RE: Night Shots

Hi Guys,

just a quick question about night shooting when the light level is outside the cameras ability to meter.

From where I now live, I can see Sydney city and at night, when its all light up, I think it looks quite good so I was out last night trying to shoot it but the light level was outside the range of my Program A

Is it just a case of suck it and see, by that I mean set it to bulb and try a 20 sec, then a 30 sec, then a 40 sec, etc etc and see what results I get or is there a general rule of thumb that can be used ??

Regards
PaulM

your best shots, will be within the cameras metering abilities.

try shooting at dawn or dusk (1/2 before to 1/2 hour after sunrise/sunset)
meter for your highlights (eg interior lights, streetlamps etc.). At some point you'll get a perfect balance between the city lights and darkening sky.
try incandescent light balance for a start, iso 100(upto-400).

try after a rain when everything is still wet for added drama.

other than that, trial and error, and a notepad will get you there.

Hi Don,

I will try dawn (if I can get up early enough) and dusk this weekend.

I was using the Super A on aperture priority to meter of the building lights with a 400mm lens at f6.3. It wasn't till the last pic that I looked at the display which was a flashing 15" after a quick read of the manual (its still quite a new camera to me) I realised it meant it was out of the metering range.

Thanks for the advice
Regards
PaulM

If you put a faster lens on the camera you will be able to get a meter reading in most places. It it were, for example, 1 second at f2 you can then work out the exposure for f6.3, maybe about 16 seconds. However, at very long exposures like this you have to take account of reciprocity failure. The film becomes less sensitive than it should be and the actual exposure needed will be longer - in this case maybe 32 seconds or even longer than that.

The second thing is where you meter. The lights themnselves are bright and a meter reading from them will result in a picture that is too dark. More exposure would be needed.

The third thing is the effect you want. A brighter or darker image?

So the only real option may be to shoot a whole series of exposures (notong the details for future reference) and once you know what is needed for the effect you like then next time it will narrow things down a bit.

Digital users have a hige advantage here as they can experiment without it costing anything.

Hi Paul

I love shooting low light shots, was at it last night with exposures up to 60-120 secs so I don't altogether agree with Don that the best shots will be had when the light is within the metering capabilities of the camera. Some of my shots can often run into minutes... Don's advice about the best times to shoot is spot on tho, but I often find that there's useful colour in the sky up to an hour or (maybe) 2 after sunset.

As a rule of thumb I tend to start with the aperture set to f/8 and set ISO100 and see if I can get a reading. If not I'll use John's method and open up the aperture to see if that will result in a reading within range. A similar tactic is to adjust the ISO setting to get a reading then recalculate for ISO100. 1sec @ ISO1600 is the same as 15secs at ISO100.

In low light I tend to bracket quite a bit - one of my series of exposures last night went as follows:

Meter reading = 8s @ f/4
Reset to f8 and bulb setting timed 30 secs exposure (same as 8s @ f/4) then 45s and 60s

I'll increase the bracketed exposure time in half stops, maybe taking up to 3 or 4 frames over the metered exposure to handle any reciprocity failure that John refers to...

With my shots I tend to prefer longer exposures over short ones - it's great for traffic trails, making the most of neon lights and making sure that people moving in the scene record as nothing more than a feint blur...

This shot is a good example of what I'm on about...


http://www.pbase.com/diffractionphotography/image/74133924

This is one aspect of photography where trial and error and using up some film really does reap benefits... Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Will

no arguments here. I often shoot long exposures at night.
sometimes you have to gear the advice to the level of the asker.

I wouldn't offer advice on sliding or drifting a car through a corner, or using the other guys draft to pass, if I was helping somebody who's trying to pass thier drivers test.

I think the nature of the question, suggests a little help on starting out was needed. starting out with the basics on night photography will yeild the best results, for the original poster, and provide a solid basis on which to experiment.

your advanced advice is unquestionably good advice.
love that shot btw!

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your responses and advice.

I had a play at the weekend setting the camera to bulb and doing 20,25, 30 and 40 Sec exposures. I should get the film back at the end of this week so I will report back then.

I feel like this is a dumb question but......
How do you work out what the exposure would be based on the figures from another exposure?

John,
I dont have a faster lens unfortunately, the city is about 14km away from me and I am shooting through the trees in my garden at select bits of it I can see with a 400mm lens

Spirit of will,
Great picture thats the sort of effect I was after but with a slightly darker sky

Kind Regards
PaulM

Right,

after 5 weeks I have finally got my net back and post the best pic from my tests here

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=62034#62034

Regards
PaulM