Night photos when you travel. What do you do?

[Slump]

400 asa at f2, and I try to find whatever I can to use as a support. I start to worry when I get at a 1/15 speed hand held. If the shot is really worth it, I usually just give it a try, even at slower speeds and sometimes got some cool pics. I really think you should just try even if you really doubt it is going to work. I guess for me it is kind of the process of learning your camera, lens, film, see what you can get out of them in bad light condition.

Both at f2 with fuji neopan 400 in Seoul, first is hand held and for the second one I used a ramp as a support.

 

[semilog]

Neopan 1600 or TMAX 400@1600. Either one developed in XTOL, neat or 1+1.

 

[Brian Puccio]

Well, I'm one of those color people, so I shoot my Provia 400x at 1600. And I tend to shoot wide (28mm) so 1/15 is not unreasonable to handhold. Whenever I can, I lean against a wall or pillar or such.

 

[raid]

Hey ppl,

To those seasoned and unseasoned travellers... what do you do when night falls?

- Do you have a separate camera loaded with high ISOs... 1600 and up....
- Do you just go with ISO 400 and f1.4 and hope for the best.
- Do you not bother with night shots.

What do you do?

I suggest to use a digital camera for high ISO settings at night.

 

[menos]

This is some night shots from Monday night - i made something different, not bumped the ISO and shot wider apertures, but maxed out the lens and kept ISO low with slower shutters:

"cleaning" M9 | 50/1 @ f1

A bus, passing by the construction site rumble with curios passengers:

"bus" M9 | 50/1 @ f1.2

… watching the diggin' (after I went past the barriers, entering the construction site, doing some conversation and joking with the workers, getting them relaxed):

"digging" M9 | 50/1

… one of the crew:

"portrait" M9 | 50/1

This all would have been easily handled by the latitude of box speed TriX 400 and some pushing, where needed in digital post after scanning.
you can easily use the same TriX @ 400 during the daytime, stopped down a bit.

I like that about the M9, but film really isn't that inconvenient either.
When I shoot in the night with film, I do it mostly with TriX, rated @ ISO3200.

I actually shot some @3200 from the same construction site with the second camera with 35 Lux, roll not developed yet, curious, how it compares to the ISO800 M9 shots ;-)

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

For street-type photography, I use fast film in a handheld 35mm camera. Used to use Tmax 3200, now using Delta 3200.

Delta 3200 at EI-1600. 1/15 at f4 handheld


For things that won't move like landscapes or buildings, I use slow film in a medium format camera on a tripod, lens stopped down for depth of field, and long exposure.

Fuji Provia 100F in a Hasselblad. Exposure was about 1 second at f16, I think.

Fuji Acros 100 in a Mamiya 645. Exposure was 5 minutes at f16!

 

[Paolo Bonello]

I have this little Yashica Electro CC and normally I don't take them out at night due to 400 max film speed but damn I think I can hand hold these an extra 1 or 2 stops slower than a film SLR. And last night I took it out and remembered to bring this little Yashica ST-7 tripod gadget I use occassionally for table top shots etc.. I remember seeing a pic in an old yashica brochure of someone resting the tripod legs (at least two of them) on their upper chest area and using it as a hand-held stabilizer. I can confirm it does really work!. I was taking photos last night and although it's an auto exposure camera (I don't know the exact speed) but damn it felt stable for some clearly sub 1/30th shots. It completely settles that final jerk or slight movment at the instant you release the shutter. It is going to be a permanent part of my kit from now on. No good just looking at it collecting dust.
On consideration though, As the Yashica will try to expose it properly and adjust for the correct speed regardless of whether you can hand hold it, you need to accept that you will likely lose some shots to camera shake where the light is just too low. The tripod is a useful gadget though. I think this tripod with a digital X100 fuji would be an awesome night combo!

 

[gavinlg]

5d + iso 800-1600 + 1.2/1.4/f2 lenses.

 

[hausen]

I just come back from Tahiti and for all my night shots I used X100. Is superb in low light.

 

[deerstalkr]

I seem to be fine shooting wide open at 400 without a tripod. It's not the best of situations, but it's manageable. Though I must admit I live in a city and have only been to cities that seem to come to life at night--bright street lights and plenty of neon signs.

 

[peter_n]

Fuji Acros 100 in a Mamiya 645. Exposure was 5 minutes at f16!

Love this!

 

[robert blu]

This thread just reminds me to put my Manfrotto table tripod in the bag for the short trip in Tuscany I'll have in the next days!
robert
PS: the "normal" tripod is already in the car, but my wife already made a reservation to use it with her new camera...

 

[tenter10]

Fast Lens

Fast Lens

Use my Lx5 with built-in stabilization, put the camera on something steady, iso 800 and let the timer set it off. When I had film, i used the fastest lens I had, the fastest film i had and tried to find anything to support the camera.

🙂I would like to know forgive my ignorance 50mm2.8 45mm 1.8 which is the faster lens? thanks tenter10

 

[Fez Parker]

Tmax

Tmax

Load tmax 400 - shoot at 400 and 800 on the same roll and dev in the same can !!!! or use a flash and kill the scene that you are trying to capture.

Fez.

www.fezparkerphotography.com

 

[Fez Parker]

Tenter, the smaller the f number the faster the lens. and remember that wider apertures (smaller f number) give less depth of field.