What slide film for night photography?

I am just getting into color photography. All my photography up to

date was film based B&W, see my website for type of images I do.

 

As you can see I do/did a lot of night photography and I know

relatively well how to do it well in B&W. I am not so sure about

color.

I want to standardize from the beginning on Fuji slide films. I am

using 120 Velvia for landscape, but I understood it?s not so

recommended for long night exposures (around 30 to 120 sec range)

due to reciprocity failure related color shifts. Fuji in their

Velvia PDF say this:

 

?No exposure correction or color balance compensation

is required for exposures within a shutter speed range of

1/4000 second to 1 second. However, for exposures of

4 seconds or longer, reciprocity-failure related color

balance and exposure compensations are required.?

Exposures of 64 sec and longer are simply Not Recommended.

 

Question 1: does anyone has samples of long night exposures on

Velvia? How does this ?reciprocity-failure related color balance?

look like? Is it wild shift and works well for some scenes or is it

to be avoided at all cost?

 

I understood Provia is much better for night photography, as Fuji in

their Provia PDF say this:

?No exposure correction or color balance compensation

is required for exposures within a 1/4000 to 128 seconds

shutter speed range. However, for exposures of 128 seconds or

longer, reciprocity-failure related color balance

and exposure compensations are required.?

 

This is exactly within my range for long night exposures in the city

(around 30 to 120 sec range).

 

Question 2: does anyone has samples of long night exposures on

Provia? How does Provia renders color at night? I do mostly night

exposures in the city, lit be normal modern city street lights (not

sure what type), so how do night cityscapes look on Provia?

 

Question 3: is there any benefit/reason to use polarizer for night

photography? I can't see any reason to use it at night, but I am so

new to color photography... What about using warming filter at

night, like 81B?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Regards,

 

 

Philip Pankov Photography

 

http://www.PhilPankov.com

 

Fine Art Black & White Photography

Started doing my web research after I posted this a few minutes ago and come across this:

 

Color outdoor pictures at night can be made on either daylight or tungsten-type films. Pictures made on daylight film have a warm, yellow-red appearance. Those made on tungsten film have a colder more natural look; however, both films provide pleasing results, so it is a matter of personal preference which you use.

 

Source: http://photoinf.com/General/NAVY/Basic_lighting_techniques-_Outdoor_and_Existing_ligt_photography.htm

 

Fuji has FUJICHROME 64T TYPE II Professional [RTP II] film that is an ISO 64 speed tungsten-type high image quality color reversal film.

 

Anyone has experience in using this film for night city photography? It seems like it would suit since it?s balanced for tungsten-type light and this is the lighting used in city street lights?

 

Regards,

 

Philip Pankov Photography

 

http://www.PhilPankov.com

 

Fine Art Black & White Photography

Velvia suffers from reciprocity failure more than other slide films so you really need to expose for longer than you think you should. It is also contrasty, very difficult to scan and shifts green.

 

Provia under street lights doesn't have much of a cast at all. Long exposures under moonlight give you aqua/sea-green skies. I like the look for some scenes. Sensia is more neutral and easier to scan than the others.

<p>Phillip,</p>

 

<p>I use RTP for some of my night photography - including street scenes. It's an excellent film, but it's very dense (like Velvia) and very hard to scan properly.</p>

<p>The slides are incredible on a light table, but if I want to show them big I'll probably have to get optical prints done.</p>

<p>For this reason the majority of my casual night photography is done with b&w film or with a digital sensor.</p>

<p>I've shot some night stuff with Provia, but the colors can be unpredictable at times. Provia is much easier to scan however. I've been wanting to try Sensia at night, and see if it has the same unpredictable color weirdness.</p>

<p>Best thing to do is try a few different rolls, and see what you think...</p>

<p>John P.<br>www.orbit1.com</p>

Great discussion and advice, as always!

Anyone has any pointers to samples on the web to check out?

