Shooting Night Scenes During the Day?! | Essential Tips for Shooting Moonlight

Stay tuned to the end for a chance to win a prize!
In this episode of 4MFS, we have guest cinematographer Natalia Moscoso to show us what her take on moonlight is with the added challenge of shooting this scene during the day. That means we’re tenting windows, heavily modifying light, and using practicals, while adding a couple of lighting gags to our scene. Can we work with the logistics of the location and still achieve the look we’re going for?
Usually, shooting on-location means paying attention to the amount of space and direction of the sun for your lighting. In this case, we’re looking at the amount of windows to the outside. Since we want to avoid a night shoot, we brought a whole bunch of duvetyne and visqueen to blackout most of the windows around our shooting area. The reason we aren’t hanging fabric on all of them is because we want to tent the area outside some of the windows in order to shoot lights through. For our source of moonlight, we use an LS 300dII shooting upwards into a bounce board. Natalia wants her moonlight to be soft and only slightly blue, which can be accomplished by keeping her lights at daylight temperature and changing the white balance in the camera towards 3200K. She also wants to extend the effect of that moonlight source, so she adds an LS 60d shooting through a frosted window, which already diffuses the light. As far as the practicals in the scene go, namely the freezer light and chandelier, we use some Aputure MCs and B7cs, which are connected to Sidus Link to turn on the lights remotely.
We are shooting with the Arri Alexa Mini with vintage Nikon lenses. Natalia adds a ½ Low Con filter, one of her favorite diffusion filters. As the name suggests, it allows you to retain more detail in the shadows while keeping the lenses at their original sharpness, a huge advantage while working with the already-soft Nikons.
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0:00 - Intro
1:58 - Story/Concept
3:02 - Location Challenges
3:47 - Camera/Lenses
6:32 - Tented Windows
7:14 - Light #1
9:06 - Light #2
9:44 - Light #3
10:26 - Light #4
11:03 - Breakdown #1
11:34 - Scene 2
12:17 - Light #5
12:34 - Shadow Gag
12:57 - Whip Pan
13:55 - Breakdown #2
14:09 - Lighting #6
14:20 - Lighting #7
14:40 - Lighting #8
14:54 - Lighting #9
15:33 - Breakdown #3
15:44 - Final Look
16:12 - Outro
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Host/DP: Valentina Vee
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Twitter: @valentinavee
Producer: Moses Israel Guerrero
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Director: Tue Duong
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Episode Cinematographer: Jucel Andrin
IG: @jucelandrin_
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Summary:
Aputure's KZbin channel provides free high quality cinematography, lighting, and filmmaking educational content to help you take your film projects to the next level.

[@ManuShapopi]

It is insane how much value we are getting from this channel for free. Most of us shoot BTS videos, but nobody really wants to share their entire setup shot for shot. These videos completely demystify the entire process of getting certain shots. From lighting, camera, lens choice & angles to crew, set design, location & motivation. It's insane what you manage to fit in a video this short.

[@DennismMaler]

17 minutes for a 4 minute film school was all worth it for the Moses Israel cameo. Great job everyone!

[@DiLeggeBrothers]

I have done a day for night scene before. I used cardboard to block the windows, and my single aperture MC as the moon, the only light I own, and love. It worked surprisingly well.

[@aputurelighting]

Excited to see the result!

[@ondrejjanoska660]

I would definitely approach it at night to save expenses for blacking out the hole house 🙈

[@leeentertainmentchannel247]

This girl is probably the best dp u have ever had on this series. She seems like someone I would love working with. Real focused and knowledgeable with no posing or fuking around

[@BuildABergGroup]

This woman *

[@leeentertainmentchannel247]

BuildABergGroup idk how old she is, she wearing a stupid mask. Also the whole buildaberg group can go burn in hell

[@BuildABergGroup]

@@leeentertainmentchannel247 obviously she’s a grown woman/young lady as she is legally working for a reputable company. Girls are children. Stop being daft.

[@leeentertainmentchannel247]

BuildABergGroup who knows under that stupid mask? She could be a prodigy. U know what I mean anyway so take ur pc crap and shove it. Also, these demons ain’t gonna let u join their bob the builder group so stop being such a desperate fool

[@BuildABergGroup]

@@leeentertainmentchannel247 😘

[@austinwebster6058]

My approach to shooting moonlight on the last short I directed was blacking out the windows with some duvetyne and cooling the camera down to create the blue! Worked beautifully for the effect we wanted.

