I would love to hear any information about shooting at night especially the development of the film(black and white). i assume since the exposures will be long to underexposure a little and overdevelop? Or is it the other way around? Perhaps I would need to underdevelop to bring down the contrast. Or should I go ahead and read the SBR and let that tell me how much to develop the film? Also what films and developers have any of you liked with night photography? Thanks a lot!

-- kathleen (dogdishz@prodigy.net), October 17, 2001

Answers

Shoot while keeping in mind reciprocity characteristics of your film. Try tray processing by inspection so you can see the density build to a level you can live with. If you underexpose you will have clear areas of no density & nothing you do will get them back. Overexposing will add some density and you can always reduce it if you want. Try a few sheets of film & see how they do in your darkroom and then fine tune from there.

-- Dan Smith (shooter@brigham.net), October 17, 2001.

The reciprocity effect will be more pronounced in the shadows (lower density due to failure of reciprocity) and less so in areas of relatively higher luminosity (more light means less failure of reciprocity), therefore, if you do not adjust your development you will get a very long scale negative. As a starting point you might try 20% less development for about 20 seconds of exposure. I have some notes on more of this and if I find them I'll pass the info along.

Have fun...

Mike

-- Mike (watgo@aol.com), October 18, 2001.

Here are my sugestions: Burn the film -- 10 minutes is not too long sometimes. Stand between your camera and the most anoying streetlight keeping the camera in the shadow (as well as the hood). If you are near a street, cars and trucks will vibrate your tripod. Pre-expose the negitive either with a flash light or on a well lit sidewalk, or ahead if time if you have a film holder - if you can't double expose, then point the camera at the concrete under a street light and waive it around so nothing focuses then re-cap the lens keeping it open. pre-espose 3 stops below what your meter says. cover the lens with a black hat or black card when anoying lights go by. A cloudy night can look way way beter than star tracks. Don't be afraid of a lamp in your picture as the halo can look good. don't cry when you have to throw out a negitive that you stood in the cold @*(*@$%! for 45 minutes to get. Walk around and pop trees with a flash -- you won't get in the photo and no one is going to steal your camera at night (a night photographer is a crazzy person who people avoid). Just my experience Dean

-- Dean Lastoria (dvlastor@sfu.ca), October 25, 2001.

It's fun to put your camera on a tripod and use a cable to open the shutter, just walk away for an hour or so, and when developed see the streaking stars and flight of aircraft above an object ( house, etc ).

-- John L. Blue (bluescreek@hotmail.com), October 25, 2001.

The ingredients of good night photography are: High speed film of whatever flavor pleases you, A sturdy tripod, a cable release with a locking screw or device, or camera that will calculate the exposure for you, an interesting subject (Why are there are more night photos taken of unphotogenic sites and buildings? Because it's dark, and nobody can see the scabrous and/or boring nature of the subject?)Most are poorly composed, too. Hmmmm. Set the camera to Bulb or the equivalent, and squeeze the release and lock it. Follow the manufacturer's recommendations for exposure, and bracket widely. The first roll, process per instructions in a STANDARD developer to see where you need to go. Personally, I never sharpened my darkroom ability enough so I could develop 35mm or 21/4 by inspection. The most important thing is SECURITY!!! Be aware of your surroundings. There are NASTY people out there. Unless you care to drag along a brace of Rottweilers, who WILL screw up the whole effort up by wrapping their leashes around any object that remotely resembles a tripod, after thoroughly "marking" it. This causes the camera to make expensive noises against the ground. (Don't ask me how I know this!) This also causes no end of hilarity among the denizens of the night. YOU won't see them, but they ARE there. Go in a group, or at least with a partner, although even that may not be sufficient deterrent. Recently, a local couple went to a reservoir to photograph the moon rise, when a goblin, who had spent some time hunting a victim, shot them both, killing him,and crippling her. The best photo in the world is not worth that. Have fun with this magical pastime called photography, But do be careful! CC

-- Carl Crosby (hummnboid@aol.com), October 30, 2001.

Hi Kathleen

Your big problem will be too much contrast, so a forgiving, high-speed film (say, 400), exposed at 200, and under developed is helpfull. This is the opposite of "pushing" film, which increases speed, along with grain and especially contrast, which is absolutley not what you want.

I would highly recomend good 'ol Tri-X-Pan, in combination with D-76 developer. The two were made for each other, and have evolved together for 5 decades! They're a very solid, predictable combination. Kodak publishes development and reciprocity tables on line.

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/f9/f9.shtml

Reciprocity (If you don't already know) is the tendency for film to become less sensitive to light with long exopsures, and it usually becomes very aparent at around 10 sec. or more, so you'll have to pay attention to it.

Whatever you do, pick one film and one developer, and stick with them until you're confident in your ability to get the images you want. Keep Notes!

In general, exposure is responsible for putting the detail on the nagative, development is responsible for contrast. Expose so that there's (at least some) shadow detail, adjust film development so the the negs print well on a grade 2-3 paper. Guessing exposure is mostly a matter of instinct, but you'll probably be surprised at how fast that instinct develops. You'll be experimenting for a while.

For equiptment, a solid tripod, cable release, penlight, and a watch you can read in the dark, are the essentials. I also carry a 5X7 black card - usefull for quickly covering the lens whenever a car's headlights intrude. Not too many light meters work well at night, one that does is the Gossen Luna-six.

I'd also suggest, for your first experiments, picking a spot that's safe and secluded, like your own, or a friends back yard where you can spend as much time as like, and where you can return and repeat any experiments that didn't go as hoped.

Lastly, Go to the library and see if they have a copy of Darkroom (Edited by Eleanor Lewis, published by Lustrum Press). In it there is a fantastically excellent piece by photographer Jerry Burchard on just this topic.

It's winter, and the nights are getting longer, have fun and good hunting.

-- David Dutchison (ddutt@telus.net), November 02, 2001.

Laughing at Dean's comment "a night photographer is a crazzy person who people avoid" tooo funny... here are some old prints i just scanned... some are long night photo's... (don't worry i got plenty of kicks... and the one "nightgold" i look pretty evil well especially gloomy...) >anyways.. here are my comments...

why black and white? having gone into digital.. you have more control with color.. then you can always drop the color to black and white... especially since the colors get some odd muted saturated colors from long exposures.. as opposed to black and white which go white (instead of muting off... that is) side note: have you tried positive black and white film with night photography?

minor comment.. though i imagine someone already stated this... you can underexpose.. but that means your just pushing the film.. then i guess it is a good habit taking 2 of everything... with my infared i was taking 4... though after a while you just get a feel for it... and reciprocity is on your side with long exposures... just with color.. it's more like taking multiple black and white images at once...

thanks for reading my jibberish!

keep on rockin

*N

-- Neil (nlobocki@umich.edu), January 12, 2002.