If you’re not familiar with the terminology, “day-for-night” simply refers to a process that is used to manipulate daytime footage to appear as if it were shot at night.
Shooting at night can be logistically challenging and technically limiting, which is why many artists opt to shoot their night shots during the day, and simply color grade them in post to achieve a night-time aesthetic.
In order to get the best day for night results in the editing room, it's important that your footage was shot strategically.
Showing a bright blue sky with clouds in it will be a dead giveaway of a day-for-night shot, no matter how good your grade is. The same could be said about shooting actors under direct sunlight, or showing any other harsh shadows in your frame.
Ideally, footage captured for a day-for-night process will be shot in overcast conditions, and will be slightly underexposed in camera.
During post-production, contrast, color balance and saturation can be adjusted dramatically to create a realistic night look.
This can either be done manually, or automatically using our new FREE Day-For-Night LUT.
Like all of our LUTs it is available in both .cube and .xmp formats for use in all major editing, color grading and photo software.
You can download the Day-For-Night LUT by clicking here!
Happy coloring :)