[@GuimaCarvalho]

I love Natalia’s participation! I never shoot a moonlight scene and this was really nice approach. Tnanks for the class!

[@marissachabria]

This is the best lighting channel there is. Thank you for teaching us so much!

[@aputurelighting]

Wow, thanks!

[@tuckerkanderson]

Love these videos! So much value, and so cool that you bring on guest DP's as well. I quite recently did a moonlit scene, but wanted to use more of a hard light look to get some more interesting shadows. I threw in a blue gel, and a fresnel on a 100d to light it, worked great! Keep producing great content y'all.

[@HooliHelga]

Love these videos. I once shot a whole short film, in which a really long scene was done ONLY in moonlight, because we simulated a blackout, which occurred in the city. It was a lamp outside the window, the talents sitting almost next to it. It was cool and dark, with enough light on the actors' faces in the close-ups, and a nice silhouette and back light in the two-shot. If I had to re-shoot it, a B7c would do when the electricity is coming back in the next scene :)

[@aaronjohnson4604]

Wow! Great tips! thank you. My favs were the whip gag and the fridge look. very cool!

[@aputurelighting]

Thanks so much!

[@xasaintx]

I was doing some still photos for a production shooting all night deep in the woods. 3 convicts huddling around a makeshift fire contrasted with the moonlight - amazing colours! The problem was that we couldn't rely on actual moonlight for the shoot so we brought in a big light that had to run off a generator. Would have been nicer to have some of your lights that could run off batteries.

[@aputurelighting]

True! Moonlight is very dim, and it takes a lot to actually recreate it

[@CHALADEITALIA]

I usually approach moonlight by setting the camera to 3200K actually!! It helps me get so much deeper colors and push bluer and more orange tones. I love it because I can even get away with some ambience light from the sun to hit background and still look blue-ish (on overcast days). Loved the skit!

[@stevenkralovec]

I created a moonlight living room scene using an Aputure MC by putting it above frame on a cstand shining down, to replicate moon light coming in from a high window in the home. This was just to get a little bit of light and (cool) color into the background. I shot at night so I didn’t have to black out the many hard to reach windows. I hid an Aputure MC in a practical lamp for warm color contrast, and used 1 other dimmable tungsten fixture. It turned out pretty great considering how inexpensive it was!

[@aputurelighting]

That's a great, compact technique!

[@Cpk97]

Super helpful! Please never stop making these videos

[@aputurelighting]

Of course!

[@BRGriffin]

I did a night time shoot where the film needed to be a little more gritty, where a hard working father steps outside and looks up at the moon and takes a deep breath. I also kept the source light daylight colored and it worked for the mood really well. No gels. Even in camera and in the edit I kept it the natural daylight color to give it a realistic monotone gritty look. I love the blue stylized look but for this particular short I did, daylight balanced worked best for what we needed. :)

[@aputurelighting]

Right! You have to look at moonlight different with each story you shoot.

[@JLCImagery]

the ice cream girl's look at @16:14 says it all "Too much damn ice cream" lol

[@kato4316]

I like that you show us the light tricks you use, we learn a lot from you all!

[@aputurelighting]

Glad you found this video useful!

[@drmatthewhorkey]

WOW!!! Seeing the planning behind the whip pan was my favorite. I haven't had to shoot moonlight for my humble little channel.

[@rodrigopedras4063]

Super helpful!! Amazing Video! Last time I shot moonlight was on the Exterior but we still brought some light's to the table. We mainly use a big soft overhead light ( An Aputure 300 x at 5600k with a lee moonlight blue filter combined with a 2x2M frame!). I'm doing a shoot this weekend and we have a moonlight interior scene! This video couldn't have come in a better time, I'm definitely gonna be using some of this tips! Mainly the big bounce to mimic moonlight spill. I love you guys! Hugs from Portugal!!

[@aputurelighting]

Thank you! Let us know how the shoot goes!

[@YeahWhiplash]

I was the cinematographer for a short film last month and we did all night shoots in the woods, so I took a 1.2k hmi hooked up to a generator, put it as high as I could in the air and lit the scene. I also decided to adjust the color temperature in camera. In hindsight I wish I used a 600d because the hmi was drawing so much power from our little generator that we couldn't use much fill light or a fog machine without using a less powerful moonlight source. I've been eyeing the b7c for awhile and would love to use them on a future project!

