Covering the light conditions by picking a higher ISO

[stephen_asprey2]

<p>I am just starting out on street photography. In a day I would not use a whole roll of 36 TRX. I'm picky. I know that TRX can be pushed to ISO1600 at a pinch. The light in the morning and during the day would indicate that even 400 ISO would be too fast. But in the evenings and at night and using 400TRX, I would need to set the camera to ISO 800 or even 1600. I want to set the iso on the camera for the whole day, for the whole film. If I chose 800 or 1600, that would be good for the night shots, but what effect would it have on the daytime shots?<br>

I also don't do my own processing, so I am limited to what a B&W lab can do.</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>"The light in the morning and during the day would indicate that even 400 ISO would be too fast. " ISO 400 is in no way "too fast" for the type of shooting you're talking about. In fact, 400 is the base speed for B&W news/street/documentary shooting. Just about anything of this genre you've seen from the 1960s onward has been shot on 400 speed if not higher. Tri-X is the classic film for this type of work and its standard rating is 400. If you shoot 800 or 1600 during daylight, you're just making your shots grainier and more contrasty for no reason. Really better to cahgne film. Believe me, you will shoot up 36 exposures easily. There will be times in street shooting where you get off only a single shot. But most times you're either going to fire off as multiple frames to get the right expression, or to get different angles, etc. as you "work" the scene. Also for bracketing exposure if need be. Even if you only shoot three frames of each "picture," a roll of 36 only yield a dozen "pictures." And you can easily go through a 36 to yield one or two "final product" pictures.</p>

[bgelfand]

<p>Set the ISO you need for subdued light and use a neutral density filter to compensate for too bright a light, e.g. set the ISO for 400 and put a one stop neutral density filter on your lens during the day to bring the effective speed of the film down to 200.</p>

[stephen_asprey2]

<p>Both good solutions...thank you.</p>