4.22Natural Day for Night

In general, the most popular type of question that I get asked is “Can I light with inexpensive gear?” or, a variation thereof, “do I need all of that Hollywood equipment?”

The answer is yes.

And no.

Lighting is, without a question, the primary aspect in controlling a photographic image. Manipulation of light is one of the greatest tools that you have to convey mood and emotion through the image. Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, sometimes you need the Hollywood hoopla, but not always.

For this column, I decided to challenge myself to create a “night” look utilizing natural daylight (day for night) without any augmentation with artificial lighting.

Day for night is, generally, achieved through gross underexposure. ...

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