Photographing a sign in Chicago

[chris_4622]

Hi, I am going to shoot a Miller sign off I94 just north of the loop to return a favor. It is a lighted sign and the company I'm doing this for makes the light bulbs. Should I shoot it at night, at dusk, or when it is really cloudy (like it has been for...)? I'm going to shoot Velvia 50 because that is what I have. Any ideas? Thanks,

chris

[Ralph]

If I recall correctly, the sign you're talking about is MADE of thousands of light bulbs (rather than just illuminated by them), right?

I would shoot it in the half-light, which in the north this time of year qualifies as anytime within an hour or two after sunrise or before sunset on any overcast day.

If you shoot it after dark, nothing will be visible except the sign (so there will be no sense of how huge it is) and if you shoot it in bright daylight the bulbs will play only a minor role.

Good luck with the metering....

[Robert A. Zeichner]

I've seen some excellent photographs of buildings illuminated with tungsten balanced light and shot at dusk on tungsten balanced film. The guideline for exposure in this situation is to shoot the building at 20 minutes past the official time of sunset and with that setting sun behind you. Exposure is roughly 3000 times that of "Sunny 16". This results in a really nice deep blue/violet sky even during cloudy or rainy conditins.

That said, your situation involves shooting a source of light itself. This may be a bit more difficult in that the above exposure guideline would result in overexposure of the bulbs and a reduction in exposure to capture the bulbs correctly would perhaps render the sky almost black. What you might try is making your exposure earlier, maybe at sunset or even slightly before. All of this assumes your bulbs are tungsten balanced. If that is the case, using tungsten film will be the answer to getting the otherwise grey sky to look blue/violet. Interesting project.

[chris_4622]

Thanks for the help. Ralph, you are correct the sign is made of marquee bulbs. I haven't seen it yet.

[Antonio Corcuera]

if overall contrast is too high, as mentioned by Robert, you can also expose two sheets: one for the bulbs/light source and the other for the sky/landscape. Then blend both in PS. If you must present one tranny, then shoot earlier than dusk to get a shorter range of EVs. IMO, Velvia is too high contrast for a situation like this. Interesting challenge, tell us how it turns out!

[Michael Graves]

If you've got a safe place from where you can shoot that will allow you to hang out for an hour or so, you might try a double expose. Expose just before dusk at about 1/2 normal exposure to get decent, but not overpowering background detail. Then after it gets dark, shoot for the lights.

The problem with that technique is that you can't move the camera or remove the sheet film holder for that entire duration and your tripod and camera combination have to be rock solid with no movements. And you only get one try. If it doesn't come out the way you like, you're back there again a couple of nights later. However, if you've seen any of the work using this technique, it does yield an impressive image.

[Kirk Gittings]

Velvia oversatuates incandescent and halogen bulbs. Shoot it at twilight, about half an hour after sunset (or if you can place the brightly lit areas on ZVII and wait till the sky is ZVI). Shoot it on daylight color neg film (Fuji NPS, rate it at asa 100) to control the contrast and scan it. That is the best way to control the light sources, much better than shooting chromes.

[chris_4622]

Well I'm going to take your advise Kirk. Since I'll be in Chicago I can stop at Helix and pick up some NPS. I've seen some of your work and it looks like you know what you are doing. One thing the lights are LEDs, at least some of them are. They look like a normal bulb. Again thank you all for your help. I love this forum.

[Kirk Gittings]

I don't know much about LEDS, but when in doubt and no time to test I ALWAYS do the above! Good luck.

[Ralph]

"Shoot it at twilight, about half an hour after sunset."

With all due respect for Kirk's considerable skills and experience, in Chicago in January unless it's a clear day it's pretty much dark by sunset, let alone a half-hour later. I stand by my recommendation that whatever film you use, consider shooting an hour or two before sunset; that sign is so bright that it can easily be seen from airplanes on final approach to O'Hare. I'm not sure that even NPS will have the dynamic range to show the surrounding neighborhood very well if that blinding sign is properly exposed when it's almost dark out.