[@ifiwere984]

I have edited myself into movies and TV shows using some of your advice, tips and tricks so thanks!!!

[@MattyBeavs]

The homie Natalia! 😊 👏🏾

[@hytralium]

Making the light blue isn't realistic, but looks super good, and making it white and than blue using the whitebalance is actually kinda genius!

[@dylanproctor9635]

The only problem is shifting your white balance takes away your ability to have warm lights, and I think the dp realised that mistake when she was forced to put an rgb red light in the fridge, rather than tungsten. Definitely ctb the daylight sources.

[@hytralium]

@@dylanproctor9635 you can make your light really really warm using RGB( Like an b7c) and it will Look still very warm, i think

[@soundbreaker2485]

One method of shooting moon light that I like is to have tungsten colored lights playing as the moon & by setting the white balance to that color temp it makes everything look silvery while pulling colors out of the scene. It’s a very interesting aesthetic.

[@ekphotography]

Nice one once again....

[@jacobharrison630]

For most setups I have just made the light blue, but I think in the future I am going to try and mostly shoot night shots by changing the Aperture.

[@CinemaTeacher]

I would approach filming a moonlight scene by STARTING with the backlight! This would allow me to control how much I see of the talent by adding a key light or just letting the talent fall into silhouette. Can I please win a ACCENT B7c?! 😁🙏🏼

[@maythamali]

underrated channel !

[@clairegould8041]

So so clever. Really enjoyed this video. Have to shoot in moonlight for wildlife shots a lot - doesn’t always go well….

[@MaxMRasmussen]

These are great videos. Very educational.

[@aputurelighting]

Thank you!!

[@jimkoral3824]

The lighting was spot on. The wide/master shot probably needed some flags/gripology, but it looked good overall!

[@jaytee1433]

We shot a “moonlight” scene for a candle lit dinner scene in a short film a while back. The film was set in an alternative reality so we wanted to make it look familiar yet unnatural. We pushed the blue more than you would typically in an attempt to create this look and contrasted against the orange glow representing candlelight. We ended up having to tone the blue down in post as it was a bit much, but it looked alright in the end.

[@humbertoteski]

another great episode

[@aputurelighting]

Thanks you!!

[@GlennHanns]

Sometimes putting up ND1.2 onto windows can provide enough exposure difference between interior and exterior to sell night without blacking out the house. When doing DFN I always add an ND to the lens so that I’m wide open and shallow, nothing screams DFT more than deep focus, visually it makes sense. I also like running camera CT at 4.2k which still gives bluish tones from daylight and warmer tones from tungsten. In all honesty I think moonlight has some lavender mixed in.

[@vinniefallico3933]

Love these! Please keep doing them =)

[@aputurelighting]

Thank you!

[@vegardpedersen]

Nice video!!! :-)

[@aputurelighting]

Thank you!!

[@otoshithekid2957]

I exagerated the blue in my moonlight once, thinking it would look cool. I was wrong.

[@c0pyimitati0n]

I'm always confused of how to get the correct exposure for night shots.. whenever I set my exposure the way as I would for daylight, it's always too bright. 🤷‍♂️

[@mohameddjbl2394]

Amazing light

[@crouchie]

Hello! Any news on the amaran lights and when they’ll be available again?

[@jezersek_production]

I really like color look of shots. I would probably do the same moonlithe scene as you because I really love it.

[@isaacmunyemana8092]

Keep moving us to the next lever I love this video

[@aputurelighting]

Absolutely!

[@isaacmunyemana8092]

@@aputurelighting i started film making last year I'm still shooting with my phone but it's all journey but i think may be next video idea can cheap gear(camera ) vs expensive lighting or expensive camera vs cheap lighting that would be helpful

[@JoshAdrift]

Thank you!

[@MikeBSalazar]

Ooo! This is sick. That temperature hack of keeping daylight and tungsten would be a new approach to me. I will consider doing this moving forward. For lighting my bedroom shots, i would definitely shoot my stuff at night and probably bounce lights off the wall and take the approach of using tungsten/warm lights as well for that color contrast.

[@aputurelighting]

It's definitely helpful when there isn't enough gels for each light!

