Excuse my asking,,,,

[Pfiltz]

but when I first started film, approx 9 months ago, fall/winter were moving in, and I wasn't too interested in shooting long exposures.

Now that we have some nice summer evenings, I'm thinking of shooting a long exposure of the night sky. I will be using a Graphlex Graphic View camera, with Foma 100 speed b/w film.

I know that you have to take into consideration reciprocity failure. I'm trying to find a RF calculator now on the web. Having said that, how do you meter the shot? I mean, it will be in full darkness under a starry night sky?

I did find this link on RF
http://home.earthlink.net/~kitathome/LunarLight/moonlight_gallery/technique/reciprocity.htm

Then of course, there is the problem of focusing....

Have any of you shot such images?

TIA

[BrianShaw]

I don't shoot in that style, but have met Kit and know that he is quite experienced and successful. Do as he suggests and you should be fine!

For focus, I'd say that infinity focus is most appropriate and can be established with a ruler if your not sure that infinity is correctly set on your camera.

[Michael Lloyd]

I think I'll tag along on this thread. I shoot long exposures fairly often in the digital world, sometimes in conjunction with a time lapse sequence. When you say long are you talking 1 minute plus? When I shoot the sky I tend to try to keep my exposure under 15 - 20s to minimize trailing. Sometimes trailing is desirable I guess.

[Pfiltz]

When you say long are you talking 1 minute plus? When I shoot the sky I tend to try to keep my exposure under 15 - 20s to minimize trailing. Sometimes trailing is desirable I guess.

That's just it. I'm not sure how long to expose for. I guess I could just go for a 3 minute exposure, develope, and see what I get ;)

According to a chart I have, 100 sec is 1600 sec exposure...

I would like to have some long trails, OR, maybe a clear night of the milky way?

[Jim Noel]

Focus on Infinity.
Aim the camera toward north or northwest.
With the lens wide open, open the shutter and leave it for at least an hour. If you want nice long star trails, leave it open from darkness until just before dawn.
A moonless night is best.

[Pfiltz]

Jim? All night? Seriously? So maybe I can get a decent shot of 3 hours or so? With a long exposure, do you develope the film any differently with regard to time? Right now, I'm developing my Foma in D-76 for 7 minutes.. for normal daytime shots.

I have the luxury of having NO light pollution here. I'm totally in the deep sticks.. .:)

[Michael Lloyd]

I realize that digital and film are not analogous to one another but there is a little bit of correlation so maybe this will help and if nothing else maybe someone that knows better than I what, if any, correlation there is will respond and I'll learn something.

I shot this in what is one of the darkest locations in Texas, possibly the US. Old Terlingua cemetery near Big Bend National Park.

1DMKIV
14mm f2.8L lens
ISO 3200
30s @f3.2 (not sure why it's not f2.8. Definitely not done on purpose)

98379

This is a shot of my old barn and the center of the Milky Way. The barn has about a 1s blip of light from an LED flashlight on it. I live in an area that gets light pollution from just about all sides. The view is to the south. To my east is Houston. I called them and asked them to turn their lights off and they hung up on me... To the south is Corpus Christi and the Gulf Coast. To the NW is Austin. I'm about 7 miles from a few small towns on IH10.

60Da
21mm Zeiss Distagon T* f2.8 lens (one of the finest pieces of glass that I have ever shot with)
ISO 3200
15s @f2.8

98380

[Peter Gomena]

With 100 ISO Foma film and a press or view camera lens, you will need a fairly long exposure. I'd guess it's a minimum of 20 minutes with the lens wide open. About two hours of exposure gives a good star trail. I'd extend your film development time about 30-50% to increase contrast.

When I was in photo school we did a couple of night-sky assignments. Standard procedure was IS0 400 film, minimum 20 minutes at f/2.8, push the film one stop in development to build contrast. It worked consistently and well. Without a tracking telescope mount, it's pretty difficult to avoid the apparent movement using film. You might be successful using Ilford 3200 film in roll-film format.

[Regular Rod]

but when I first started film, approx 9 months ago, fall/winter were moving in, and I wasn't too interested in shooting long exposures.

Now that we have some nice summer evenings, I'm thinking of shooting a long exposure of the night sky. I will be using a Graphlex Graphic View camera, with Foma 100 speed b/w film.

I know that you have to take into consideration reciprocity failure. I'm trying to find a RF calculator now on the web. Having said that, how do you meter the shot? I mean, it will be in full darkness under a starry night sky?

I did find this link on RF
http://home.earthlink.net/~kitathome/LunarLight/moonlight_gallery/technique/reciprocity.htm

Then of course, there is the problem of focusing....

Have any of you shot such images?

TIA

I focus as normal and use the reciprocity failure adjustments recommended by the film manufacturer.

RR

[dsphotog]

Startrails
night-moonless
Film-100
F-5.6
Time-2hrs+

[rcmartins]

I have some experience on photographing long exposures, exposures from 4 min. to 40 min. and more. However, how you meter and focus depends on the subject and film. I don't have any experience with foma on those long exposures because I have the feeling it will behave very badly due to an abnormally bad reciprocity failure. I used to use efke 25. That film produced gorgeous night shots. The next best thing, for me, would be acros, which is what I am using since the sudden disappearance of efke last year. The reason why reciprocity matters is because sensitivity will be different in highlighted and non-highlighted zones having a very strong non-linear response overall in terms of gray range. As for the metering it will also depend on the type of look you will be trying to convey with your photos. They could be night shots with luminosity as in daylight, faithfull night shots, or something in between. These factors should be evaluated in conjunction with your developer and developing style. No definite answers can be given. These things are very operator dependent.
As for focusing I use the brightest light near the zone of interest or use a flashlight, but depends heavily on ehat I am shooting.

[Greg Miller]

That's just it. I'm not sure how long to expose for. I guess I could just go for a 3 minute exposure, develope, and see what I get ;)

According to a chart I have, 100 sec is 1600 sec exposure...

I would like to have some long trails, OR, maybe a clear night of the milky way?

A 3 minute exposure will get you uncomfortably between pin point stars and star trails. For pin points you need to keep exposure under 30 seconds. For star trail you want at least 30 minutes (depends on how long you want the trails to be). 3 minutes will look like a mistake - no longer pin points, but barely long enough to be seen as purposeful star trails...