The backdrops were blown-up black-and-white photographs. The Art Department then gave them their breathtaking colors by using pastel chalks on top of them.
Director of photography Jack Cardiff said that the lighting and color palette of this movie was inspired by the works of seventeenth-century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.
The much-admired Himalayan scenery was all created in the studio (with glass shots and hanging miniatures), much to the surprise of some cast and crew members who were anticipating a location shoot in Asia.
Director of photography Jack Cardiff came up with the idea of starting the rainfall end-scene by first having a few drops hit the rhubarb leaves before cueing a full-force rainstorm. He personally created the first drops with water from a cup when the scene was shot. Writer, producer and director Michael Powell was so pleased with the effect that he decided to make the scene, originally the penultimate one, the closing shot. Cardiff, however, was a great fan of the original scene (which had already been shot) that was supposed to follow this one and close the movie. To his dying day, Cardiff amusingly called the opening drops of the rainfall "the worst idea I ever had".
Johannes Vermeer has been mentioned as an inspiration for the lighting and color palette. A tribute to this Dutch painter can be seen in the opening scene when the Mother Superior is reading a letter while facing a window. This is an image used by Vermeer in some of his most famous paintings.