How can you make a daytime shot look like it was taken at night?

Asked 2/7/2011

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I’ve seen movie scenes where the landscape and actors are still visible, but the scene clearly looks like night. How is this effect created, especially outdoors where there are no city lights? Also, what about details like stars in the sky?

lighting white-balance night-photography post-processing day-for-night

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

15y ago

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The effect is called day-for-night and it's particularly common in old movies.

In old movies it can often look pretty unconvincing, but more modern techniques, and stills instead of motion picture, can improve this.

Counter-intuitively, often the more authentic-looking examples of night light heavily use artificial lighting.

It's often characterized by a blueish hue - this can be achieved by white balance - and by underexposure. Boosting the contrast may help too.
Sometimes, day-for-night involves very powerful lighting setups where the lights "overpower" the sun and can provide local highlights. This can be quite effective if done well.
It's often better just to actually shoot at night, or at dusk/dawn, and use lots of side/edge lighting.
Post-processing can be useful in dampening the bright sky (though it's often best to just avoid including any sky) and removing highlights from clouds, etc which are dead giveaways.

Originally by user3422. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user3422

15y ago

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This effect is usually called day-for-night. The basic idea is to shoot in daylight or at dusk, then make it read as nighttime through lighting, exposure, white balance, and grading.

Common cues are:

Underexpose so the scene is darker.
Shift color toward a cool/blue tone to suggest moonlight.
Often reduce saturation and add some contrast.
Use side or edge lighting so subjects stay visible while still feeling dark.
If you control lighting, keep the “moonlight” cool and make practical/artificial lights warmer for contrast.

In higher-end productions, artificial lighting may be used heavily to shape the scene, sometimes even competing with daylight locally.

For stills, post-processing is a big part of the look. For the most convincing result, many photographers prefer to shoot at dusk, dawn, or actual night and then enhance the mood.

About stars: in a true day-for-night shot, visible stars usually won’t be realistic if the scene is bright enough to clearly show the landscape and people. A bright sky and visible stars generally don’t happen together unless the stars are added separately or the shot is composited.

How can you make a daytime shot look like it was taken at night?

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