Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Gib Robinson wrote: > > We're planning a family outing Wednesday night to see Christmas lights, the > Presidio in San Francisco, and, who knows, maybe the moon. I'll bring a > camera, but I have no confidence in my ability to get good exposures at > night. I've usually dealt with the problem by bracketing so widely I was > bound to get acceptable results. I've looked through the tech books I own, > but haven't found any good sections on night time exposures. I'd love some > recommendations from this group -- rules of thumb, books to read, exposure > routines that work for you. > > --Gib I would always bracket in situations such as this. The old saying: "Film's cheap, reshoots aren't" certainly applies here. But I would add a couple thoughts. First is that Kodak's newer Ektachrome emulsions seem to have less reciprocity shifts than other transparency films I've used. I find I get into trouble when I try to adjust for reciprocity. I've done twilight/night architectural photos metered at f16 at 15 seconds that were dead on. When I adjusted for reciprocity by giving brackets at 30 seconds, 45 seconds, one minute they've been overexposed. The same goes with some of the Fuji neg films I've been using. My second thought is that if you're metering through the lens and adjust for the brightness fo the bulbs (as in bracketing) you should be alright. Have fun. Don't forget to try some thing with camera shake, perhaps combined with (sorry LUG) even a little dialed back flash to freeze your subjects for some interesting effects. - -- Carl Socolow http://members.tripod.com/SocPhoto/