Night photography in Paris & NYC

So I'm going to give night photography a shot (punny!) -- mostly city

street scenes, using a tripod of course, and either a medium format

or 4x5 press camera, standard BW films. My hand held incident light

meter is useless of course because its not sensitive enough. Then I

have to worry about reciprocity failure too, I think. Any quick and

dirty guides to BW night photography that you can suggest? Any quick-

start hints or suggestions? Thanks much!

bracket. bracket alot.

Among my photos here at <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=233761">Photo.Net</a> there are a few night shots from my first ever attempt at night photography. I bracketed all shots on the roll (+/-1 stop) and out of the 12 scenes there was only one case where I had a hard time choosing between two exposures. In all other cases the metered one was spot on. Here are my thoughts on the subject...

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First a disclaimer, these were taken in Sweden on a late summers night, and here in Stockholm it can be quite light even late in the evening. As you can see in the pictures it is seldom pitch black. But then I find that most "night" shots are actually most interesting when shot in the twilight/dusk unless special lighting are available.

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My advice is to take your time. The camera should be on a tripod and use some remote or wire operate the shutter. I used the in-camera meter of the Nikon F80/N80 I had, and set it to spot. I metered off a uniform area and if I knew that it was for example a light wall I adjusted the value. Most often I could meter from the asphalt of a road or a "medium" dark wall and use that value "directly".

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Then I applied compensation for the reciprocity failure according to the manufacturers data sheet. Note all exposure times and the conditions. This will make it easier when going back to learn what worked or what went wrong.

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When choosing film I chose one that I was told had as little color shifting as possible when used for long exposures. If you are using BW then this is, of course, a non-issue. But I recommend color photography. The long exposure times and the lights really come out in a way that our human vision does not register it, in my experience quite pleasing. Try a roll for fun.

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If you do not have a suitable meter (not even in another camera) you will have to resort to some kind of tables and then bracketing becomes much more important. One such table is the <a href="http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm">Ultimate Exposure Computer</a>, another one is the Jiffy Calculator I found in an old photo magazine from the 60's. I created my <a href="http://www.stacken.kth.se/~maxz/programming.html#newjiffycalculator">own version</a> but have never really tried it as I bought my hand held spot meter shortly after.

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I hope that this helped you a little. It would be nice to hear how your session went. Remember, patience and being thorough pays off.

Aslan,

 

In NYC and Paris it can be difficult to use a Tripod without getting in trouble with the

Police. Maybe look for a small tabletop tripod as an option.

 

I would suggest burning up some 35mm before using the 4x5 so you are more free to

experiment and bracket your exposures.

In this situation, there's no substitute for a spot-meter. A cheap, readily-available alternative is a 35mm SLR with a TTL partial meter and a long lens, which can effectively give you a spot meter.

 

OTOH, there's bracketing. If you want just a general idea of where to start, I find I need somewhere around 1 or 2 EV to shoot a downtown or other well-lighted area from a distance, and to make it look like I want it to. For you math-challeneged people out there, if you use 400-speed film (or some other film rated at EI 400) and 1 EV, you get the rule of 8: exposure of 8 s at f/8. You can start there and bracket.

 

Now if you are shooting in a really well-lit area, you can use much less exposure.

P.S.

Yes, that's 8 s, not 1/8 s. I came to this conclusion looking at slides to see what exposures looked best. Of course, YMMV.

I'm French and I live in Paris. Using a tripod in Paris won't get you into trouble, unless you shoot right under the Eiffel Tower for example.

Some areas in Paris aren't really safe. All the areas around the Eiffel tower and the Louvre are safe.

Paris lights are sodium lights. Those lights are just horrible. A few places in Paris use tungstene lights. Those lights are now used only for historical monuments. All other streets use sodium lights.

Some of the places that don't permit tripods without prior authorisation are closed at night ( eg Luxembourg Gardens) - others are, well, less well manned at night than they are in daylight. In most of Paris there's no problem with a tripod anyway. I think my ingoing assumption would be that I can get the shots I want (subject to technical limitations) rather than being restricted.

Just do it. Then tell them you don't speak or read French when they acost you. Everybody else does the same thing. Better yet, tell them you're American. Then they'll just roll their eyes and mumble something you don't understand.

In NYC, you'll want a permit to avoid interference when put down a tripod. Not just to show the cops, but also security guards, bus drivers, shopkeepers, buttinskys... Basically everyone who thinks you shouldn't be taking photographs because of "terrorism."

 

Permits for NYC are: http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/permits/permit_download.shtml

 

You fax it in the day before, tell them where you'll be shooting and they fax it back. It's a total pain and really steams me, but it's the cost of doing business.

 

Or, act like a tourist. Wear a fanny pack and they'll leave you alone.