Inside at Night: Three Lighting Strategies

(Cinematic Lighting Lesson 11)

Summary: Lighting a night interior doesn’t have to be a daunting experience. If you follow these three lighting strategies you’ll be able to successfully create the right feel and mood of a interior night scene.

Length: 5:53 minutes

Video Lesson

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Transcript

Introduction

On-location night interiors are one of my favorite scenes to shoot. Why? Well, because it’s almost like being in a studio. You have near complete control of all of the light, and you don’t have to compete with the sun. In this video I’m going to share with you how to create the night look, as well as the three strategies that you should be thinking about anytime you light your night interior.

Creating The Night Look

The Mood of a Night Scene (LC111)

Before you start, remember that the most important thing is to determine the mood and the look of your scene. Obviously, we’re talking about a night scene here, but is it a romantic scene just after sunset. Or the pitch blackness of midnight. Or maybe the predawn light just before sunrise. Once you have the look figured out, you can start developing your lighting approach.

Hard vs. Soft Light at Night (LC111)

At night the sources of light are smaller and more directional. So it’s justifiable to light a night interior with hard directional light. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can’t use soft light; you can, and I often do. But if you want that hard light look, night interiors are a good place to use it.

Angle and Distribution of Light at Night (LC111)

Another thing to keep in mind is that the illusion of night is best created by the angle and distribution of light. At night the angle of light tends to be less frontal; instead it comes from a three quarters back position and you’ll fill from the front. Lighting this way helps push more of the image into shadow, emphasizing that it’s night.

Light Sources at Night (LC111)

Typically, it is really easy to determine where your light should be coming from. Usually, there will be some sort of light source in the scene: a lamp, candle, whatever. If there is a window in the shot, you can play it as moonlight or a street light shining through.

Moonlight at Night (LC111)

Once you’ve decided on the look and the approach you are going to take for your night interior, it’s time to start lighting. Here are three strategies to help you get better results for your night interiors...

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Lighting Diagrams

Tools We Used

Camera / Audio

Sony Alpha a7S Mirrorless Digital Camera
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Lens
Fotodiox Lens Mount Adapter – Canon EOS (EF / EF-s) to Sony E-Mount
Bright Tangerine Misfit Matte Box
Tilta FF-T03 15mm Follow Focus with Hard Stops
Sachtler Panorama 7+7 Head 100mm (similar head: 1006 DV 10 SB Fluid Head)
Sachtler Carbon Fiber Tripod (similar tripod: Carbon Fiber HD Tripod Legs)
MYT Works 4′ Medium slider w/ HiHat
Hollywood Beefy Baby Stand (8.5′) (two, to raise the MYT Works slider)
Movcam Cage for Sony A7S
Sekonic L-758Cine DigitalMaster Light Meter
Sekonic C-700 SpectroMaster Color Meter
Wooden Camera A/B Gold-Mount Plate for Sony A7, A7r and A7s
Audio Technica AT835b Shotgun Microphone (similar microphone: Audio Technica BP4071 Shotgun Microphone)
Wooden Camera DSLR A-Box
Delkin Devices 64GB SDXC Memory Card 600x UHS-I
DSC Labs One Shot Reference Chart (Matte Finish)

Behind the Scenes (BTS) Cameras

Lighting / Grip Gear

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price76 says:
May 8, 2016 at 9:21 pm

Hi guys 🙂

Leaving the set light un-gelled and modulating the light as a technique. Could you explain what you meant by this, I gather you refer to dimming the balast to change color temp to your desired look?

Cheers
Dave
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- Tim says:
  May 9, 2016 at 10:49 am
  
  There are some DPs that like to add various blue gels to their “moon” since traditionally that was the way it was done (especially in the 1980’s). In this video Ryan demonstrates some of these looks, along with not adding any gels and letting the light CCT be the same as what the camera is white-balanced to. Ryan prefers keeping it white and simply adjusting the brightness of the “moon” to properly fit the scene and story. Too much light and it starts to feel like the sun; not enough, and it feels like there isn’t even a moon.
  
  While the color temp changes with some lights based on how bright the light it, this isn’t the best way to reliably adjust CCT since the change is very slight. Also, many traditional lights can’t be modulated very much and instead depend on ND gels and wire scrims.
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price76 says:
May 9, 2016 at 6:48 pm

Great thanks Tim 🙂
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Rich49er says:
July 24, 2016 at 6:54 am

I practiced this on Friday but could not get it right. I placed the light to the side. I tried with a soft box and a hard light source. I put a highlight on the headboard and added a practical to one side. I recorded the scene with a slide movement. Unfortunately it didn’t look good. I experimented by dimming the lights and altering the ISO. Effectively they just offset each other. Please can you advise on how to get better results.
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- Tim says:
  July 25, 2016 at 10:41 am
  
  It’s hard to give advice without seeing what you’ve created. Could you post a screenshot or post a link to your video online? Or you can email us the screenshot/link directly: info [AT] indiecinemaacademy.com
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Ahmedsalem says:
December 13, 2016 at 9:56 am

Thanks for the tutorial , I suggest you add a tutorial about night scene with blocking with long duration , you show us in it the making of the tutorial because night scenes illusion depends on controlling the spill of light , which we want to know to learn , this is missing manual in all of the books , and if indie achieve that it will be very great, also we want to know the lighting ratios in night scene
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rtfilms says:
May 17, 2017 at 4:56 pm

These guys are a true blessing! I’ve learned so much from Cinema Academy team! Great job Ryan and Tim
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- Tim says:
  May 18, 2017 at 2:53 pm
  
  Thank you! We aim to please! 🙂
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