Even though modern cameras are more advanced than ever at filming in low light, capturing "the night" arguably remains one of the trickiest challenges in filmmaking. Because, when you're filming night scenes, it’s not only about the technical hurdles—grainy footage, complex lighting setups and extra hours—but about capturing the right feel for your film. The vibe you want to have. How dark? How dreamy? How much visibility do you want?
“What you see with your eye doesn’t look the same when you try to capture it on film. You have to expose the film at a certain ratio for it to react in a certain way but that is not the same way you react to it in real life”, Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu’s DP.
To illustrate this, let’s explore how some directors, working closely with their cinematographers, have crafted night scenes that perfectly fit their story.
But before, let’s first understand...
WHY IS FILMING NIGHT SCENES HARD TO GET RIGHT?
Night shoots require either actual nighttime filming or day-for-night techniques, where scenes are shot during the day and manipulated in post-production to look like night.
Each approach has its own pros and cons:
Shooting at night requires high-powered lights while maintaining a natural feel. It also requires extended hours and increases costs due to lighting equipment and crew requirements (Studio Binder even made a whole article on how to survive a night shooting).
Day-for-night shooting, on the other hand, demands precise exposure control and color grading to avoid unnatural-looking shadows, among other concerns. But it’s often the chosen technique particularly when you have to film vast landscapes, where lighting is just not viable.
A tip from cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema: Day-for-night works best when the light source is behind the subject (backlit), rather than shining directly at them (frontlit).In both cases, ensuring actor visibility while keeping the scene dark enough to feel real is a constant balancing act.
Skies are the biggest giveaway when filming day-for-night, often necessitating sky replacements in post.
VARIOUS APPROACHES TO NIGHT SCENES
"Nosferatu" (2024)
As with all his previous films, director Robert Eggers once again teamed up with cinematographer Jarin Blaschke for Nosferatu. And, much like in The Lighthouse (2019) and The Witch (2015), Blaschke’s lighting approach remained consistent—highly motivated and naturalistic, even in night scenes, where he sometimes relied on a single candle to illuminate the space.
“I’m creative, but in lighting I tend to be a little bit literal. There’s a fire in the room, I’m just gonna chose where the fire is gonna be and then embellish it (...)”, he told Variety. “If I want some more, I’ll put some mirrors and I’ll multiply the source”.
So, to bring Nosferatu’s night scenes to life, Eggers and Blaschke leaned on techniques from their previous films, including custom filters that create an almost monochromatic black-and-white aesthetic—without actually being black-and-white.
“I used a filter to eliminate all yellow and red light as well as most of the green. What was left was mostly blue, which made everything look a certain way. In shooting, I’m just trying to recreate the same wavelengths that your eyes would see under those conditions”, Blaschke on Focus Features.
For his take on this new version of the iconic vampire movie, Blaschke was nominated for Best Cinematography at the Oscars 2025.
"Nope" (2022)
To film some of the night scenes in Nope, the filmmakers used a new approach to the day-for-night technique: infrared cinematography. Instead of faking night entirely in post, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema developed a method that allowed him to create believable, visible night scenes in vast outdoor environments—a crucial element for the film’s horror-sci-fi tone.
Infrared was something van Hoytema had previously experimented with in Ad Astra (2019), but for Nope, he was able to push it even further, thanks to director Jordan Peele’s trust in his vision. To achieve the effect, they perfectly aligned two cameras: one infrared and the other shooting on Panavision System 65mm film. This setup allowed them to capture details that would otherwise be lost in extreme darkness, creating a natural yet crisp night feel even in the film’s massive landscapes.
“You use one camera [infrared] to tell you the relationship of the light levels between everything, and then you use the other camera to gather color information and film grain and such things”, Hoytema.
In post-production, the VFX team then merged the two images in a process that, according to Business Insider, is similar to how they colorized old black-and-white movies, but without inventing the colors.
Much like Blashke for Nosferatu, they also wanted to capture how the eye perceives the night, including how the pupil slowly adapts to complete darkness, allowing us to see full landscape under the moonlight.
“We built up a sort of fades-in that are very slow, but that simulate very much your pupil dilation”, he explains.
The VFX team then filmed specific plates of practical lights by night, which were later integrated into the shots. “For me, these little things are really the cherry toppings of the cake. It completes it and sort of finishes it”, he concludes.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Last but not least, George Miller took inspiration from old Westerns—many of which used the day-for-night technique—and decided to shoot his night scenes entirely during the day.
To do so, instead of underexposing to simulate darkness –which is what is normally done for these shots–, the crew overexposed the footage by two stops. The approach was suggested by visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson, who argued that overexposing would keep more detail while reducing noise. Though the idea needed some convincing, a few camera tests settled it. “It was solved right there”, Jackson told FX Guide.
"This [approach] enabled me to create very graphic contrasty images with detail exactly where I wanted it, and a fall off into shadows where I didn't want it", colorist Eric Whipp, on his blog post on Lowepost.
Whipp then transformed the footage in post-production, adding a high-contrast blue tint to create the film’s iconic night aesthetic. This gave the night scenes that almost surreal, graphic-novel look while maintaining clarity. A look ultimately fit for the saga.
The colorist then added that "almost every D4N shot was basically roto'd and had the sky replaced to create the look. It took a few months of fiddly work, but I think the look is different and graphic".
So, in the end, night cinematography is ultimately about creative problem-solving. What types of shots do you need? Is it outside or inside? Do you have a hyper-stylized look or a more realistic one? What is your budget? All these questions come into play when you’re deciding how you want your nights to feel.
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