fuji gsw690III & night photography

marton · Mar 9, 2015

I'm pretty copacetic with using digital 35mm for night photography, but where 120 film is concerned, I'll admit it, I'm scared. I don't have any understanding of how say a 400ASA roll of film will behave in a starlit/moonlit landscape - for example, approximate fstop/exposure times to begin and experiment with. So if there are any experienced night shooters around, would they please help a brother out and give me a base from which to work?

Many thanks in advance

frank · Mar 9, 2015

Winter night time, snow covered residential street illuminated by a street light

Fuji gw670ii, tripod

HP5+, f8, 45sec

This provided a well exposed negative with standard development

marton · Mar 9, 2015

Thank you so much Frank. I expect Fuji Pro 400H will be in that ballpark, so I'll write those settings down and refer to them when I head out.

polyglot · Mar 9, 2015

What I do is quickly preview the scene at high ISO on the DSLR and then translate that to the desired exposure on film, including reciprocity failure. For example if you get a good image at 3200, f/4, 1s and are shooting ISO400 you would go for something like f/16 128s plus a reciprocity correction.

RattyMouse · Mar 9, 2015

marton said:
I'm pretty copacetic with using digital 35mm for night photography, but where 120 film is concerned, I'll admit it, I'm scared. I don't have any understanding of how say a 400ASA roll of film will behave in a starlit/moonlit landscape - for example, approximate fstop/exposure times to begin and experiment with. So if there are any experienced night shooters around, would they please help a brother out and give me a base from which to work?

Many thanks in advance

If you look at Fujifilm's tech data sheet for 400H film you'll see that they recommend 16 seconds as the maximum exposure time for this film. That doesnt give you a whole lot to work with if you have very little light and a slow lens. I'm not sure how Kodak's negative film does in these conditions.

Regular Rod · Mar 9, 2015

marton said:
I'm pretty copacetic with using digital 35mm for night photography, but where 120 film is concerned, I'll admit it, I'm scared. I don't have any understanding of how say a 400ASA roll of film will behave in a starlit/moonlit landscape - for example, approximate fstop/exposure times to begin and experiment with. So if there are any experienced night shooters around, would they please help a brother out and give me a base from which to work?

Many thanks in advance

You have one of my favourite cameras for night pictures. I use ILFORD HP5 Plus and expose according to the Zone System using the standard ILFORD Reciprocity Chart to calculate the exposures from the meter reading. I develop in OBSIDIAN AQUA using a semi-stand routine, which helps protect the highlights. The only snag with the Fuji GSW690 III is the design fault with regard to long exposures, closing the shutter by twisting the speed setting (a sure recipe for camera shake). The remedy is to use the "hat" method (I use a black inner box from a box of sheet film) to cover the lens and hood, open the shutter, lift away the "hat", make the exposure, cover the lens and hood again and close the shutter.

RR

RattyMouse · Mar 9, 2015

16 second exposure using 400H film in my Fuji GF670W.

rbultman · Mar 9, 2015

"Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
removes the colours from our sight.
Red is grey, and yellow, white,
but we decide which is right,
and which is an illusion."
- The Moody Blues

You may want to consider black and white instead of color, depending on your subject matter. Fuji Acros 100 has great reciprocity characteristics, which translates into less thinking required when used at night. Just add 1 additional stop exposure. I use a Gossen Luna Pro SBC which has excellent low-light sensitivity.

What RR said regarding the T setting. See the single photo in my gallery. It was shot using a GW690II. The trails from the street lights that you see are because I did not understand the T setting. I release the shutter at the appropriate time, thinking that the shutter was closed, but it of course was not. The curving lights along the road are the headlights of a car. I don't remember the exposure duration, probably something like 1.5 minutes.

Good luck!

Regards,
Rob

mooseontheloose · Mar 9, 2015

You might also want might to check out this app: Dead Link Removed. I've found it really helpful for calculating exposures with stacked and/or nd filters (for daytime). It also has sections for moonlight exposures, fireworks, star trails, etc. Unfortunately the only film they have listed is Velvia 50. I also use this reciprocity app which has many films listed, but not Fuji Pro 400H.

Also, I would like to echo what Rob said - Fuji Acros has virtually no reciprocity up to two minutes (officially, after which you can add one stop) but I've shot longer (up to 15 minutes) with no adverse effects.

adelorenzo · Mar 9, 2015

I just wing it and it seems to work out. This was taken on my GSW690III, Tri-X, didn't meter but I believe it was f/16 at about one minute.

Toronto at night by Dead Link Removed, on Flickr

DREW WILEY · Mar 9, 2015

A "fast" film might not be so fast once you factor in reciprocity failure. Just depends on the specific film and on the cumulative lengths of exposure, and whether or not you can tolerate things like star trails and moving car lights. ACROS will of course give better detail and finer
grain than a fast ASA film, and will save some calculation headaches.

nwilkins · Mar 9, 2015

I use Acros for night shooting because of the pretty low reciprocity failure adjustments needed. Not sure if you're planning on shooting with human made illumination or not, but if you don't have much artificial light these times will work well for Acros (including the 1/2 stop of reciprocity failure compensation):

Full moon:
F8 12 mins
F11 25 mins

Half moon:
F8: 25 mins
F11 45 mins

Crescent moon:
F8 45 mins
F11 1.5 hrs

Starlight only:
F8 1.5 hours
F11 3 hours

Have had nothing but good success using those numbers with Acros:

Also if you want to manipulate the lighting you'll be surprised how forgiving a negative is if you just estimate exposure by painting the subject with a flashlight for a while:

And if you mess up you can still salvage a negative usually - here is one underexposed and one way overexposed:

marton · Mar 9, 2015

Thanks for the responses! Excellent advice.

Well I've got to say, there's really good work in here. My take away from all the responses thus far is that guestimates work, if the person guessing has had enough experience with particular camera/film combinations. Metering seems to be, from how I read it, reasonably useless. Inaccurate is perhaps a more accurate word. The thing I find most interesting, and which I haven't had real world experience with yet, is film reciprocity. That seems to be a really interesting area which could yield useful and interesting results with experimentation. The consensus seems to be Acros for night shooting B&W and that color is best not meddled with. But meddle I will regardless.
The GSW's focusing patch is another issue for night time, so perhaps I'll take a torch with me to use for accurate focus. Either that or just set to infinity.

@Rod - Thanks for the hat suggestion. Great shot BTW.

John Koehrer · Mar 10, 2015

As long as you're experimenting search for "painting with light"
This is done with the camera set for long exposure times and specific areas lighted with portable lights.

marton · Mar 11, 2015

John Koehrer said:
As long as you're experimenting search for "painting with light"
This is done with the camera set for long exposure times and specific areas lighted with portable lights.

Thanks yeah it's a great effect. Used it quite a lot throughout my BA studies. It's particularly interesting using a flashlight covered with orange paper, while turning your (digital) camera setting to Tungsten.

fuji gsw690III & night photography

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