Metering night scenes

FirePhoto said:

I was getting good results with Fuji Acros (which does not require reciprocity correction) at about 8 minutes.

Click to expand...

Not completely true,
After 2 minutes the reciprocity also starts...
(read the fuji datasheet)

Acros does require reciprocity correction after 200 seconds. It still is the fastest film available in these situations.
Back to the original question of how to meter, meter for significant highlights, increase the indicated exposure 2-3 stops and let the shadows fall where they may. Using this method night photographs will look like night photographs, not dimly lit daylight ones.

A couple of quick notes for night photos:

Bracketing is essential till you know what you want and how to get it.

Don't bracket by fixed increments like the following: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90... The last few exposures will show very little difference between them.

Smart bracketing is a power series (or is it a logarithmic series?) ie. it looks like the f-stop series:

1, 1.4, 2, 2.8,4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45, 64, 90, 128, 180, 256, 512, 1024....

Actually, it is the f-stop series.

Using the full f-stop series as one's exposure times yields half stop differences between subsequent exposures. Kinda neat.

Every shot is a fixed multiple of the last shot. Like a full stop more, or a half stop etc...

I stick with a dumbed down version since I often just count it out without a clock to help - "one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand..."

My series: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 16, 30, 60, 120, 240... It's imperfect, but works, and I can remember it. Somewhere around 60 sec I give in and find a clock and time the rest.

Don't wimp out on long exposures when it's reeealy dark.

Best,

C