenging logistically, which is why some filmmakers opt to shoot some (or all) of their night-scenes during the day. If you’re not familiar with the terminology, “day-for-night” simply refers to a production and post process that is used to manipulate daytime footage to appear as if it were shot at night.

Filmmakers often ask me for advice for achieving a day-for-night look, so I thought I would outline my process here on the blog once and for all, and make my Day-For-Night color grading preset (LUT) available for a free download.

Davinci resolve 17 free luts