How To Light a Car Scene at Night

Home Applications How To Light a Car Scene at Night

Garrett Sammons Garrett is the Creative Director at Nice Shirt Media and part-time film professor. With a primary focus on commercial cinematography, he also creates narrative and documentary films.

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Written by Garrett Sammons

As a cinematographer, the challenge of transforming ordinary environments into extraordinary settings that tell captivating stories is exciting. In this blog post, I will share how we converted a bright, sunlit garage into a moody, rainy night-time scene for a car shoot. Though we used Gemini products for our demonstration, the techniques discussed are applicable to any lighting setup you might have.

Before we break down this setup, let's take a look at our final scene.

Controlling Natural Light Our first task in transforming the garage was to control the natural light coming in through the windows. We used a combination of blackout materials and diffusion fabrics to block the daylight, creating a dark environment that mimicked nighttime. This controlled lighting environment allowed us to manipulate the light to our desired effect.

To further enhance the illusion of rain, we applied a mix of glycerin, water, and temporary dulling spray to the windows, which created a frosted glass appearance. The addition of sound effects and subtle visual cues in post-production helped solidify the perception of rain.

Designing the Lighting Setup For the key light, we placed two large soft panel lights in a dual array without any modifiers to act as our key light. To create a realistic and immersive atmosphere, I aimed to replicate the look of a sodium-vapor light commonly found in parking lots and along roadsides. These lights emit an intense orange hue that contributes to the distinct ambiance of nighttime scenes. By placing the two fixtures in a dual array, I had ample light output to work with.

The color tuning capabilities of the lights allowed me to dial in the exact shade of orange I wanted, perfectly emulating the sodium-vapor light effect. This attention to detail helped to enhance the scene's believability and create a captivating visual environment for the car sequence.

alt=Litepanels Gemini dual array data-nectar-img-srcset=https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-3.jpg 1920w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-3-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-3-768x432.jpg 768w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-3-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-3-600x338.jpg 600w sizes=(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px title= />

While our primary goal was to create a moody, atmospheric scene using a reverse key light, it was essential to maintain some level of detail on our subject to prevent them from appearing in complete silhouette. To strike this balance, we utilized two smaller soft panel lights as fill lights, working together to provide soft, yet directional illumination.

The first fill light was positioned behind the car with the tailgate open to gain full access to the interior. This light was equipped with a softbox and grid, creating a gentle but focused beam that filled out the space inside the car. The second fill light was placed just in front of the car's A-pillar, fitted with a 40 honeycomb to minimize spill and maintain control over the light's direction. Like with the key light, I added a teal hue to the fills. This use of color complemented and contrasted the orange of the key.

By carefully positioning and modifying these two fill lights, we were able to achieve a beautiful wrapping effect on our subject, maintaining sufficient detail while preserving the atmospheric quality of the scene.

alt=Litepanels Gemini with snapgrid data-nectar-img-srcset=https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-4.jpg 1920w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-4-300x169.jpg 300w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-4-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-4-768x432.jpg 768w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-4-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/car-scene-4-600x338.jpg 600w sizes=(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px title= />

The final touch to our car scene was the addition of an effects light to simulate emergency vehicles passing by our subject. We achieved this by Hollywood-ing a smaller soft panel light, a term that refers to a person holding and manually moving a piece of equipment-in this case, a light-to create a specific effect.

The Gemini we used had a suite of built-in effects, including an Emergency Lights setting, which was ideal for our purpose. We attached a 40 honeycomb to the fixture to minimize spill and maintain control over the light's direction. With a production assistant holding and maneuvering the light across the vehicle, we were able to create a convincing impression of emergency vehicles driving past.

The combination of the carefully tuned key light, fill lights, and effects light resulted in a visually striking and atmospheric scene, enhanced by the illusion of passing emergency vehicles, which added depth and narrative intrigue to our car sequence.

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