Films for night street photography.

Cerebum · Sep 27, 2022

Our camera club is venturing on to the streets after dark for a street photography session. I will be shooting both film and digital. The camera will be an MX with a 50mm f1.4 on board. I have three film choices and am a bit torn so any advice or experience would be gratefully received. My plan is to shoot at EI800. The films are

Kentmere 400 (Agent Shadow). I have never shot this at 800 but the roll shot at box was quite nice and balanced. Kosmo Foto always suggested it was eminently pushable so this is an option.

XP2. I have a bulk roll and have been developing it in HC110 and ID-11 and the results have been stellar, especially at EI100-200 but once again I have never pushed it. I have read that you gain little by pushing this film and just get more contrast so am not sure.

Rollei Retro 400s. I have a bulk roll in the freezer. I could take it out and pop it in my Lloyd loader but that would be temporary as I have a better loader on the way. I am nervous of handling it too much but if this was the best option I will. If it was already in its permanent loader I would just use it as its super panchromatic and could be fabulous.

As I say, any advice or experience would be a huge help

Thanks

Don_ih · Sep 27, 2022

All I would ask is: do you need to push the film? If you will be photographing stationary things and situations, a tripod and knowing the reciprocity characteristics of the film would be useful.

Cerebum · Sep 27, 2022

Don Heisz said:
All I would ask is: do you need to push the film? If you will be photographing stationary things and situations, a tripod and knowing the reciprocity characteristics of the film would be useful.

Thanks Don. I hadn't thought about reciprocity failure as my original plan was to shoot shop fronts and people. The speeds I had in mind were 1/60 and 1/125. It will be something of a run and gun but I will have a tripod with me so that is something I am going to have to look into.

guangong · Sep 27, 2022

A hint: Use exposure tables rather than meter readings. Since the pictures will be taken at night, they should look like night.

pentaxuser · Sep 27, 2022

Cerebum, what might be worthwhile is going to the area at night in which your camera club is intending to shoot and set your ISO speed to that of the speeds of the 3 films then meter typical scenes that you will be shooting and see if the light conditions give you the speeds you think you need

If you are confined to the 3 films you have mentioned then on balance Kentmere may be the best at 800 but I confess to never have used any of the three

If I had a choice of films I'd chose HP5+ which is good at 800 and still very acceptable at 1600

pentaxuser

gone · Sep 27, 2022

I made some night shots in a mixed use Daytona Beach neighborhood once. You'll need the EI of 800, I had quite a bit of camera shake at 400. The meter gets fooled by store front lighting, so you'll be adjusting and using slower shutter speeds that you think.

You can get some good pics if you set the camera on something w/ the shutter open to capture car headlight trails going by an illuminated building. Be sure to bracket!

Paul Howell · Sep 27, 2022

I would shoot at 800, then again I would pick up a few rolls of Tmax 3200 and shoot at 1600, maybe push one roll to 3200.

Sirius Glass · Sep 27, 2022

I have used this night exposure slide rule since 1963 and it has never failed me.

http://www.cppdh.org/download/jiffy-calculator-for-night-light-exposures.pdf

Cerebum · Sep 27, 2022

pentaxuser said:
Cerebum, what might be worthwhile is going to the area at night in which your camera club is intending to shoot and set your ISO speed to that of the speeds of the 3 films then meter typical scenes that you will be shooting and see if the light conditions give you the speeds you think you need

If you are confined to the 3 films you have mentioned then on balance Kentmere may be the best at 800 but I confess to never have used any of the three

If I had a choice of films I'd chose HP5+ which is good at 800 and still very acceptable at 1600

pentaxuser

That's a good idea, although time is short (its Thursday) and the forecast is awful, not that rain is a problem my digital gear is Pentax (KP & K3) so I have some weather resistance I had some xp2 iny MX that I was shooting at EI200 and I managed to hand hold a nice shot of the Chinese takeaway at 1/30 so that is a reference point suggesting I should get similar at 1/125 at EI800 hence aiming for 1/60-1/125. As for the film, Mr Dowling at Kosmo Foto was encouraging people to push agent shadow (probably Kentmere 400) one stop AT LEAST so that is the current pack leader. I bought a bulk roll of XP2 very cheap and have experimented with mono chem and it is excellent but it's out of its comfort zone. The one I would recommend is the Rollei retro 400s. Its old Agfa Aerial film and is high contrast and low grain. It certainly has a distinctive character. I would use that but I am waiting for a Telesar bulk loader to arrive (I bought it after reading of your experiences) until it comes the Rollei will stay in its box.

Cerebum · Sep 27, 2022

guangong said:
A hint: Use exposure tables rather than meter readings. Since the pictures will be taken at night, they should look like night.

Oh they will the plan is to expose just south of the shop fascia lights so I get some shadow detail, but not a lot

Cerebum · Sep 27, 2022

Good plan.

momus said:
I made some night shots in a mixed use Daytona Beach neighborhood once. You'll need the EI of 800, I had quite a bit of camera shake at 400. The meter gets fooled by store front lighting, so you'll be adjusting and using slower shutter speeds that you think.

You can get some good pics if you set the camera on something w/ the shutter open to capture car headlight trails going by an illuminated building. Be sure to bracket!

Bracketing. That's a great call. Its a 36 exposure film so I will have spare frames, particularly as I will be shooting both film and digital

Cerebum · Sep 27, 2022

Paul Howell said:
I would shoot at 800, then again I would pick up a few rolls of Tmax 3200 and shoot at 1600, maybe push one roll to 3200.

Thanks, if I had time I would but I have to go with what I have access to (Kentmere 400, xp2, foma200, and some very expired orwo np27 )

Cerebum · Sep 27, 2022

Sirius Glass said:
I have used this night exposure slide rule since 1963 and it has never failed me.

http://www.cppdh.org/download/jiffy-calculator-for-night-light-exposures.pdf

That looks really useful but as soon as it tried to do it the site wanted my card details, so I may have to find it elsewhere

Sirius Glass · Sep 27, 2022

Cerebum said:
That looks really useful but as soon as it tried to do it the site wanted my card details, so I may have to find it elsewhere

PM your email address to me and I will email them to you.

Films for night street photography.

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