Transform Day to Night in Adobe Premiere Pro CC (2017)

There are plenty of reasons why you might not be able to shoot at night. The crew is unavailable, the camera does not handle low light well, there is not enough lighting equipment, or the location is not accessible after dark. But your project still needs night scenes. The solution is to shoot during the day and transform the footage into a nighttime look in post production.

This technique is called “day for night” and it has been used in Hollywood for decades. With the right color grading in Premiere Pro, you can make daytime footage feel convincingly like it was shot after sunset. Today we go over how to do it.

How to Transform Day to Night in Premiere Pro

Setting Up

1. Create a sequence and drag your footage onto the timeline.
2. Go to File > New > Adjustment Layer and drag it onto a track above the footage. We will apply all the grading to this adjustment layer so the original footage stays untouched.
3. Select the adjustment layer and apply Lumetri Color (drag it from the Effects panel, or just open the Color workspace which adds it automatically).

Darkening and Color Shifting

4. In Lumetri Color, go to Basic Correction:

   • Drop the Exposure to about -2.5 to -3.0. This makes the scene dramatically darker.
   • Increase the Contrast to about 90-100. Night scenes have higher contrast between light and shadow.
   • Increase the Shadows to about +30. This prevents the dark areas from going completely black, keeping some visible detail.
   • Decrease the Saturation to about 60. Colors look more muted at night because our eyes are less sensitive to color in low light.

5. Go to the Curves section:

   • On the main curve, take the top-right point (the highlights) and drag it down to about 75%. This reduces the brightest parts of the image so nothing looks like direct sunlight.
   • Click the Blue circle. Click in the middle of the blue curve and drag it slightly to the left. This adds a cool blue tone to the midtones.
   • Click the Red circle. Drag the midpoint slightly to the right. This removes warmth from the image, reinforcing the cool nighttime feel.

Adding Atmosphere

6. Go to the Effects panel and search for Noise (under Video Effects > Noise & Grain). Drag it onto the adjustment layer. Set the amount to about 5%. This adds a subtle grain that simulates the noise you get when shooting in low light.

7. In Lumetri Color, scroll down to the Vignette section:

   • Set the Amount to about -0.8.
   • Set the Midpoint to 0.
   • Set the Feather to 100.
   • This darkens the edges of the frame, simulating how light falls off at night and drawing the viewer’s eye toward the center.

Tips for Selling the Effect

• Avoid capturing the sky. This is the most important tip. A bright blue sky or visible sun is nearly impossible to grade into a convincing night sky. Plan your shots to frame below the sky line, or shoot on a cloudy day when the sky is already gray and flat.
• Cloudy days work best. Overcast skies reduce the overall ambient light, making the exposure reduction look more natural.
• Practical lights help. If there are streetlights, car headlights, or windows with light in the shot, they serve as believable light sources for a night scene.
• Combine with enhanced night footage techniques for actual night footage that needs color correction alongside your day-for-night shots.
• Don’t overdo the blue. A subtle cool shift looks nighttime. Too much blue looks like a color filter slapped on daytime footage. Less is more.

That is how you transform daytime footage into a nighttime look in Premiere Pro. With careful shot selection and some Lumetri Color work, you can create convincing night scenes without ever shooting after dark.