which film for night street + slow lenses?

[Jarrito]

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I just recently watched the short documentary by Chris Weeks on street photography and I found a lot of the night shots really inspiring.

 

Street Photography: Documenting the Human Condition - Part One of Three on Vimeo

 

I mainly only shoot during the day because I live in fear of not knowing what are decent fast films to use at night or what tri-x 400 looks pushed. I use an M6 with a 35mm summarit and 50mm elmarit and lux's are kind of out of my price range so getting decent shutter speeds is difficult. What would you guys recommend I should use to get above 1/15 of a second? Shooting at 400 iso isnt cutting it for me Would love to see some examples of anything really, especially Tri-X 400 at 800/1600 etc.

 

Thank you!

Edited November 29, 2010 by Jarrito

[JBA]

Try Fuji Neopan 1600, Kodak TMax 3200, and Ilford Delta 3200.

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[Guest Holy Moly]

Try Fuji Neopan 1600, Kodak TMax 3200, and Ilford Delta 3200.

 

......and put it into Diafine or Emofin......

 

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[andybarton]

Neopan 1600 is on run-out, so you might be lucky to find some. My shot in the Venice night time challenge was taken with it and it's very nice in HC110B

 

Tri-X pushes well too.

 

My advice would be to experiment with what you have readily available.

[chrism]

......and put it into Diafine or Emofin......

 

Delta 3200 doesn't get faster in Diafine, probably because 3200 is already a push for it. Most people find 800 works best for developing in Diafine. Better to use it at 3200 and develop more conventionally!

 

Chris

[tgray]

I'd say it's worth pushing trix to 800 or 1600 in something like XTOL. Compare that to trix in Diafine at 800, 1250, and 1600. You'll probably like it around 1250.

 

For faster real speed try tmax 3200 or delta 3200. I use tmax at 800, 1600, or 3200. The best compromise in speed without lacking too much in the shadows for me is 1600.

 

It also might be worth looking into a cheaper f/1.4 lens like the CV 35/1.4 or 40/1.4. Also maybe keep an eye out for a Nikkor 50/1.4 or similar lens.

[StS]

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My personal experience was that Tmax400 pushed to 3200 gave actually better results compared to Tmax3200 @ 3200. Both in Tmax developer.

 

Stefan

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Hi

 

Using a monopod helps, see this weeks London outing. Clamp or mini tripod ditto...

 

Hugging friendly lamp post or tree and shooting several shots may get you one sharp one at 1/4 or 1/8 (sec).

 

Lots of practice to...

 

Noel

[bill]

Shooting at 400 iso isnt cutting it for me

 

Just as a matter of interest, I'm wondering what sort of scenes you are trying to shoot that requires greater than iso400? I'm no expert but I have not shot above 400 in years and I still manage to get reasonable results. I think you have to define what you mean by "night street" - Here are a few examples that show what I mean (I hope). One was taken with a 5cm 3.5 Elmar, one with a 3.5cm 3.5 Elmar, one with a 50mm 1.5 Sonnar and one with a 40mm 2.8 on an Olympus Trip, all using Kodak 400CN...

 

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My point is that there is more light around than you often think, particularly in urban environments. You ought to look at your subject matter and technique as well as faster film.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

Edited November 29, 2010 by bill

[topoxforddoc]

I shoot a lot at night time. My work takes me occasionally to new places on meetings. So I go armed with either my M2 or M6TTL and 35 pre-asph lux. I use either HP5 or Neopan 400 and rate this at 1600. I develop in XTOL 1:1 using Kodak's published times and this works fine. It's my standard set up for night time stuff or shoots in jazz clubs etc.

 

Good luck

[tgray]

My personal experience was that Tmax400 pushed to 3200 gave actually better results compared to Tmax3200 @ 3200. Both in Tmax developer.

 

Define better

 

If you like small grain, then definitely. If you like shadow tones more, I think TMZ does a better job then TMY. But make no mistake, you pay a big price in graininess in the move to TMZ.

[maxspbr]

Usually 200 to 400 ASA is enough... If you use a few trics holding the camera, like using the strap or to be against a pole or a wall. Exposure with 1/10 or 1/5 are easy.

 

Get your photometer's reading from the lightest point. Forget details in the shadows. You can't have everything. Use a slow two-bath developer, to help the shadows. Night photos are, usually, very contrasty.

 

Good luck!

 

Martin

[darmodej]

This weekend I developed Tri-x@1600, Xtol 1+1, 21 degrees, 11,5 minutes. Here are the examples

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[thebarnman]

Usually 200 to 400 ASA is enough... If you use a few trics holding the camera, like using the strap or to be against a pole or a wall. Exposure with 1/10 or 1/5 are easy.

 

Get your photometer's reading from the lightest point. Forget details in the shadows. You can't have everything. Use a slow two-bath developer, to help the shadows. Night photos are, usually, very contrasty.

 

Good luck!

 

Martin

 

With your photometer at the lightest point, would it not measure that for about zone V? Are you allowing for more exposer? Or is your meter averaging it out?

[menos I M6]

Look at my film shots.

