What is the exposure for predawn Hawaiian lava flow?

[Sirius Glass]

What is the Kodak Portra 400 exposure for predawn Hawaiian lava flow? I will be at an offshore board. Any suggestions? The light reading without a light meter will be overexposed and with a spot meter will put the flowing lava as 18% gray.

 

[markbarendt]

Why would you place a glowing highlight as a mid tone?

 

[ic-racer]

What is the exposure for predawn Hawaiian lava flow?

The Exposure Value is equal to one tenth the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow....

 

[wiltw]

What is the Kodak Portra 400 exposure for predawn Hawaiian lava flow? I will be at an offshore board. Any suggestions? The light reading without a light meter will be overexposed and with a spot meter will put the flowing lava as 18% gray.

Why not simply take a reading of the lava with the spotmeter, and expose with +1EV exposure compensation of the reading, as a start; then 'for insurance' bracket the shot +/- 0.6EV, for a total of three shots?!
Chimp that first series to determine which of the three looks best for your taste, then take other shots to match 'the best'!

The real challenge is how to get the processing service to PRINT at the correct density and to not 'undo' your exposure compensated neg!!!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Why not simply take a reading of the lava with the spotmeter, and expose with +1EV exposure compensation of the reading, as a start; then 'for insurance' bracket the shot +/- 0.6EV, for a total of three shots?!
Chimp that first series to determine which of the three looks best for your taste, then take other shots to match 'the best'!

The real challenge is how to get the processing service to PRINT at the correct density and to not 'undo' your exposure compensated neg!!!

My Nikons have chimpin' capability since I only shoot film. I can use the Nikons with the zoom lens and choose one detector as a spot meter. Since it will be way before dawn, an incident meter will not be useful. Also the cool lava is very dark black. So +1EV may be a good place to start bracketing, but bracketing with a 36 exposure roll would only yeild about twelve shots, hence the question.

 

[Two23]

If you are on a boat in the dark, I would think your shutter speed is going to be so slow that the inevitable movements of the boat will cause blur.


Kent in SD

 

[Sirius Glass]

I hope not. I have seen photographs from boats and if the water is reasonably calm, there is no signs of movement. If I am using a motion sickness bag, I probably will not take photographs.

 

[wiltw]

My Nikons have chimpin' capability since I only shoot film. I can use the Nikons with the zoom lens and choose one detector as a spot meter. Since it will be way before dawn, an incident meter will not be useful. Also the cool lava is very dark black. So +1EV may be a good place to start bracketing, but bracketing with a 36 exposure roll would only yeild about twelve shots, hence the question.

Oops, I ASSumed use of digital, now that Photrio is both!

Incident meter is NEVER right for this shot, if what is most important to you is capture of the glow of the molton lava!...you care NOT about the ambient light falling on the scene, you care about the lava. How the surroundings appear, relative to the lava, is a matter of whether or not it is close enough in relative brightness as to be capturable with detail. So you have two shots in one, the PRIMARY glowing lava, and the secondary surroundings...this is really NO DIFFERENT than trying to capture a setting sunset and also try (or not) to capture the adjacent landscape!

 

[Craig75]

You will be deep into reciprocity. Taking something black pre dawn on a boat with im assuming a medium tele is nigh on impossible.

Spot meter the lava and reduce the exposure by 2 stops if lava is that dark. Then have yr reciprocity table to hand to compensate for that and put camera on a tripod (or gimbal maybe for a boat?) Stick it in bulb mode and start your watch.

 

[Two23]

Tripods generally don't work well on boats. Not only is the boat constantly moving in all planes, the vibrations from the engines often travel right up the tripod.


Kent in SD

 

[tedr1]

Surely this has been done already many times? Have you considered a search online for pictures of the lava by others that include exposure information?

Hawaii lava photography webforum?

Hawaii lava photographer's websites?

