Night Photos With Bright Lights

[Kat]

Hi,

I just wanted to ask, what would be the ideal settings to use (film speed, apperture and shutter speed) for taking pics of places like carnivals and fairs at night with Christmas lights, displays, etc.?

 

[SolaresLarrave]

It depends whether you want to use flash or not.

I try get the fastest possible film (be it ISO 400, 800 or 1600), and then, with the lens wide open, and depending on the light, you'd probably do fine with 1/60 or 1/30 at f2 with ISO 400 film. But then, I often go by the camera meter, so the settings I gave you aren't reliable.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

One thing: if you're thinking about Xmas displays... use a tripod, small aperture and some 10 seconds exposure (depending on your film speed, though... you'll have to crunch some numbers departing from wide-open at the fastest possible aperture).

Good luck! 🙂

 

[ChrisN]

Fred Parker's Ultimate Exposure Computer suggests an exposure value of 4, which would need an exposure of 1/8th at f2.8 for 400asa. Fred's article is well worth a look, if you haven't already read it.

Edited to add: then bracket like crazy!

 

[Stu W]

Hi Kat, I uploaded the Kodak exposure guide. I found it to be helpful. Stu
http://mysite.verizon.net/stuems/exposure.jpg

 

[Kat]

Unfortunately didn't bring my tripod on this trip (funny thing, I bought it a long time ago and it has never seen the outside of my house since), I would have to make do with the handheld, maybe give the flash a try. Thanks for all the suggestions, I will check out the out those links and bracket accordingly.🙂

 

[dmr]

Lately I've been having great luck on the GIII by exposing 400 film as if it were 800, in other words underexposing by a stop and letting the meter do the exposure. I've done quite a few of the Las Vegas Strip this way, which is probably a situation like yours. This one attached was done this way on Fuji 400 exposed at 800.

 

[Socke]

You have to compromise somewhere, preserve the highlights or the shaddows.
In the attached example I used the center weighted meter of my Contax G2 to meter the booth, the sky and the pavement, I got 1/125th for the booth, 1/8th for the pavement and 1/15th for the sky at EI400 and f2. So I settled on 1/30th and hoped for the best 🙂

 

[JohnL]

If the main point of the shot is the lights themselves, you should probably underepxose about 3 stops from what the meter tells you. This will leave the "illuminated" scene very dark, possibly invisible. If you meter on the scene, not the lights themselves, you will probably find the scene is unnaturally bright for a night shot, so you should perhaps underexpose just 1/2 to 1 stop. This will leave the lights themselves overexposed with halos round them, most likely. However, this gives you a range to work in.