it's pretty hard to gamble night shots on film. there is always the problem of over/under-exposure. the digital camera i use for test-shots has very few manual controls where i can only adjust shutter speed but not the exposure, also, iso is only tiL 400...

i think i need a "generic" night-shot setting basically for cityscapes which i can customize on my camera.

if yes, what would anyone recommend the best possible setting for this (using iso 400 film)?

if not, any suggestions? thanks! :)

hi dyan!

im an avid night photographer, although im completely into digital. perhaps i can refer you to this site: http://www.thenocturnes.com/resources.html. there are a lot of night film photographers writing here. you can get a lot of tips and advise regarding film night shooting.

goodluck! :)

you will be using bulb exposure for really meaty night stuff...though you will have to concern yourself with film reciprocity issues (you can google that), so i suggest you have notebook with you so you can log your exposure experiments. as for a single setting...thats pretty tough considering night scenes cannot be classified into one definite category. shooting a church under a full moon is vastly different from shooting traffic trails in the middle of EDSA. there is no one definite exposure setting...

you are also limited to using a shallow depth-of-field (big aperture number) in order to decrease your exposure time. the longer your shutter is open, the more grainy your shot becomes (though at iso 400, grain may be part of your aesthetic criteria) and the reciprocity will kick in. i've seen some long exposures on film that exhibit pretty surreal color casts. i believe you will be up for a tough challenge :)

I'd like to see some, do you have any shots using film?

@jay: thanks a lot for the extensive and very informative suggestion! had to be a night photographer, none the less! guess i got loads of homework to do (the reciprocity i'm not too familiar with, yet). and will definitely take that advice on "the notebook" with the variable settings...:)

@migs: i'll post soon as i get the work done!

One advantage you'll see when you shoot night with film is a more extended tonal range: shadows tend to be less 'empty' and highlights don't get as burned out. There is grain, but this won't be as offending as noise.

Don't be too concerned with reciprocity. It is there, but it won't creep in all the time. And it is more of an issue with "reversal" (eg, slide or 'chrome films) because no intermediate printing step is involved. The picture you get in the end is the film that was in the camera, so exposures have to be on the dot.

Negative film on the other hand, has greater latitude and minor exposure errors won't do anything so bad. Areas which are starved of exposure will come out a bit grainy, but today's ISO 400 emulsions have quite fine grain structures. A starved digi sensor would likely produce a grittier picture.

Colour is another concern. There is no such thing as a WB adjustment for colour film :-). Colour fidelity- or lack of it- is a matter of choice. Expect things to go red or green, depending on the the available illumination. Such can be corrected to an extent with the use of colour filters over the lens. If you shoot with negative film, correction can be done later during printing or scanning.

You can't really customise a 'film' camera. You just have to note the types of subjects (eg, documentary, scenics, cityscape, etc) and try to apply the recommended exposures as starting points. These recommendations are often found on the exposure tables (are they still printed on the box?) printed inside the boxes of high ISO films. And you will soon discover that you can indeed be off somewhat in terms of exposures and still have good photos in the end.

Jay.

"Adriatico Circle" Handheld exposure. Zorki-1 Rangefinder camera, Jupiter-3 50mm lens. ISO 500 Kodak Vision (respooled movie film shortend). Exposure was probably 1/20sec @ f/1.5. Scene is strongly backlit by strong sodium vapour street lighting, which is also reason for greenish cast.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v93/zorkikat/adriatico.jpg


"Jumbo Hotdog" market scene. FED-1 rangefinder, FED 50mm lens. Exposure was at 1/25 sec at f/3.5. Kodak Vision ISO 500 film. Looks grainer because scanning added some noise.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v93/zorkikat/jumbo-hotdog.jpg

"Penguin Cafe" Zorki-1 camera, Industar-50 50mm lens. Exposure about 1/20 sec @ f/3,5. Same Kodak Vision film as above.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v93/zorkikat/penguin.jpg


All exposures were mostly 'guesstimated'- no meter used...the old FED and Zorki rangefinders don't have onboard meters! :D

Jay.

Dyan,

As much as possible, use a lower ISO (50 or 100) specially on nightscapes. Grains and noise are usually visible using higher ISOs like 400. Also, when shooting city lights, use f16 in Aperture priority for a more crispy night lights.

One more thing, if you want some blue skies on nightscapes, use a tungsten balanced film - and shoot on dusk.

Regarding reciprocity, it is just simple as fractions. i.e. 1/2 = 2/4 as well as 4/8; in photography, 1/125 @f16 will give the same exposure as 1/250 @f8.

enjoy! :)

Davao City on a Christmas Night!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/170/408282947_3664938406.jpg

Fuji Film 400 (i forgot what kind)
30 sec. at f/22
Canon EOS 66 - 35mm