Also, is there any benefit/reason to use polarizer for night photography? I can't see any reason to use it at night, but I am so new to color photography... What about using warming filter at night, like 81B?

Regards,

 

Philip Pankov Photography

 

http://www.PhilPankov.com

 

Fine Art Black & White Photography

If you insist on using a slide film, I would recommend you to try Elite chrome 100, which seems to give excellent results to my night photography, although it is contrasty. To get a wider range of tones you can use a tungsten film but they tend to be grainy, and you sort of need to warm them up with a filter to get nice colours. I would stay with Elite chrome 100 for first experiments. It's unthinkable to "standardize" on some slide film type, as they each have their specific strong and weak points and you are not likely to get consistently good results with one film (even one film family) alone.

 

In general, better results in this type of photography are obtained by using color negative films such as elite color 200 or 100UC. Try them also although you mentioned slide film. Also scan them and see how the digital prints come out. Remember to overexpose terribly (2-3 stops from average reading) when you use color negs in night photography.

I've done experiments with night photography back in school. I was instructed to use tungsten chromes cause it has better latitude. Which worked out great. Use tungsten chrome along with some daylight conversion filters. This should give you better results than using daylight. If I remember correctly, the filters used were 81b and cc025M. I'm not sure if this is correct, maybe some other photo.net members could verify.

The filters you will probably need to correct for Fujifilm green would be either a CC10M or CC20M. IMHO, you'll be better off using Kodak E100 or E200.

I have shot Elitechrome 100 and Sensia 100 side by side and found very similar color response. I felt that the Sensia was somehow sharper, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend either.

 

Here's where you should go:

http://www.thenocturnes.com/

 

In the gallery you can see what tungsten-balanced film looks like (hint: blue sky= tungsten) as well as other choices.

Enjoy.

I tested them all at 30 sec and Provia 100F is still the best in terms of reciprocity failure. It's sort of cool though. Astia 100F, E100G and E100GX are excellent too... they lose a bit more speed than Provia and gain more contrast, but show less of the cool color shift. Velvia 100F is a tremendous improvement over Velvia 50, but still very contrasty for long exposures.<P>The worst by far are Velvia 50 and Kodachrome 64, and none of the faster emulsions work very well.<P>Karl Lehmann <a href="http://www.lostworldarts.com/new_page_3.htm">Lost World Arts</a>

I really like using Kodak E100SW slide film. It's an older, discontinued emulsion, but Kodak makes a new version called E100GX. It seems to have good reciprocity characteristics and I like the warm, saturated tones. Skies still come out blue. I use a Nikon EM or FE2 on "A" mode. Just set it on a decent tripod, use a $5 cable release and you're good. Take a look here: http://makeashorterlink.com/?F25E323EA<div></div>

I found that Provia turns bright yellow-orange streetlights into green-yellow. I had an orange-yellow lighted church ruin turn the same color (however, I did not notice it that much the last times... Provia changed?) Kodak E100GX is not any better, and for longer exposures the cloudy city night sky can even get a green cast, more than Provia would. <br>

Sensia is actually very accurate, Velvia 100F too but any off-color will be saturated more. Kodak EPN, which I ran through my 6x6 a few times because a store did not have my favorite films, also did very well at night. Not for just after dusk - turned cyanish, but Velvia 100F also cyan-purple. Just my personal observations... <br>

for daytime, I like Provia/E100GX/new Elite Chrome 100 EB-3<br>

Some examples of night shots with film info can be viewed on my <A HREF="http://www.lightningwizard.com" target="_blank">website</A>

Here's an example of Sensia- probably about 3 min @ f5.6 well past dusk.<div></div>

www.nightphotographer.com was featured in Photolife a few months ago. He uses Tungsten based film.

 

I've used Superia 400 and Kodak 160T Ecktachrome and had some decent results. Any failure was shooter related.

I know this thread is old, but I've just go to say: Roger, I love that night picture!

 

Chris