--- title: Game of Thrones Cinematographer Explains the Lighting description: There's a reason for everything on Game of Thrones and here's the explanation for the lighting. canonical: https://time.com/5580244/game-of-thrones-lighting-cinematographer/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-04-30T14:54:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:58:49.201Z og:title: Game of Thrones Cinematographer Explains the Artistic Reason for the Battle Scene Lighting og:description: It's a mood og:url: https://time.com/5580244/game-of-thrones-lighting-cinematographer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc56b956d4d50a542/69894935b21a9c85c950087e/gameofthroneslighting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: Game-of-Thrones-S8-E3-Jon-Snow og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Game of Thrones Cinematographer Explains the Artistic Reason for the Battle Scene Lighting twitter:description: It's a mood twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc56b956d4d50a542/69894935b21a9c85c950087e/gameofthroneslighting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Game of Thrones_ Cinematographer Explains the Artistic Reason for the Battle Scene Lighting > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Apr 30, 2019 2:54 PM UTC  Kit Harington as Jon Snow Kit Harington as Jon Snow Helen Sloan—HBO by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Apr 30, 2019 2:54 PM UTC **Warning**: This story contains spoilers for _Game of Thrones_. For [_Game of Thrones_](http://time.com/5578054/game-of-thrones-battle-of-winterfell-deaths/) fans who had a serious case of FOMO because they felt the dim lighting for “[The Long Night](http://time.com/5579388/game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-3-review/)” was lacking, the cinematographer behind the game-changing third episode of the final season has a message about the nighttime vibes. “We tried to give the viewers and fans a cool episode to watch,” Fabian Wagner confidently [told TMZ](https://www.tmz.com/2019/04/30/game-of-thrones-cinematographer-fabian-wagner-battle-of-winterfell-too-dark-explanation/). “I know it wasn’t too dark because I shot it.” Best known for notable episodes like Battle of the Bastards and Hardhome, [Wagner explained the artistic intent](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/04/game-of-thrones-too-dark-hard-to-see-battle-of-winterfell-long-night) ahead of the episode in an interview with _Vanity Fair_. “I wanted to evolve the lighting,” he said, to make the “storytelling of the lighting evolve with the storytelling of the characters.” In other words, the creative choice dramatically illustrates some important plot points, such as when the army of dead had wiped out the Dothraki by extinguishing all the torches, sweeping the blazes into the black sky, as well as illuminating the flames in Melisandre’s eyes. Although Sunday’s episode might have gotten the most attention for the [epic moments](http://time.com/5579429/game-of-thrones-arya-stark-azor-ahai/), it’s not the first time its dim lighting has come up. > [](https://twitter.com/noradominick/status/1122675766888665088) Last season, another _Game of Thrones_ cinematographer explained the look was intentional and that the idea is to authentically capture the story. “I think we’re all very much on the same page where we’re trying to be as naturalistic as possible,” Robert McLachlan told [INSIDER in 2017](https://www.thisisinsider.com/why-game-of-thrones-is-so-dark-2019-4). The idea is to bring the set to life “as if they’re absolutely not lit by us, but only by Mother Nature or some candles so that it feels more naturalistic, albeit enhanced in some cases,” he said. Still, many fans lit up Twitter to level criticism at the darkness. _Visually_, that is. Not the tonal darkness setting the mood for key deaths like Lyanna Mormont. The difference in the viewer experience might all come down to compression. But enough about that. Ready to rewatch? The best tack is to turn the lights off and adjust your [TV brightness settings](https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/29/18522550/game-of-thrones-got-season-8-hbo-battle-of-winterfell-long-night-fix-tv-settings-darkness) to illuminate the events, or to cut out the cable company and simply stream it. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5580244/game-of-thrones-lighting-cinematographer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5580244/game-of-thrones-lighting-cinematographer/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones Cinematographer Explains the Artistic Reason for the Battle Scene Lighting","datePublished":"2019-04-30T14:54:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:58:49.201Z","description":"There's a reason for everything on Game of Thrones and here's the explanation for the lighting.","url":"https://time.com/5580244/game-of-thrones-lighting-cinematographer/","keywords":["Newsfeed"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc56b956d4d50a542/69894935b21a9c85c950087e/gameofthroneslighting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc56b956d4d50a542/69894935b21a9c85c950087e/gameofthroneslighting.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Game-of-Thrones-S8-E3-Jon-Snow","caption":"Game of Thrones lighting","creditText":"Helen Sloan—HBO","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5580244/game-of-thrones-lighting-cinematographer/","name":"Game of Thrones Cinematographer Explains the Artistic Reason for the Battle Scene Lighting"}}]}] ```