The protagonist's decadent mentality was expressed through dim yellow lighting. Doyle constantly changed the lens applications: high angle, low angle, depth field, telephoto or close-up. "Ashes of Time was the first movie which let me know clearly what I am doing," he says. "It made me understand that without such lighting and cinematography, the whole film would display a different kind of style."
暈黃的燈光呈現男主角頹廢的心態；鏡頭的運用變化多端，高角度、低角度、深焦、淺焦或特寫，杜可風說：「《阿飛正傳》是第一部讓我真正清楚自己在幹什麼的電影，它讓我明白，如果沒有這樣的燈光和攝影，整個電影將會呈現出另一種風格。」