Help me with low light exposure...

A

alex909

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Hi,
Long time reader, first time poster. Tomorrow night I'll be at a dimly lit bar where I'd like to take some pictures. I have a Sekonic 308 light meter but I'm pretty sure that it'll be just dark enough where it won't really meter accurately so I thought I'd come here with some advice. I'll be shooting with a M3, Summicron 2/50 and Neopan 400. What exposure settings would you recommend? Should I push the film two stops to 1600? three stops to 3200? I shot a concert the other week with Kodak 3200 but that was an easier task because of the stage lighting that brightly lit up the band.

It'd be great to end up with some shots I can use tomorrow, but I'm mostly interested in doing this just for the experience of it.

Thanks a lot for the help!

Alex

EDIT: Turns out I'm a second time poster.
 
Aex, exposure for typical home interior lighting at night with 400 sped film is f2 and 1/30 sec. How much darker is the bar? Your 308 meter will be able to tell you.
 
Alex, the bar is likely to have less light than there is in the typical home. With 400 film, you might try 1/8 and 1/4 sec. at full aperture (1/10 and 1/5 sec. if your M3 has the "old" speeds). Since this is to be an experiment, I'd suggest a range of different exposures and careful note keeping. If you are not confident of hand holding at slow speeds, you might use a tripod. You could base possible future pushing on your results with ISO 400. If your meter does not give incident readings in the low light, you'll probably get shots of fairly high contrast.
 
I'd try iso 1200, f2, 1/160th? or f4 1/30... 1/60

I have a Sek 308. And a 'cron 50/2 NR. Apparently they flare easily. I'll be interested in your pix.
 
Be aware that incident metering there would be of limited use. What you'd effectively have is a bunch of oddly placed, close, point light soruces.

A good tactic would be to take spot reading on the main subject in frame, and make an approximate correction for how much said subject deviates from medium gray.
 
I agree with what Payasam said ... 1/8 and 1/4 at f2. with 400 film.

I've noticed my VCII seems to be quite good in these sorts of situations. 🙂
 
push to 800, and use f2, 1/50 and 1/25, try different exposures. usually 1/50 f2 works well for me in dim/lamp light. as long as you can see your drink it should work...
 
Thanks for all of the options. I think I might try pushing to 1600 and do f/2 at 125 as my starting point and then bracket around that. Does that seem sound? Unfortunately, it'll be one of those places where there are only very dim wall sconces to light the place, no strong light on any of the subjects.

Alex
 
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