Day for night

When shooting day for night, the scene is typically underexposed in-camera or darkened during post-production, with a blue tint added.

As the light sensitivity of film and video cameras has improved, shooting day for night has become less common in recent years.

[2] (A cultural reference as early as 1934 appears in Cole Porter's Anything Goes where a list song of the same name includes the observation, "and day's night today.")

[3] Photographers in the late 19th century exploited this effect by using various chemical techniques to adjust the contrast and color of pictures.

Yellow or orange filters (Wratten 8 or 15) can be substituted for closer shots, to preserve the performers' flesh tones.

[6] If the scene is backlit by the sun for a "moonlight" rim light effect, faces and other foreground details may be too dark to see properly.

[4] For the 2015 film Mad Max: Fury Road, an unusual variation of the technique was used, in which scenes were deliberately overexposed, rather than underexposed as is typically recommended.

Taking advantage of the dynamic range of the digital cameras used on the production, the shots were then darkened and color-graded a bluish tint in post-production, with the result that detail was maintained in the shadows rather than being clipped, as might happen when underexposing.

Convincing bright spots were added to the streetlights, which are unlit in the original, and the sky was supplied with fewer, wispier clouds.