Robert Altman used natural lighting in The Long Goodbye (1973) with Vilmos Zsigmond de-saturating the colors in the developing process of the Technicolor film. This created a sense of the present also existing in the past; a play on Altman's Rip Van Marlowe concept of a 50's PI
waking up in the 1970's. Altman also thematically put Marlowe "in the light" as if he is either being protected or even blinded by something. The grocery clerk points out that Marlowe has left on his lights and Wade asks if he's okay with sitting in the sunlight.