Exposure metering old ships at night

<p>Next weekend I will be taking my R8 as well as my 90mm AA Summicron and 180mm APO Elmarit with T-max 400 to capture images of old ships in a harbor after dark. The ships will have somewhat small strings of lights in certain areas signifying a holiday celebration; otherwise, there will probably be complete darkness. I also suspect I will be many hundreds of feet away from them. Having never experienced this type of setting, what do I do about exposure metering? A well-experienced photographer last night told me to open up the 90mm Summicron to f/2 and set the shutter speed to 1/15th of a second with my R8 on a monopod. Of course, that would not therefore be based on my using spot or matrix metering but, rather, his recommendation only. Nevertheless, does that sound essentially correct? If not, please indicate your workable experiences. Thank you!<br>

Terry</p>

<p>This is a nice guide: http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm</p>

<p>Well, it's a starting point. But you do have an LCD screen to view your exposures. That alone should get you in the ballpark. I don't have an M8, but I assume it has a histogram display. I would check that the histogram is within the left and right limits; that is, not running off at either end. If that is not possible, owing to the high contrast I believe you are describing, I would be tempted to expose to avoid underexposure, since the shadows sound like they might be the most important part of the scene. Usually I don't like to blow out highlights, but in this case the highlights may only be light bulbs. Better yet, bracket several exposures over and under. Then pick the best ones later. After all, electrons are fully recyclable!</p>

<p>Hi Terry, Many years ago Popular Photography magazine printed a make it your self night photography calculator. The magazine page was glued to cardboard and folded to make a simple slide rule. I just happen to still have mine, copyright 1964 by S.P Martin.<br>

The closest scene was, "Dimly lighted boat yards, dock and wharfs". For 400ASA the calculator suggests.... 1" @ f/2.8 , 3" @ f/4 , 12" @ f/8 <br>

Looks like you're going to need a tripod with those longer lenses. The above is just a hint, bracket widely. Have fun, film has quite a bit of latitude to cover mistakes.</p>

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<p>@Rob F. He said <b>R</b>8, and T-max 400 does not come with a preview mode :-)</p>

 

<p>Exposure really depends on what you want to show. Do you want the ships to be well-exposed, with the lights edging towards being blown out, or do you want to expose for the lights, and leave the ships as dark silhouettes?</p>

 

<p>In either case, you're going to need a tripod.</p>

<p>I took a scene which showed mostly ferry lights and not much ferry on Sydney Harbour, with the flood-lit sails of the Opera House in the background with my little point and shoot sitting on the dock: 2.5s at f5.6 ISO 100, which accords pretty well with Glenn's 1964 guide above. At the longer time exposures the movement of the boats on the water will be a factor unless it is dead calm.</p>

<p>Expose for the night sky -- I bet your ships/lights will turn out fine</p>

<p>Terry,<br>

There is a full moon tomorrow and a last quarter moon on the 9th.<br>

I don't know if you have spent much time in places that aren't light polluted, but this means that if the skies are clear, you are going to have a lot of light from the moon. You might also want to find out where the moon is going to be in the sky when you take your photographs.</p>

<p>I got a Minolta Spot Meter just for this sort of thing. It allows me to take multiple spot meterings and average them. In fact, it is a most impressive device and has a much, much better viewfinder than any other spot meter I have found. Look for one!</p>

<p>You could take multiple meterings and average them mentally. I am not sure if the R8 has a spot meter, but if it does you're set. If not, I would simply meter something that looks to be in similar light and bracket a bit.</p>

<p>I'd just take a digital to test out exposures. Once it's right, do it on film.</p>