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

@@aputurelighting gels are cheap!!!

[@OfficialTornadoboy]

But who turned the light on?

[@alphaohura762]

Well detailed and fun informative video. Keep giving us great contents.

[@aputurelighting]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

I wish I could work on one of your sets. You are such a creative pro.

[@TMEdits]

thank you!

[@recardosands9948]

As always great info here, but I would love to see this done a bit more budget freindly. Reason being sometimes we dont always have the budget for that much lighting, grip equipment and crew.

[@valentinavee]

For sure! I think there are already so many channels that do low-budget filmmaking tips, so we’re trying to provide something that doesn’t already exist on KZbin.

[@DavidMcCourt]

Dude the whole video is an advert for their lighting equipment. They want you to think you need all these lights to shoot like this.

[@MrVh78]

@@DavidMcCourt hehehe

[@rokolive6140]

Our team was quite lucky when the office scene where we shot the moonlight scene had a glass door with parallel frosted line designs kinda like blinds. We bounced a 120d with a blue gel onto the white wall beside the glass door to film our actress on the other side of the door.

[@kelvinkurniawan07]

I like realistic moonlight, so the viewers can feel naturally and get in to the scene

[@aputurelighting]

Totally agree!

[@Visethelegend]

I don’t really love the idea of moonlight being totally blue like something taken out of the 80s, but neither only white (although that’s the natural look of it). So my take on the moonlight would be something in between (for a 5600k light make the camera something in between 4000-4500k), just a little bit of blueish tone for color contrast and maybe on color grading add a a very little tiny green tint to make it pop. It depends on the scene and the mood obviously but I think that’s how I like to handle it usually. For the quality I don’t have a side if its hard or soft, just what better fits for the mood. This was a great episode btw, love the cinematography

[@tituindia]

When light switched on later to reveal the girl, how can be there shadow in dark room, or is it liberty of cinema, please tell as shadow was pretty strong cannot b created from even moon light reflection

[@btechwalaphotographer]

Once I had created Sunlight using 4-5 light setups of Halogens and had fun creating it with too many low-cost lights although it, took time but worth it.

[@thewildernesshiker-howtose4438]

This is good. Don’t have to make the background blue, just set the camera to a warmer white balance. Easier to get the colors. Excellent.

[@ramtinnazeryan]

Very cool video. although I believe the height of the camera is obvious to be lower after the whipping. I would have kept the camera on the same height. perhaps the composition for the second shot required the change of height! thank you that was very educational

[@aputurelighting]

Thanks for the tip!

[@lyapunov_aleksandr]

Cool!!!

[@gionacalcagnile1587]

Amazing content as always! Probably for a night scene I would film during night (with artificial light ofc), but it depends on the budget

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

Getting cast/crew to work at night might be more expensive. Plus conditiins can change, cloudy night, moon sets. This is more controllable.

[@aputurelighting]

Crew morale is also another big factor to consider when it comes to night shoots!

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

@@aputurelighting I have done sound on a film that shot past 3 am. In January. Outdoors.

[@assylkhanmeldebek5040]

Cool 👍 thanks for you

[@ahmadkhansial]

I would love to approach moonlight as white not blue or maybe slightly blue coming from windows without any bounce but rather very thin diffusion to create more of a stylish look and then contrast it with tungsten practicals to give the scene a bit contrast of colors. Now hope I win😬

[@aputurelighting]

That's a great way to look at moonlight

[@hagelgax9355]

I have to shoot in moonlight tomorrow so thanks!!!

[@arthurtynel5407]

Samee🤣

[@hagelgax9355]

@@arthurtynel5407 Good luck

[@arthurtynel5407]

@@hagelgax9355 you too bro👍

[@aputurelighting]

Let us know how it goes!

[@hiteshsavale8549]

Nice techniques 👍

[@StuartElliottDirector]

I used CTB before to create moonlight, it was too strong, and didn't look real. I'm going to try the white balance route the next time. Cheers,

[@aputurelighting]

Good to know!

[@gordieborg]

I’ve only shot with artificial moonlight. I’d be afraid to shoot with the real deal, less control. 😬

[@deakzoltan2714]

Did anyone notice the shadow in the final film moved the opposite direction compared to how it was introduced in the preparation?

