The director of Game of Thrones’ The Long Night Episode, in which the city of Winterfell is defended from an attack by the Night King, has defended the lighting of the episode, explaining that it is entirely intentional.
You may remember how many viewers took to social media to discuss how difficult it was to see anything in the episode. At the time there was talk about how HBO’s compression had negatively affected the episode, as well as the issues with incorrectly calibrated TVs. But while those issues certainly can cause problems, the episode was intentionally made dark and the action difficult to see.
Source: IGN.com GOT: The Long Night Director Reveals Why the Battle of Winterfell Was So Dark