Northlight DP

Northlight predicts how your lights will actually render on camera — before you roll.

If you light people for a living — cinematographers, gaffers, DPs, camera operators, and serious content creators — you know the guesswork. A fixture's box-spec Kelvin is a claim, mixed sources fight each other, and you burn set time on white-balance tests instead of shooting. Northlight replaces the guesswork with real color science: tell it your fixtures, your camera, and the look you want at the subject, and it solves how every source renders at your camera's white balance — then hands you the exact Kelvin and tint to set on each light and the white balance to set on the camera.

It's a planning instrument, not a control surface. Northlight computes the targets; you dial them into your own gear by hand. Nothing to connect, no accounts, no subscriptions.

— Design the look Place your fixtures on a top-down plan around your subject, set each one's color and intensity, and dial the look you want at the face. Northlight solves it live: the combined color at the subject, the key-to-fill contrast ratio, and the illuminance, with warm/cool and gel-equivalent read-outs. A master level fader and a subject color dial push the whole look while your ratios hold.

— Calibrate with your phone A fixture's nominal Kelvin is a claim; a measurement is the truth. In the Measure tab, point your iPhone at a grey card under a light and Northlight reads how it really renders — median-aggregated across frames, held steady by a stability gate — and records it against that fixture. From then on your predictions match the gear you actually own, not the marketing spec.

— See it rendered On ray-tracing-capable Apple silicon, a path-traced preview shows a head lit by your exact setup: real perspective from your camera's spot, your chosen lens, a skin tone or neutral clay reference, bounce cards and negative fill, windows and room bounce. Read the modeling and the color cast before you're on set. Every other feature works without ray-tracing hardware.

— Three ways to balance Camera-locked holds your white balance and re-dials your bi-color sources to reach the look. Follows-subject anchors the camera to the mix at the face. Explore sweeps every lever at once. Pick the instrument that fits your intent.

— Yours, everywhere Your fixture and camera libraries and every saved look sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac over iCloud, automatically, in your own iCloud account. No account to create, no sign-in, no ads, no analytics, no data collection. The camera is used only on your device to meter a grey card — no images ever leave it.

Northlight opens on a ready-made Demo look, so you can start experimenting immediately.

Northlight is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any manufacturer named in the app. Product names are used for identification and compatibility reference only, and catalog values are published nominal specifications — measure your own units for accuracy.