Night Exposures

[Mike Davis]

There are extremely legitimate reasons to be armed. Just "staying out of the bad areas" may or may not work for you. That said, carrying enough gun is an important point.

I have had muggers attempt to take my camera equipment on extremely fashionable streets with million dollar houses. I have had people try to kick in my door in the middle of the night. I have had a mugger try to make me a victim on an otherwise safe college campus. I have had a friend murdered because she screamed during a rape a block from my house and across the street from the ceo of a Fortune 100's house. Bottom line is that "staying out of the bad areas" is no more effective than carrying a pellet gun.

When you're out at night, be aware of your surroundings. Be prepared to flee or fight. Be able and willing to do either or both.

[Will Strain]

glad we could stay on topic lads...

Steve - I've both set up and waited...and used lights of one variety or another. Depending on the subject - composition can be trickier. If you have somebody with you... a battery powered (or cigarette lighter powered) wide spot light can be invaluable... Also, your car's headlights if you can angle it around...

And sometimes just prefocusing the camera (I have tape stops for infinity focus) and good luck is enough.

Have fun.

[Mike Davis]

Will,

Since many of us are not linear thinkers, the morphing of topics seems reasonable to me. I know that my interests which range from video art and photography to competitive shooting are different than other peoples. But, being safe and/or safety conscious is something that most people are interested in.

[Will Strain]

Fair enough, Mike. Cheers.

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

Steve, when I did a job in Houston I was supervising the night shift, this was in the middle of a swamp that had alligators......of course the funny story was that I was showing a new guy the set up and we were walking around the site as I was explaning to him the procedures, so he suddenly stops and shines his flash light under a pallet and tells me..."hey men, there is a big ass lizard under the pallet"....I said, no lizard, alligator ( a baby one, about 3 feet long)

Anyhow, while I was having dinner I asked a cop if he would let me see his flash light, he showed me a streamlight that is very, very bright. This is what I use to light up at night, you would be susprised how powerful these little flash lights are. They are expensive though.....What I do is light up on the near, then the far, focus on the middle and close down the lens.

Good luck....

[John Cook]

Jorge's reply just reminded me of an old friend who used to be an in-house industrial photographer during the 1960's. Litton Industries, I seem to recall.

He was issued a wooden 8x10 outfit (b&w film) and a cart, like those used by hotel maids when cleaning rooms, to carry his gear around the factory. He began each morning with a fist-full of photo requisitions from various departments which he worked on all day.

For light, he had only one Smith-Victor reflector, with which he used to "paint" all his subjects. One day, he demonstrated his light painting technique for me, which was absolutely fascinating. From simple table-top objects to big scenes. I had heard of photographers, dressed all in black, walking up and down supermarket aisles after dark, spraying the shelves with light. He actually did it.

My suggestion for you is to obtain one of those battery-operated million-candlepower light units from some hunting outfitter like cabelas.com. Try spray painting over the massive doors of an old cathedral, or perhaps an old stone bridge. Not only will you have light with which to focus, but you can create your own lighting scheme as well. Takes some practice but can be very dramatic.

[Robert C. McColloch]

Very good answers - but - How do you take a spotmeter reading when you can't see the one degree circle?

[Brian C. Miller]

My Pentax Spotmeter V has an illuminator button. I press that and then I see the circle.

The other thing you can do is grab a white card and get the reading off of that. Then once you know the value of white in the scene, you know the other values as well. I have photographed in light where the white card read "1" on the meter.

You might actually want to forgo movements when its dark, and just stop down the lens and expose for a really long time. Remember reciprocity for your film, or just guess like crazy. I had an instance where I used both my Pentax 6x7 and Graflex Super Graphic, and the Pentax had the better pictures because they had better focus. I didn't know about the trick of bringing a spot light to the scene.

Once I tried out Fuji 100/1000 chrome. It was a moonlit scene, and the resulting pictures looked like it was simply daylight, except for the houses in the distance.

[John_4185]

If you are not using movements, then framing is very nicely done with a wire-frame or auxillary optical finder. Wire-frame finders are underappreciated; when you use them properly, they can be very accurate. (Linhof made a wire frame to accomodate four focal focal lengths, and distance to the primary object. They aren't easy to come by. I can post a picture if you like.)

For focusing a nearby object, get one of the Mini-Maglights and unscrew the head. It is made for this purpose. Removing the head exposes the bulb in the On position. The rear of the flashlight fits into the narrow end of the head to hold it upright like a candle. Focus upon the spot. Be happy.