Night/low light exposure without a light meter

I often judge exposure in low light by getting close enough to a light source to make an incident reading and then using the same principal as the "guide numbers" used with manual flash. If you can get a reading 10 feet away from a light source you'd need to open up one stop at 14 feet, two stops at 20 feet, and so on.
 
I take most of my photos at night and found fiddling with a light-meter (or AE) quite useless in most situations and with BW film. When you have a scene with some bright spot-lights, a few bright illuminated windows and the really dark street, exposure varies between f/1.4 at 1/125s down to 1/30s (400ISO rated).

What I always do is setting my lens at maximum aperture (f/1.0 or f/1.4) and shutter-speed either to 1/60s or 1/30s. This "universal" setting results in ~90% printable frames per roll (BW film).

Color-film needs more careful exposure settings to avoid under-exposure and color-slide film is most difficult but Provia400X at 800ISO and 1-stop push-developed works quite well.

f/1.4 1/30s (Tri-X at 400ISO)

113856891.jpg
 
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Al Kaplan, your technique is quite interesting.

In my previous comment that I keep in mind 10sec. f11 @ 100 ISO
and convert to any other night scene I took depend on what style I need
and any ISO I use. It works for me.




This picture taken in a night club that I couldn't even see my shutter/f stop.
Taking a picture with film always challange and fun.
 
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