How do you meter night shots.

[rguinter]

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but a simple question shouldn't take it away on an unwanted tangent.

Is anyone shooting Kodak Ektar 100 at night?

I bought two boxes over the summer and used it all up on daylight shots. But I just replaced my stock and I intend to try some at night.

I'm just wondering if anyone has tried it at night and how does it compare to other films?

Bob G.

[Lachlan 717]

If shooting B&W you should shoot and bracket exposures by 5 10 15 20 40 minute exposures.

Why would you do a theoretic half-stop bracket (i.e. the 15 minute one), especially given how it is impacted by reciprocity failure?

Seems a waste of 15 minutes to me.

I'd probably bracket at 5, 12, 35, 90 minutes. And hope no stars or planes are in shot.

Realistically, reciprocity is going to smash you on these types of shots. Finesse can be thrown out the window...

[Randy]

For ISO 100, my official Black Cat Extended Range Exposure Guide says:
- for distant city skylines at night: f/11 for 3 min.
- bright Broadway type streets: f/11 for 1 sec.

[Brian Legge]

Last time I shot at night - my first time out with a LF camera actually - I found a nearby street light and took an incident reading under it. I wanted that in the shadow so I just put the result in zone 4. I didn't have anything to spot meter with me so I figured that would be a decent approximation.

That plus reciprocity adjustment worked well enough for me. I ended up with this:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/cannelbrae/5310148687

[ki6mf]

Why would you do a theoretic half-stop bracket (i.e. the 15 minute one), especially given how it is impacted by reciprocity failure?

Seems a waste of 15 minutes to me.

I'd probably bracket at 5, 12, 35, 90 minutes. And hope no stars or planes are in shot.

Realistically, reciprocity is going to smash you on these types of shots. Finesse can be thrown out the window...

Reason i go 15 minutes is the ambient light from the surrounding scene varies with each shot. While it may be a lost exposure for a given lighting situation it may also be the right exposure and bracketing time is the only way to find out. This is the case when there is lots of ambient light when, for example in the middle of New York city. I have taken to shooting with two cameras one set up for the long exposures and the other for the bracket shoots with the 5-10-15-20 exposures while the 40 minute camera is on the clock. I do waste a few negatives this way and would rather do this method than re shoot after developing.

[Grif]

What a previous poster said
http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

It's a good read

[SocalAstro]

What a previous poster said
http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

It's a good read

+1 for the Ultimate Exposure Calc. I keep a laminated version of this in my camera bag all the time :-)

-Leon