Renowned cinematographer Tristan Nyby tells Robert Shepherd about his approach to lighting and capturing the highly anticipated horror sequel, The Nun II
By Contributor
Published: September 11, 2023 Updated: September 12, 2023
Renowned cinematographer Tristan Nyby tells Robert Shepherd about his approach to lighting and capturing the highly anticipated horror sequel, The Nun II
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Tristan Nyby boasts an impressive horror legacy, having previously worked on notable films like The Dark and the Wicked and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Therefore, it made sense when Australian filmmaker James Wan and director Michael Chaves enlisted him as the cinematographer for the eagerly-awaited The Nun II.
This gothic supernatural horror not only carries forward the storyline that was introduced by its 2018 predecessor, The Nun (stylised as HE NU ), but it's also the ninth instalment in The Conjuring Universe franchise.
The films offer a theatrical portrayal of the actual experiences of Ed and Lorraine Warren, renowned paranormal investigators and authors linked to well-documented, albeit contentious, instances of supernatural phenomena.
The Nun II film showcases the return of familiar faces such as Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, and Bonnie Aarons, reprising their roles from the first instalment.
Taissa Farmiga as Sister Irene. All photos by Bruno Calvo. Taking place four years after the events of its predecessor, the film delves into the journey of Sister Irene as she encounters the malevolent entity Valak, also known as the Nun, once more. On this occasion, the unsettling confrontation occurs within the confines of a boarding school located in France.
When it came to lighting the film, Nyby aimed for an unfiltered horror experience, free from excessive gimmicks. His practical lighting choices contributed to the movie's grounded and visceral essence, intensifying psychological and emotional terrors with raw authenticity.
I knew I wanted to keep a natural feel to keep the audience grounded in reality, he explains. The more realistic the lighting and more familiar the world is, you can build tension through what you don't see and the scares have a strong impact.
Whenever possible, Nyby would motivate light through windows or use practicals and the team utilised a wide assortment of fixtures. Large HMIs and tungsten units pushed light through windows and smaller led fixtures augmented light from practicals. For night exteriors on the city streets, I often only used sodium vapour practicals and embraced the darkness in between, he continues. We tried to light actors' faces with Tungsten units rather than LED, wherever we could.
To keep the film visually cohesive, it was a modus operandi they adhered to throughout. Our aim was that through the entire film, the lighting should feel natural, he adds. When supernatural forces were at play, we used a slightly more elevated and stylised lighting but still grounded in reality. It felt really important to ensure we didn't go too far with any stylised lighting, so that it didn't feel forced. Just a slight change when the supernatural elements show themselves to enhance the moment.
The Sony Venice 2 was Nyby's choice of camera for the production, primarily because of the low light sensitivity it offers. What's more, he says the kit stood out from the rest because of its great colour rendition with natural skin tones. I often shot at 3200 ISO and was able to rely on low light practicals even candle light which lends itself to the naturalistic feel we aimed for from the start, he adds.
Nyby shot with a mix of Panavision anamorphic lenses, because he and Chaves both love the nostalgic movie feel that anamorphic lenses create as well as the widescreen format. We used G and E series primes and T-series zoom lenses and most of these lenses were fairly sharp but still have a depth of character, he says.
When it came to VFX, Nyby says he felt it was important that it blended in as seamlessly as possible. There are a number of supernatural fire effects throughout the film, he explains. These were done by shooting separate fire elements and compositing them into the scenes. My gaffer Michel Mitch' Bouquerel built a few different fire rigs to simulate a fire effect on our practical sets.
Forging an unsettling atmosphere stands as the very bedrock of any formidable horror production. Nyby divulges that he and Chaves orchestrated protracted, tension-laden sequences throughout moments imbued with the supernatural and spine-chilling elements.
Slow pans and intentional camera movements were used to create a feeling of unease, he continues. In some ways it is like the camera is its own character. In the school, there are a few scenes that take place in a stairway that is four stories tall. The key grip Michel Strasser built a rig that enabled the camera to move vertically through the entire staircase. He used a series of ropes hung from the ceiling to move the camera on a Ronin 2.
There were also key considerations that went into selecting the colour grading for the film, to enhance the story and relationship between Sister Irene and Valak.
We did the colour grading with colourist Alastor Arnold at Fotokem and we tried to stick to the same naturalistic feel that we aimed for when shooting, Nyby continues. We didn't drastically change the colour from what we originally shot. We only used the Sony LUT while shooting and tried to keep the colour grade in line with that.
Sleep tight.
The Nun II was released in cinemas across Europe on 8th September.
Most recent headlines
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Barack Obama Includes Laufey on His 2025 Favorite Music List The former presidents roundup of books, music, and movies includes a song from the Berklee alums ...
20/12/2025
Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys Scripps Research scientists identify the protein that helps kidney cells regulate renin, providing foundatio...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
19/12/2025
Gamified fun: Channel 5 on its NFL Big Game Night ambitions with Hungry Bear Med...
19/12/2025
College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic Yet Familia...
19/12/2025
AWS's Jason Dvorkin on Developing Partnerships With the NBA and PGA Tour, Em...
19/12/2025
Netflix Kicks Off Packed Sports Week with Paul-Joshua Fight Before Shifting to N...
19/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Nareev Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
19/12/2025
Mounted to the pylon of an AH-1Z Viper helicopter, a Red Wolf vehicle successful...
19/12/2025
L3Harris technology for the SDA Tranche 3 Tracking Layer program will provide in...
19/12/2025
Partnership brings Nielsen ONE measurement activation directly into XR's adv...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Berklee Announces Spring 2026 Signature Series This season's highlights include the Gospel Extravaganza, the 40th International Folk Festival, special gue...
19/12/2025
Performing arts centres across the globe have doubled down on live production infrastructure in recent years. For venues like the Queensland Performing Arts Cen...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
Renowned cinematographer Tristan Nyby tells Robert Shepherd about his approach to lighting and capturing the highly anticipated horror sequel, The Nun II 
