Night Time Lighting Techniques

[Njen]

When lighting a night scene, it is wise to keep in mind how most live action night scenes are lit. For many, many years, live action night scenes have usually been lit with a very bright rim light, and perhaps a soft blue fill coming from the opposite direction. We have seen this style of lighting so often in movies and on TV, that even though it usually does not make any sense logically, this setup instantly portrays a night scene.

So my advice is to not go against the years of night time live action lighting setups and to so something very similar. Over exaggerate the amount of light the moon gives off onto the objects in your scene. Or if you don't see a moon, don't be scared to whack in a high intensity rim light. Remember, lighting is mainly about defining shapes of objects, but not the whole shape. Our minds do a wonderful job at filling in the blanks. A curve here and there can sometimes do more for your image than to out line the entire object with a rim light.

I hope that helps.

[gringer]

Thanks for that, much appreciated. :D

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