Night photos.

[pedro.m.reis]

Hi!
I'm begining to enter this world of potography, and i would like to experiment in night photos.
I've already a camera (Yashica Lynx 14), tripod, film (Velvia 50) and a timer... i need to know how much time I must leave the shutter open to catch sky and nature pictures at night.
Anyone can tell me what i must do, or a site where this is explained?

Best Regards,

Pedro

P.S.:Sorry for my english

 

[cp_ste.croix]

Hmm...I think Velvia might be a bit slow to experiment with, but it's possible. Use a light meter and understand the film you are using and its reciprocity curve to get near to the exposure you want.

The reciprocity curve displays the actual time needed vs the time given as an exposure reading. For example, if the meter reads 1 minute, the actual time to expose the film properly might be something like 8 minutes, at the same aperature. There is an explanation fo all this, but honestly, I only know what I need to 🙂

After that, experiment away...bracket exposures, play with aperature settings, etc. Good night photography is like anything, it takes practice.

Good luck and post some images!

 

[Kin Lau]

Once you get into multi-second exposures, the "speed" of the film doesn't really matter any more. Most films have "reciprocity failure" info printed on the box, or you can go online for it. Some slower (iso100) films actually have better times than fast films once you get into multi-sec exposures.

One of the biggest problems with long exposures, especially with Velvia, is that it tends to lean purple & pink, so your _blue_ night sky will be more purple.

Check out the following http://www.photo.net/learn/nature/reciprocity for a nice table of times and adjustments required.

 

[sf]

night photography

night photography

I shoot night stuff alot - and I do most of it with a digital camera. I sold my digital once, then bought another once I came to understand the value of costless photography.

What i like to do is go out at night and shoot long exposures of street scenes (mostly car and city lights). What is nice about digital is that you can see exactly what effect you are getting, can control ISO on the fly, and there is no financial penalty for inaccurate metering calculations.

But. . . it is digital and I feel somewhat dirty for a few minutes after using it. But hey, as a student without a dime to my name, it's either that or the creditors. i have considered getting a credit card for all my GAS attacks - but that would be . . .the worst thing ever. A financial suicide attempt.

One of my favorites at night is to make designs by moving the camera around during exposure. Simple. Maybe kind of primative. But it makes a pretty cool picture sometimes.

If I were to shoot film at night, if I wanted long exposures, I would choose Velvia, sure. I have done cityscapes with it before, and some really gorgeous sunset/late evening sky glow shots with it. The long exposure really works well with the color balances of Velvia. But, if you are going to shoot stopped down, you'd probably want something really fast. Maybe just Provia 400 - but even something faster. Just for time efficiency. f22 with an ISO 50 film at night is really really really long waiting.

 

[phototone]

Hi!
... i need to know how much time I must leave the shutter open to catch sky and nature pictures at night.
Anyone can tell me what i must do, or a site where this is explained?

Best Regards,

Pedro

P.S.:Sorry for my english

PEDRO you must bracket your exposures, and shoot a lot and evaluate your results and use this information to proceed further. I have found that a bit of overexposure on multi-second exposures doesn't build up overly dense images, like it does when you over expose daylight photos. However, if I were you, I would shoot with negative film, not transparency film, as there is far more latitude, and you are more likely to get acceptable results right from the start. Transparency film is very criticle of exposure anyway, and when you add the concept of reciprocity, then it gets even more difficult.

I shoot a lot of night photography, both with people (posed) and of interesting scenes, and I only shoot b/w. I am able to always get a good image, but I bracket, and of course I use a tripod and cable release.

You can check out my gallery here for examples.

 

[Poptart]

The advice for color neg film is good . . . long time exposure tend to "add up" a lot of overexposed area (lights, mostly) that neg film handles better. And the bracketing is key too. Try, for a start, exposures of 1 second, then geometric multiple up to several minutes. It's like using a pinhole camera: eventually experience will assert its will.

 

[pedro.m.reis]

Hi!
Thank you all for the tips.
I beleive that i have still much to learn, since i didn't understood several things you told me, like:
"bracket exposures"
"reciprocity failure"
"going to shoot stopped down"

Tomorrow i'll have a full day of googling for this 🙂

Thank you all!

 

[cp_ste.croix]

bracket(ing) exposures means shooting at a given value, say 15sec @ f2 and then shooting the same photo again at 30sec and 7sec. You'll have three different exposures of the same shot, just in case, one darker and one lighter.

reciprocity failure...the short answer is this is when the film and the light meter stop agreeing. at a certain point for longer exposres, most films will need more time than the light meter actually indicates. this is given in the form of a graph where actual time needed is on the Y axis and the light meter time is on the X axis.

Shooting stopped down is making your aperature smaller thereby increasing your depth of field but lengthening your exposure times. This sometimes can increase sharpness of an image as well.

Really though, just go out and have fun. Make sure to pay attention to what is working and what is not, through copious notes... 🙂

 

[pedro.m.reis]

Thank you!
Yes ... i realy think that the all point of taking photo for the non-pro is having fun.. and I will do that!
I'll show the photos here .. if there is one that can be shown 🙂

Pedro