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[OM] Re: TOPE 36 call for entries, and extended shooting period

Subject: [OM] Re: TOPE 36 call for entries, and extended shooting period
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:15:11 -0500
Now that I've had a chance to reflect on it a bit more I realize that I 
have taken photos of Christmas lights, carnivals, fireworks, etc. but 
have not done any of this night shooting for at least 20 years.

When I have questions about tricky lighting situations I generally refer 
to my copy of Brian Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" (a great book by 
the way).  I did consult the book before posing my exposure question 
here but was surprised to discover that he offered no guidance on what I 
would call true dark conditions.  All of his examples are shots taken at 
very late dusk or early dawn when there is at least some light left in 
the sky.  Then he falls back on one of his favorite methods of exposure 
determination which is to meter the sky.

I also sometimes consult my "Black Cat Exposure Guide" which I failed to 
do in this instance.  The Black Cat gives guidance on shooting various 
scenes lit by either the full, half or quarter moon, buildings lit by 
dim or bright floodlights, neon signs, carnivals at night, floodlit 
monuments, nightime skylines, directly under a street light, street 
scenes with bright lighting, brightly lit store windows, etc.  Plenty 
there to give an idea of what's required.

But if I actually do this I think I'll probably drag the 5 lb. light 
meter with me as Moose suggested.  But I doubt if the "meter" will be 
able to handle more than about a 30 second exposure without a lot of 
noise or hot pixels popping up.  But I guess that's not important if I 
don't intend to use the shot.  And there's one other thing I don't know 
about.  I haven't seen any data on reciprocity failure for many years. 
The digi has some shortcomings on long exposures but reciprocity failure 
is not one of them.  Assuming the correct exposure is some 30 seconds on 
the "meter" do I have to add 50 or 100% to the film version to account 
for reciprocity failure?

Chuck Norcutt




Olaf Greve wrote:

> 
> Then a thing Chuck wrote:
> 
>  > Will I get a night scene after a second or two or will I get a 30  
> second exposure
>  > that looks close to a daylight shot?
> 
> I couldn't believe my eyes when reading you hadn't taken a true night  
> shot since 1964; I wasn't even born then!!! :)
> Seriously, you've been missing out all those years! Night photography  
> is great and a lot of fun. It is made very much easier with the digi  
> gear nowadays, as you directly see what you got, whereas this was  
> always a BIG question with film. Regarding the exposures: yes, you can  
> already get true night shots with 1-2 seconds exposures (many night  
> shots are around that time of exposure), it all depends on how much  
> light is emitted/reflected by the objects in your composition then. It  
> tends to get hard when doing longer exposures than this; good support  
> is needed (a tripod tends to do) and one needs to take particular care  
> that there are no 'flaring objects' like street lanterns in your shot  
> (which can be terrible), unless explicitly wanted for some reason  
> (which hardly ever is the case).
> Also, to answer another question of yours: a 30 seconds exposure will  
> still normall not look close to daylight exposures. At night  
> everything looks different, and a whole array of different colours  
> shows up at night. Sometimes this looks kinda spooky, but it does have  
> an atmosphere of its own. Having said this, there was an excellent  
> picture I remember on the "starmatt" site (by Matt Daniels - I believe  
> he's called?), which is baically a night shot of a rainbow formed in  
> the moonlight: that shot did look close to a daylight exposure. Very  
> bizarre. Normally night pictures tend to have a look of their own  
> though: often darkish, with empty streets, yellowish light, and with  
> some distinct red light here and there... Also, night-time lightning  
> is very cool: this will often give purpleish skies etc.
> Just give it a go: you'll love it!! :)
> 
> BTW: a thing I was wondering about, and which I haven't looked up in  
> the manual yet: does the E-500 also do bulb exposures?
> 
> Cheers,
> Olafo
> 
> 
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