Lighting tips for setting a romantic mood in your videos

Romantic lighting is about more than just warm bulbs and soft shadows, it’s a creative decision that supports the story, and the feeling between characters.

A lot of creators make lighting choices earlier than shooting. You might collect film stills, build a mood board, or test a few looks digitally, then share those references with a client, a director, or your team before you even set up a light.

Warm light, soft shadows, and practical lights can all help create romance, but you have more options than you might think. Let’s take a deeper look.

Planning romantic lighting before you shoot

Romantic lighting doesn’t have to be decided on set. Some creators use AI images to try out lighting ideas quickly before they ever turn on a real light.

Looking at lighting ideas ahead of time can help you choose a direction, explain it to others, and avoid surprises during the shoot. In the end, the choice is always about story and feeling, but early planning can make shooting much smoother and more focused.

Color temperature

Adjusting the color temperature of your lights is a simple but effective means of adding a romantic feel to your films. The warmer orangey-yellow look of tungsten lights–around 3,000K–will instantly help give your video a romantic feel. It’s the lighting equivalent of the warm, blushed, fuzzy feeling that you get when you’re in love.

This scene from Love Actually is filled with warm light:

If shooting using tungsten lights is too hot, you have some options. You can always apply a color temperature orange (CTO) gel to your lights. Or you can use a variable LED light that allows you to select a warmer look.

Some creators now test warmer or cooler lighting looks with AI images first, then choose what to use when working with real lights on set.

Tone

Giving your romantic movie scenes an overall red, pink, orange, or deep yellow look can be an instant indicator of love. You can do this first by using colored gels on your lights to turn them redder, but also by using warmer props, accessories, and wardrobe.

You can see how well the red = romance look comes over in this Artlist clip:

However, you don’t always need to play on the red = romance theme. The fish tank meet-cute in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, and the swimming pool scenes are both overwhelmingly blue, although with distinct pink undertones, too.

The final scene, in the swimming pool, of Iain Softley’s Hackers is largely blue-green.

This clip of a lake on Artlist is blue in tone, and all of these scenes ooze romance.

Looking at different color options early, including with AI visuals, can help you settle on a clear tone before shooting.

Low key or high key

Choosing between high key and low key lighting setups is a storytelling decision as much as a technical one. With their bright, airy feel, high-key looks can easily mean joy, hope, and positivity. There is often an element of fun to high-key romantic scenes, although wistfulness can play a part, too.

While it’s easy to think of low-key lighting as macabre, menacing, or downbeat, those aren’t its only qualities. A lower-key look, where the scenes are much darker, can signify something much more intimate or even sexy. Low key can offer you enormous subtlety and gentleness and leave something to your viewers’ imaginations.

Some creators use AI to look at both options early to see which one fits the feeling of the scene.

Prompt: A cinematic interior scene at night, viewed from inside an apartment looking out over a city skyline through a window. Create two variations of the same composition. Version one uses low-key lighting with deep shadows, minimal practical light sources, and a moody, intimate atmosphere. Version two uses soft, diffused lighting with gentle highlights, warmer tones, and a romantic, inviting feel.

In this Nano Banana Pro AI generated image, two different lighting styles are demonstrated to show some different romantic lighting options.

Shadows

Romantic scenes should have soft, gentle shadows coming from diffuse light, yes? Sometimes, absolutely, yes, it’s all about the soft lighting in films. This kiss on Artlist is a beautiful example of that:

Soft or strong shadows are usually a choice, not an accident. Looking at examples early can help you decide how much shadow the scene needs.

But sometimes, shadow really helps tell the story in a love scene. This is true in the classic film Casablanca, where the complicated World War II love story of Ilsa, Rick, and Victor is played out in the city of Casablanca, full of darkness and harsh shadows.

Backlighting

The halo effect from backlighting can add a delicious romantic effect to a scene, making your characters glow. You can achieve this look using video lights, practical lights, or natural lighting. If you don’t want your characters’ faces to be too dark, remember that you can always use a reflector to bounce some light back onto them. These are some great examples of using backlighting to emphasize the romance of a scene from Artlist, such as this one:

And this scene, from Pretty Woman

Reference images can help you plan where the backlight should sit and how strong it should be before you shoot, and it only takes a few minutes to test your ideas out digitally with AI.

Practicals

Practicals, for example, fairy lights, street and city lights from afar, candles, or the backlight from TVs, phone screens, or computers, really help to add to the romantic lighting look of movies. They add the necessary sparkle and glow that goes so far as to suggest romance through fun and intimacy.

You can see in this Artlist clip how there is practical sunset lighting that’s backlighting the scene, while the beam of light from suddenly appearing sun is adding an intimate glow to it all:

The candlelight effect from Portrait of a Lady on Fire brings a soft, warm effect to the movie:

And the city lights in this scene, twinkling in the background, help elevate the romance of the story.

Because practical lights are clearly visible in the frame, some creators plan their placement early (including with AI text-to-video tools) to avoid surprises while filming.

Natural light and lens flare

The warm, glowing light around sunrise and sunset is excellent for suggesting a romantic feel in a film, and it works well as a backlight, too. But sometimes, romance can be suggested by the use of lens flare, too, which you can see in this Artlist clip:

Don’t forget the music!

Finally, don’t forget that your background music is a significant contributor to romantic movie scenes. So if you’re looking for the perfect romantic soundtrack, do have a look at Artlist’s Valentine’s Day collection.

Wrapping up

There isn’t one right or wrong way to create a romantic mood in a film. But, sometimes, when you diverge from the norm, you can really surprise yourself as to what works and find a fresh and exciting way of storytelling. And, of course, so many of these elements can work in harmony to create a romantic look, too.

Nowadays, lots of creators make lighting decisions earlier in the process.Use AI tools to help explore ideas, test directions, or create starting visuals, together with you knowledge of  trends, references, and experience on set.

So many of these elements can work in harmony to create a romantic look, too. If you’re looking for one film that covers many different lighting choices to tell a love story, have a look at Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise. It does warm, it does soft, it does low key and shadowy, there are practicals, and there’s sunrise, too. It’s also a great story, which is the basis of every movie.

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