Night photo & high contrast / N-2 / how to expose

[Jon Warwick]

I plan to photograph (at night) a beautiful bridge in London called Albert Bridge -- many images of it at night are available via a quick web search .... basically, it is brightly lit with lightbulbs along the side of the bridge and its suspension cables, but underneath the bridge, the bridge's vertical supports and the Thames river are in shadow.

I'm new to LF, and have not previously attempted to compress the contrast range using film development times (ie, n-1 or n-2).

Could I kindly ask how seasoned LF photographers would attempt to calculate the exposure at night of this subject? I have a Pentax Digital Spotmeter.

I highly suspect the range is > 5 stops between shadow detail (ie, under the bridge) and the highlights (the lightbulbs on the bridge).

I would greatly appreciate any thoughts you have on what part of the bridge you would use as the basis for a good exposure reading using a spotmeter; whether you would recommend n-1 or or n-2; and how I incorporate this into a brief for a processing lab.

This could be a ridiculous question ..... but does the exposure at which I take the photo (eg, 4 seconds at F16) remain the same, regardless of whether I tell the lab to process the film as normal, or at (say) n-2 to hopefully tone down the highlights?

I've even studied Mr Adam's book on the Negative, but I'm still not really there on the zone system, etc. I'm hoping an alternative explanation about a subject matter that I can relate to will help me tackle this contrasty night scene.

I will be using Fuji Acros 100 as the film.

My sincere thanks for your help.

[Vaughn]

You picked a good film -- it has less of a reciprocity failure rate than most.

The simple answer is to bracket -- actually not bracket, but meter the shadows. If your meter says "2" for the darkest shadows (that you want to see into), a "normal" exposure would be at "4". If the exposure you use is longer than a couple seconds (but less than perhaps 8), then I would increase the exposure by one stop to take care of reciprocity. Expose one sheet at 3, one at 2 and one at 1 (and one at 0 if you want to do an even four negs)...and have them developed normally if the hightlights are not too extreme (You can let streetlights go pure white -- don't worry about them). But if you have lit area that reads 6 stops brighter than your darkest shadow, then you might want to have the lab develop the set of negs at n-1, or if more than 6 stops brighter go with n-2.

Just keep notes on what your meter read and what you used for exposures and the next time you photograph in the same light, you can nail it on the head.

One can go deeper into explanations, but just going out and doing it will give you t he most info.

and as they say, your mileage may differ (or do they say "kilometerage" in Europe?)

Vaughn

[Robert Budding]

Fuji Acros 100 is, indeed, an excellent choice of film for night photography.

I took a night photography workshop about a year ago and I found that my light meter was useless. There just was not enough light to get a reading from the shadows. I, instead, used guidlines developed by the instructor, Lance Keimig. Lots of info can be found here:

http://www.thenocturnes.com/resources.html

[John Ossi]

How about setting up the tripod where it can remain unmoved for several hours, exposing once at dusk and a second time on the same film for the lights after dark.

[Phil Hudson]

How about setting up the tripod where it can remain unmoved for several hours, exposing once at dusk and a second time on the same film for the lights after dark.

Nice idea but even in SW3 I'd put money on the tripod being permanently "removed" before first light breaks! I used to live next to the bridge - unfortunately I wasn't very photograhically aware in those days but it would make a great subject.

Good Luck!

[tgtaylor]

I took this image of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco a few years ago using Fuji Acros 100, a Pentax digital spot meter, and a 150mm lens. I believe that I put the bridge lights on zone 5 (or maybe 6). The brighter parts of the water read around 1EV. Because I didn't have a fresnel at the time, I doubled the exposure to f16 for 1 minute to insure sharpness. The bright lights under the bridge in the distant background are from the Port of Oakland. Normal development and straight scan with an Epson 3200. I cropped-out a dark Treasure Island on the far left (you start to see the dark shadow at that point).

[rjbrine]

To help with the high contrast situation you may want to try and shoot just after twilight rather than full dark. It is all about the relationships between the ambient light and the artificial light. If you can help the film out by choosing your time carefully you should end up with a decent negative. If it is too dark for your light meter try some type 54 Polaroid - if there is any left...

[ki6mf]

You may want to try F22 for 5 minutes or F32 for 10 minutes. Use a D 76 diluted as a compensating developer (1 part developer to 5 parts water for 15 or 17 minutes depending on testing. Adgitate 10 Seconds every 2 Minutes