 

[jimjm]

Since you're metering a luminous subject (flowing lava), I'd probably try to get a spot meter reading and then overexpose by 1 or 2 stops. You probably want to portray the flow as accurately as possible, regardless of the ambient light or surrounding conditions, which will probably be very dark. This is where an incident meter or a wider reflective meter probably won't be of much use, as there won't be much ambient light and any cooled lava surrounding the flow will be almost black. There may be some online resources for subjects like this, but it sounds like it could be a challenging situation. Good Luck!

 

[markbarendt]

My Nikons have chimpin' capability since I only shoot film. I can use the Nikons with the zoom lens and choose one detector as a spot meter. Since it will be way before dawn, an incident meter will not be useful. Also the cool lava is very dark black. So +1EV may be a good place to start bracketing, but bracketing with a 36 exposure roll would only yeild about twelve shots, hence the question.

If you have a long enough lens your Nikon will do a truly fine job of spot metering. Zone metering principles and placement ideas will work fine.

I don't understand though why you'd want to place glowing globs of magma at the 18% point/mid tone point/in zone V. Those globs are going to be the highlights in the scene, if you place them as a mid tone your shutter speed will probably be very slow. Placing the glowing globs in the proverbial zone VII instead might move you from 1/30th to 1/125th and that would make motion blur much less of a problem.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I do not want the magma in the 18% zone, I want it in Zone VII. So I am guessing one or two stops open. I will be using a 28mm to 300mm AF zoom lens.

 

[markbarendt]

Opening up 2 would get the classic placement of the shadow point on film. IMO if you are within 2 stops either way of that the highlights should be printable from your Portra.

The difference between the glowing stuff and the black point you want is one wild card, the other is your shutter speed. At 300mm you’ll be at f/5.6 (?) IIRC, if shadow detail is important you might need to borrow a faster lens???

 

[mpirie]

The Exposure Value is equal to one tenth the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow....

Ah, European or African swallow?

 

[Sirius Glass]

f/5.6 is the maximum aperture.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Since you're metering a luminous subject (flowing lava), I'd probably try to get a spot meter reading and then overexpose by 1 or 2 stops. You probably want to portray the flow as accurately as possible, regardless of the ambient light or surrounding conditions, which will probably be very dark. This is where an incident meter or a wider reflective meter probably won't be of much use, as there won't be much ambient light and any cooled lava surrounding the flow will be almost black. There may be some online resources for subjects like this, but it sounds like it could be a challenging situation. Good Luck!

Yep, that's what occurred to me. From taking pictures of campfires I'd go for 1.5 to 2.5 stops. Say two and bracket .5 stop.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

What is the Kodak Portra 400 exposure for predawn Hawaiian lava flow? I will be at an offshore board. Any suggestions? The light reading without a light meter will be overexposed and with a spot meter will put the flowing lava as 18% gray.

matrix metering and done!

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Can you chimp with a cell phone camera and check the exposure readings and extrapolate from that?

 

[tedr1]

https://www.outdoorphotographyguide.com/article/how-to-photograph-lava/

 

[benjiboy]

I would take an incidental meter reading and bracket my exposures at one stop increments and since it's negative film, that should produce at least a few usable negatives.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

I would take an incidental meter reading and bracket my exposures at one stop increments and since it's negative film, that should produce at least a few usable negatives.

How can you make an incident reading of glowing lava, and from a distance to boot?

 

[mshchem]

Ah, European or African swallow?

Tim: Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!

 

[tzillman]

Hi! I was on the big island several years ago shooting lava flows at dusk and after. I was using Provia 100f slide film as that is what I'd been using during the day. At dusk, wide open at f/2, I was using a shutter speed around 1/2 second, with a 35mm or 50mm lens, with a tripod and got good results. I used longer shutter speeds as it got darker. Using Portra at box speed you'd of course be able to use a fast shutter speed under the same circumstances, but I suspect that you will be using a telephoto, which may have a smaller maximum aperture and be more prone to movement issues. Needless to say, that's going to be tough from a boat no matter how smooth the water is.

Tom