Day for Night

Day for Night

Stronger optical effects are even possible, such as making a
daytime scene appear as if it were shot on a moonlit night.
Known in French as la nuit américaine (and immortalized in
Francois Truffaut’s ode to fi lmmaking of the same name),
this involves a simple trick. Shoot an exterior scene under
ordinary daylight with a dark blue lens fi lter to compensate
for the diffi culty of successful low light night shoots. If
there is direct sunlight, it’s meant to read as moonlight.
Lighting techniques and fi lm itself have improved since
this was a common convention of fi lms, particularly

westerns, but digital cameras tend to become noisy and
muddy under low light.,the difference between a source image

that is blue and desaturated and an actual night look; if
instead you’re starting with a daylight image, look at the
images on the book’s disc, which take the image more
in that direction. Overall, remember that the eye cannot
see color without light, so only areas that are perceived to
be well illuminated should have a hue outside the range
between deep blue and black.