Love film travel photography but limited in night street / indoors?

rayonline_nz · Nov 25, 2014

Any of you that loves film photography, can throw up a tripod when the need arises but when it becomes dark say inside a cafe or gallery or walking around the city at night film becomes very limited and taking 2 bodies for travel just becomes too much of a chore?

ericdan · Nov 25, 2014

I took some night shots around town the other day at f/2.8 and 1/15th of a second with 100 speed slide film. I am sure that indoors is not a problem with films like Portra 400. You may even have a faster lens than me in which case you can do even better.

darkosaric · Nov 25, 2014

If you have 35mm or 50mm lens with f1.4 or f2 on a rangefinder - then with iso 400 (or slight push to 800) will give you around 1/60s in most of the situations. Don't drink too much coffee and you don't need tripod . With this combination I don't find a need to use 2 bodies, it works in the sunny day and in the dark gallery.

Alex Muir · Nov 25, 2014

A table-top tripod can help outdoors at night. One you can fit in a pocket IR camera bag. There is usually something on the street you can set it up on.
Alex.

splash_fr · Nov 25, 2014

Most private parties I've visited lately to take some fotos have been really dark, as in f/1.5, ISO3200, 1/30 dark. but it's still doable handheld! expect a lot of blurry and out of focus foots though...

darkosaric · Nov 25, 2014

splash_fr said:
lot of blurry and out of focus foots though...

You know what they are saying: one blurry picture is a mistake, but one thousand is a style .

Nathan King · Nov 25, 2014

Set your camera to it's largest aperture and slowest shutter speed you can hold. You may be surprised what you can get. I did this to capture the nightlife in New York on vacation with my rangefinder set to 1/30th with a 50mm 2.8 lens and T-Max 400 film pushed one stop. A few of the negatives were too thin to do much with, but by and large it worked well.

wombat2go · Nov 25, 2014

Low light photos from hotels in Korea:
I don't open the lenses fully, so these were likely at f/2 or so.

Ricoh KR_5 with XR Rikenon 1:1.4 50mm
This one was shop developed and scanned.
https://app.box.com/s/vutz4h9guipadvzhksdd

Pentax MX with SMC Pentax-A 1:1.4 50mm
This one, taken around 1:00 am, was home developed in Digibase and scanned on the PrimeFilmPro120
https://app.box.com/s/oo6slnkpofcjoh4zsouf

summicron1 · Nov 25, 2014

keep in mind that some of the great photographers of the past who did a lot of nighttime photography in paris and other places had equipment that was extremely limited -- f 3.5 was normal, f 2 was undreamed of speed. Their films were asa 100 and, if really pushed, 200 or so. And yet people like Brassai and Henri Cartier Bresson did amazing work.

Learn to make yourself into a tripod (lean against a wall, press your camera against your head), use a glass of water as a table top tripod, and as someone else here said, at 1/10th of a second and wide open, you will get something -- if the result looks dark, well, it was a dark place. The ASA 400 films available today are fine-grain enough, and have a wide enough tonal range, to be used for general photography in any light, a luxury those guys didn't have.

Ilford XP2, for example, is amazing stuff -- properly exposed, yu think you are channeling ansel adams.

cjbecker · Nov 25, 2014

What film do you shoot?

mgb74 · Nov 25, 2014

There's the old trick of using a table top tripod and bracing it against a wall.

mexipike · Nov 25, 2014

Get some ilford delta 3200 and drink more.

Vilk · Nov 25, 2014

having done this for a long while--and having tried every trick above: tripods, bracing, high speed, blurries, light traps--i agree with the original suspicion... it's limiting, and it's a chore

hmmm... what is this elephant doing in this room? somebody kick'im out, now!

Ko.Fe. · Nov 25, 2014

rayonline_nz said:
Any of you that loves film photography, can throw up a tripod when the need arises but when it becomes dark say inside a cafe or gallery or walking around the city at night film becomes very limited and taking 2 bodies for travel just becomes too much of a chore?

Since then two film cameras became "too much of a chore"?

I go to Toronto from time to time. One camera for the morning (light) another for evening after work (dark). With regular backpack or computer bag it makes no difference one camera or two in available and taken space.

Gallery should be no problem with flash, isn't it? And same for the street if you are not into intimate candid shots
Also the only reason to be really dark in cafe is if it is CLOSED.

If you are pushing ISO 400 to 1600, it has to be very dark on the street to be in trouble without flash.
With 1600 and f1.8-2.5 you don't need to be very slow on shutter speed. And some guys knows how to push it even to 3200.

Fixcinater · Nov 25, 2014

rayonline_nz said:
Any of you that loves film photography, can throw up a tripod when the need arises but when it becomes dark say inside a cafe or gallery or walking around the city at night film becomes very limited and taking 2 bodies for travel just becomes too much of a chore?

