Guides · Guide 12
Lighting a night interior: a worked plan
A night interior has a built-in logic: warm lamps inside, a cooler world outside. Plan it that way and the colour does half the storytelling. Here is a kitchen at night, built up one light at a time.
The situation
Two actors in a kitchen at night. There is a table lamp on the counter, a window on one wall, and one camera on a 35 mm lens. We want it to feel warm and a little lonely, with the actors readable but not flat.
Step 1: Start with the sources the audience can see
Every night interior starts with practicals: the lamps and fittings that appear in shot. Place the table lamp on the plan, and write its colour temperature. A household bulb is warm, around 2700K. Because it is in the frame, it also tells you how warm the whole scene should read.
Practicals are rarely bright enough to light faces on their own. They set the look, and other units do the work. That is the next step.
Step 2: Add the window
At night a window is usually a darker, cooler source than the room. Put a unit outside it, pointing in, and give it a cooler colour than the practical. The contrast between warm inside and cool outside is the whole look. Note the height, since a unit outside has to stand on something.
Step 3: Choose a key
The key should look like it belongs to the practical. Place a unit near the lamp, on the lamp's side of the actors, and bring it in softly. It is a motivated light: the audience reads it as coming from the lamp even though it is a separate unit. Match its colour to the lamp, around 2700 to 3200K.
Step 4: Add an edge
Put a unit behind and to the side of the actors, higher than the key, to catch a line of light on their shoulders and separate them from the dark wall. A tube works well here, because it gives a long, thin edge. Cool it down to match the window.
Step 5: Write down the colours
Mixing sources means mixing colour temperatures, and that is the thing most likely to go wrong on the day. Write the number beside each unit. Here the practical and key are warm, the window and edge are cool, and the scene holds together because that split is intentional.
Step 6: Check the frame
Draw the camera cone. The window unit is outside, so it is safe. The edge unit sits behind the actors, so check it is not in the top of frame. The lamp is in shot by design. If anything else crosses the cone, move it.
The finished list
| Name | Role | Colour | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 | Key, motivated by the lamp | 2700 to 3200K | Soft, on the lamp side |
| L2 | Window source | Cool | Outside, pointing in, with a flag to keep it off the back wall |
| L3 | Edge | Cool | Behind the actors, above head height |
| L4 | Practical lamp | 2700K | In shot |
Why the plan matters here
Night scenes are expensive because they need more units than a day scene and take longer to set. Deciding the colours, positions and heights on paper means the crew arrives knowing what they are building. The first hour on set goes on rigging and not on arguing.
ShotPlots tints each light to its colour temperature and prints the number, so a mixed-source night scene shows its colour split on the page. Draw one free, no account, nothing to install, or see a finished sheet and its PDF.
Related
Three-point lighting diagram, and How to draw a lighting plot.