352 Video Digital Communication & Production
Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc.
If no incandescent lighting is used, you
can create the color, exposure, and contrast of
“night” in postproduction. In this situation,
it is often safer to record conventionally
balanced and exposed footage and then alter
it later.
Note that, especially in
Figure 16-33
and
Figure 16-34,
the shot is purposely underexposed about 1 f-stop to
simulate darkness.
Use back-cross lighting. Instead of
directing the main light source at subjects from
the front or part-way to one side, position your
subjects and reflectors as needed to splash the fl
brightest light from the rear (onto hair and
shoulders), while the faces remain somewhat
darker, Figure 16-34.
Frame off the sky. Unless you can
darken the sky with a polarizing filter, use
neutral or high angles to aim the camera
away from the sky, which will appear
much too light for a convincing night effect
(Figure 16-35).
In some lighting conditions, a polarizing filter on
the camera can turn a blue sky dark enough to
pass for night, if it is not allowed to remain on
screen too long.
Include incandescent light. Try to include
some lighting balanced for 3200K in the shot,
such as headlights, a street light, or light
streaming out of a window or open door.
Since the indoor white balance setting will
render this light as “white,” it will contrast
convincingly with the “moonlight” cast of the
overall scene, Figure 16-36.
Figure 16-34. Back-cross lighting from the sun creates
a rim light of “moonlight.”
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Figure 16-35. Including the daytime sky will reveal
the trick.
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Figure 16-36. Incandescent light completes the
illusion.
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