Lighting diagram for a night exterior
Night exteriors are built backwards: decide what the audience believes the light is, then put that source where the frame cannot see it. Here the belief is a streetlamp, so a hard warm unit rides high on a stand just out of frame, and the real work is the big cool soft source from the other side pretending to be the sky. Negative fill on the camera side keeps the face from going flat. The note about the generator is on the plan because at night the cable run is the schedule.
- Himat 4.2, 2.8 m
- A camat 4.3, 4.8 m
- The streetlampat 5.6, 0.9 m55°2700KHard, high, just out of frame
- The skyat 1.5, 1.5 m90°6500K45%Through an 8x8, the moon nobody questions
- Negat 6.2, 3.3 m8x8 solid, camera side
- The streetlamp · Hard, high, just out of frame
- The sky · Through an 8x8, the moon nobody questions
- Neg · 8x8 solid, camera side
- Silk · from the lighting plans
- Lighting diagram for an interview
- Lighting diagram for a two-person interview
- Lighting diagram for a car scene at night
- Lighting diagram for a green screen
- Lighting diagram for a portrait
- Lighting diagram for a product shot
- Draw your own in the free lighting diagram maker
- Three worked scenes from a real production
In a production, this plan sits next to the shots it lights, and the packing list above lands on the gear list for the day.