4x5 Color Neg. film for night photography

[Jon_2416]

Hey group,

I shoot about 99% B/W, but I have found a place that I'd like to shoot at night in color. The street is fairly well lit, but I'll need something that has good reciprocity characteristics. Several of the buildings are painted in with a pastel paint and I'd like to render that accurately--so I'm not interested in the vivid films. I'm going to go back tonight and meter to get a better idea what kind of exposure I'm looking at.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Jon_2416]

I guess I should mention I'll be scanning and outputting digitally. I'm not opposed to using chromes, either.

[michael waldron]

I have used Fuji NPS with long exposures and at night with good results. It is not too saturated and is relatively low in contrast. Reciprocity info is available on the Fuji website, but I went to 30-90 second exposures with little problem.

[David R Munson]

<img src="http://www.davidrmunson.com/ref/night_nps.jpg"
©2004 David R Munson

I've used NPS for night stuff with exposures up into the 8-minute range with excellent results. It scans well, too. The above shot was actually done on 120 NPS, but it should give you some idea of what a 5-minute exposure looks like...and for the record there *is* full detail in the grassy foreground, but depending on your monitor's gamma you might not be able to see it too well.

[David R Munson]

...because I'm picky and absent-minded...
Image ©2004 David R Munson

[Jon_2416]

Well, I took out my trusty digi-crap camera and took some shots of the lighting at the scene. It is a combination of icky warm orange street lights/alley lights, and several cold blue spot lights. The first pic is the alley lights, the second the spot lights, and the third shows the combination of the blue on the left and the orange on the right.

So, I wonder how NPS will handle the mix of lights? Any thoughts?

[Bob._3483]

I'm no expert on night time photography (or indeed, anything else really...), but the first thing that strikes me is that those in-frame lights are going to give you major headaches if you shoot at night. Better I think to shoot at dusk/pre-dawn when there is some light to balance the artificial lighting. All I can say on the film front is that you want low contrast....

Cheers,

[Tim Curry]

If you are working at night and want to try to do colors which are correct, I would try a tungsten film, not a daylight film. I have only used transparency film for this type of work (Fuji's 64t is very good), but would be inclined to use a tungsten print film if this is what you like. Try several varities, but color at night is much closer with tungsten.

One new film which is supposed to do well with mixed lighting situations is the new Velvia 100. I have not tried it at night, but a friend has said he gets good results with it at night.

[tim atherton]

Just came across this website via the ever fascinating Conscientious Photoweblog

http://new.heimat.de/pixelprojekt/themen/index_details.php3?id_obj=84