My 90% standard film in all cameras is TriX 400 @ ISO3200.

I shoot @3200 and meter about 1/3 stop over exposed and let the lab develop in D-76.

When I develop myself, I do Kodak Tmax developer 1:1 with standard times.

 

I recently tried Neopan 400, shot exactly the same as TriX and it looks slightly cleaner (grain in shadows), but also a lot flatter than TriX (which makes for more PP for my taste).

 

I shoot more film recently - some are in my flickr stream: Flickr: teknopunk.com's Photostream

 

Some on my (old) website: teknopunk.com

 

You don't need super fast lenses for getting handholdable speeds at night.

I recently play around with a Nikon 28 2.8 Ai-s lens on the FM3a and it is quite descent for shooting stills in the night of Shanghai (you get down to 1/15 regularly in really dark streets, but can go as high as 1/250 into well lit places during the night with ISO3200).

 

TriX 400 @3200, Noct-Nikkor@f1.2 (so it was quite dark in the room)

 

I love TriX!

[maxspbr]

With your photometer at the lightest point, would it not measure that for about zone V? Are you allowing for more exposer? Or is your meter averaging it out?

 

I do not know how to work with zone system... Usually I like to measure my own hand as the highlight (the "O" position on my Weston, or take off one stop with other photometer), and put my developer to work accordingly with the results I want. If by day, a softer development. If night photo, a slow and long development.

 

Martin

[jacarape]

3AM in Lagos with some 3200 and a camera, a 35 fat ASPH stopped down a tad for some DoF.

 

Don't sweat slow shutter speeds, you'll find what you can shoot at with practice. You may find you'll get the image you wanted at 1/8th. And besides F2.5 isn't dead slow.

 

Grab some film and go search for some human condition!

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[Jaybob]

My personal experience was that Tmax400 pushed to 3200 gave actually better results compared to Tmax3200 @ 3200. Both in Tmax developer.

 

I would 2nd this idea. I like TMax 400 around 1250/1600 in D76 1 to 1. Less chunky than Tri-X and TMZ. The rangefinder affords you a little slower shutter speeds handheld. All of my Leitz lenses are f2, and would second what Bill said about there often being more light than you may perceive in those urban areas.

 

Jay

[menos I M6]

I would 2nd this idea. I like TMax 400 around 1250/1600 in D76 1 to 1. Less chunky than Tri-X and TMZ. The rangefinder affords you a little slower shutter speeds handheld. All of my Leitz lenses are f2, and would second what Bill said about there often being more light than you may perceive in those urban areas.

 

Jay

 

As we speak of …chunky grain… - some of you might be in for a big surprise, that a lot of the chunkyness is coming actually from bad scans!

 

When I started, to "scan" my 35mm negatives on a light table with a Nikon D3 and 60mm 2.8 Micro-Nikkor @ f8, I could not get my mouth closed for a long time, as I was used to Tri-X looking cheap dirty with the flatbed scans and only marginally better with expensive Imacon scans from the lab!

 

I can only advise everybody, to have a good and serious try with using a dedicated Macro lens, to make your own comparison. For a proof of concept, I even used a PS camera and found the process to be worth, investing into a proper macro lens and copy setup.

 

Here is quick and dirty comparison of Tri-X@3200 vs. Tri-X@3200 in a 1:1 crop from a 12MP D3 file:

 

best possible EPSON scan

 

random autofocus frame from the negative strip with DSLR + AF macro lens

 

Please understand, that the D3 file actually looks worse, than it could, as I just copied over identical PP settings from the EPSON file in Lightroom, to give it a fair run.

The EPSON file has been tweaked and sharpened, to squeeze out every bit of detail, possible - the DSLR + Macro lens frame is just the base to start from.

 

We are talking here just old 12MP DSLR - lets see this with a 24MP or more sensor and a high res lens, that can keep up with it ;-)

 

My film scanner is now retired to office work ;-)

 

What I wanted to state is: pushed Tri-X 400 @ 3200 can look remarkably good, processed and scanned properly.

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[thetoaster]

She's really pretty... such a kind face.

 

Look at my film shots.

My 90% standard film in all cameras is TriX 400 @ ISO3200.

I shoot @3200 and meter about 1/3 stop over exposed and let the lab develop in D-76.

When I develop myself, I do Kodak Tmax developer 1:1 with standard times.

 

I recently tried Neopan 400, shot exactly the same as TriX and it looks slightly cleaner (grain in shadows), but also a lot flatter than TriX (which makes for more PP for my taste).

 

I shoot more film recently - some are in my flickr stream: Flickr: teknopunk.com's Photostream

 

Some on my (old) website: teknopunk.com

 

You don't need super fast lenses for getting handholdable speeds at night.

I recently play around with a Nikon 28 2.8 Ai-s lens on the FM3a and it is quite descent for shooting stills in the night of Shanghai (you get down to 1/15 regularly in really dark streets, but can go as high as 1/250 into well lit places during the night with ISO3200).

 

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1103/5105204264_9cc6067930_o.jpg

 

TriX 400 @3200, Noct-Nikkor@f1.2 (so it was quite dark in the room)

 

I love TriX!