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.
instagram
youtube
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.
alt= data-nectar-img-srcset=https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Garage-Light.jpg 1080w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Garage-Light-300x169.jpg 300w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Garage-Light-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://www.litepanels.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Garage-Light-768x432.jpg 768w, https:
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Home Applications How To Light a Car Scene at Night