Why do you need 2 bodies? Just switch films to something faster or use an ND filter in the daylight and pull it off for night use or talk to the elephant.

Fast lens (wider than f/2) can do a lot.

rayonline_nz · Nov 29, 2014

cjbecker said:
What film do you shoot?

Color slides mainly Velvia 50.

David A. Goldfarb · Nov 29, 2014

I've travelled with two rangefinders, one a 6x9 with medium speed daylight color slide film for day shots outdoors, and an f:3.5 lens and the other a 35mm loaded with 320 speed tungsten slide film and an f:2.0 lens for night and indoors. Unfortunately, I don't think we have a fast tungsten transparency film anymore, but there's Cinestill, if you can shoot color neg.

Poisson Du Jour · Nov 30, 2014

You could always get out of the city into those beautiful wide open wild spaces that characterise New Zealand. Very especially with Velvia 50 in tow. As I will for a month next April. Cafes are only good for a coffee and a chat before moving on to the next scenic treat. I will be travelling with a Pentax 67, EOS 1N, Olympus XA and ZeroImage multiformat pinhole. Carrying two cameras might be "a chore", but carrying four is a big ask.

Sirius Glass · Nov 30, 2014

For 35mm I have a Nikon for color and a Nikon for black & white.

For 120 I can swap film backs mid roll to change the film.

For 4"x5" I can change to a different film every time.

I have tripods in each of my cars.

cliveh · Nov 30, 2014

cjbecker said:
What film do you shoot?

Quite and what format are you using with what lens/exposure/film/developer? If you want advice we need to know more about your MO.

sagai · Dec 1, 2014

I am having Ilford PAN400 pushed to 3200 , developed in an hour or 1.5 hour in Rodinal pretty much substitutes the tripod for night shots.
I do not know any of color film, it works well for black and white.

Dennis S · Dec 1, 2014

Surprisingly no one has mentioned what I use: Monopod with a ball head with quick release. Keep the bases on my film (EOS 3) camera and my back-up. dig###l . Using a 100-300 EF lens. Worked well for me @ the Grey Cup game today. Very close scoring but Calgary took the cup home with them.

I even see I have that in my avatar. Just take my word for it in case you can't see it well like me...

yorbard · Jan 1, 2015

Use a beanbag instead of a tripod, or a Joby Gorillapod - I use the small version of the latter item with my Leica V-Lux4, because it is within the weight restriction, -excellent at night, because the gorillapod can be wound around thin railings, and with the camera setting, on ten seconds delayed action mode , it's as solid as a rock - ideal for night shots. ( of course. For street photography, in which I now specialise, jacking-up the ISO to around 1600 is not so much a problem as it would be, with film., sharpness is guaranteed with the (fixed) DC Vario-Elmarit at f/2.8 throughout , -admittedly DIGITAL camera. If, however, I am using my RANGEFINDER IIIf FILM camera., then I rely on available street furniture to prop it ( too heavy for Joby 'pod) and on setting a hyperfocal distance on the lens barrel, before commencing the shoot and using that setting throughout. Granted, in wildly variable lighting conditions - such as , for instance, on a street with mixed neon signage, overhead tungsten or sodium lamps, strobes, floods, halogens, etc., this becomes, especially when shooting colour film, problematic, the only option then, is to carry a monopod. Manfrotto and Gitzo, both do sturdy, rubber-footed ones which can be extended to around one point eight metres, which should be adequate for anyone.. Actually, I prefer using a monopod to a beanbag, because one can always use it in, for instance, a restaurant or bar, on its shortest extension, fairly unobtrusively.. For preference I almost always shoot BW.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

NJH · Jan 1, 2015

ericdan said:
I am sure that indoors is not a problem with films like Portra 400.

Portra 400 shot at 800, developed as normal job done. I was really surprised just how good it is in low light, a whole new level better than XP2 at 800 for example IMHO. Colours will be off of course though. In fact I don't really like Portra that much because I never really liked Kodak colours and tonality but have kept some in the fridge for indoors and lower light work. Cinestill I haven't tried yet but its the obvious first choice answer to this question.

nwilkins · Jan 1, 2015

if you're shooting black and white you could try using tri-X and then developing in Diafine. That way you can shoot it at 400 when it's bright out, and shoot it at 1600 when it's dark, on the same roll of film. With a rangefinder camera I find that if I'm very careful I can often shoot handheld at 1/15 with a 65mm lens or shorter. Also handheld at very wide apertures or in low light I find a rangefinder is much easier to focus. For me 40mm lens at F1.7 on a Canonet QL17 GIII is pretty much always in focus, whereas 50mm lens at F1.4 or F2 on a Nikon FM2 is only sometimes in focus.

Love film travel photography but limited in night street / indoors?

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