[@FreshSqueezedLightning]

This was a fun shoot, thanks for bringing me on to AC!

[@hamishmckenna]

I did moonlight in a tent as well, but instead of it being blue the director wanted it to look green for a more surreal dramatic look. Ended up looking pretty cool. Also I may have accidentally melted 2 plus green gels together that day... 😬 Oops

[@orelbitan]

Thanks for the video. I shot a moonlight scence and used a blue light, in the edit room I realized it was tooooo blue and had to soften the color temp in post. I think you should be very careful with lighting colors and the WB solution sounds good.💩

[@aputurelighting]

Yes! It also helps to do a small camera test beforehand to make sure your light isn't too blue.

[@orelbitan]

@@aputurelighting Totaly. I lurned it the hard way🤦 I can't wait for your next video. I would love to see more low budget creative solutions, cause I think a lot of us here are indi ''one wo.man crew" video makers...🙏❤️

[@sanilalkuttimon1755]

❤️❤️

[@MrSdbmgarcia]

How long did the initial lighting setup take and how many people were on the crew to accomplish?

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

Hold for lighting! It can take hours. The Sound guy's chillin' at the crafty table, ha ha.

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

I would guess from arriving on set to the start of shooting it took four hours.

[@aputurelighting]

The initial lighting setup took 2 hours with 3 people on G&E. Blacking out windows is a struggle.

[@birkgroven9160]

For the ice cream shot i would've added some spilled moonlight on the wall like in the first shot. The subject feels a bit too isolated from the background and the shot too two dimensional compared to the look established in the opening shot. Otherwice very nice

[@DominusFeles]

Now I want ice cream!

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

Nice product placement too.

[@georginaamo-bediako9184]

Holy grail tips

[@aputurelighting]

🙏

[@HAMZAALI-oh2th]

Hey Valentina. Everything you touch. Turns Into Gold. I’d probably through CTB on my daylight fixtures to further enhance the colour. Would key with Nova with a silk frame with grid on it.

[@ScribblebytesWorldwide]

😂😂😂 yes we've all seen the tap whoosh tap. It's the only camera movement to be recreated live by Warren Beatty when he opened *that* card 😂😂 (Sorry, I had to).

[@samswenson6434]

I tried to shoot day for night outside in the woods, (I guess I thought the shadow of the trees and the overcast would save me). It was a fail.

[@aputurelighting]

Definitely, checking the weather is huge for exterior day-for-night

[@samswenson6434]

@@aputurelighting 🤡

[@Mateo2000G]

I don't know if you can call it Day for Night. "Day for night is a set of cinematic techniques used to simulate a night scene while filming in daylight." Blocking all the windows and essentially creating a sterile studio space is not day for night in my opinion... Now if you were to do this with some natural light left. Then maybe?

[@dopeaffilms]

I love this channel. But can y’all feature POC- black woman DPs. There are so many of us out here. We are out here!

[@DaniGareta]

Great! But there is not real eye contact at all between actors

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

Well done as usual! But please rename these 15 minute film school or something.

[@DariarVisuals]

Stick my dad (a grip) in a condor with an HMI & some CTB in front then shoot it at night lol

[@vincenzocondorelli4622]

Shadows (on the fridge) are too hard to be a moonlight, hair light is not realistic, levels are too high. In general terms, lighting from the floor is not a good idea when doing night interiors. IMHO

[@xx1simon1xx]

"realistic Moonlight should feel soft" Now thats just wrong, you can make your Moonlight whatever you want, but real Moonlight (you wont see that shit in a City) is haaaard, harder than the sun even, and white, as in 5600k white.

[@KevinZJR]

These tutorial videos are too long. Can you produce a shorter, more concise version?

[@aputurelighting]

Thanks for the input!

[@androcci]

I think this shot should have been much better. The lighting was just dead and flat.

[@theindependentcinema]

missed you vee and hope you got vacs

[@juancisneros725]

why dont you upload in 4k?

[@aputurelighting]

Coming soon!

[@The_CSI]

So much talk 🥴

[@benoit-pierrelaniel316]

Fake Moonlight!!!

[@johnrossi8862]

Please, for the love of god. If youre creating faux moonlight please, please do not make it blue. Thank you.

[@scottslotterbeck3796]

It's what audiences expect. Sorry. Use what works.

[@theOfficialOludare]

thank you!