Asahi Pentax Super
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Lighting with night photography?
Okay, so I'm greatly into photography, and have a fantastic idea for a shoot... the problem is, its at night, and I'm still having problems with night photography. I don't have a cable release, which I know I need to get (I have an Asahi Pentax k1000 SLR camera... its super old) but I don't know where to find a good one. Also, I'm not sure how to get the proper lighting for the picture I want... I'm really lost here. Any help would be much appreciated.
Oh, and I don't know what kind of film would suffice. I generally use Fuji 400 speed film, 35 mm. What would be bests for low lighting situations?
I really need a cable release... what kind should I get? And more specifically- where?
These two photographs
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=8651421
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=7868995
...were done with long exposure times, impossible to do properly without a shutter release cable using a K-1000.
I generally use Fujichrome Velvia (ISO 50) for my night work, and used it exclusively for the 156 photographs in my MelbourNocturne series. The reason for this is that it's going to be a long exposure anyway, and faster film will only be more grainy. So might as well use really fine-grained, saturated film. With really long exposures, there's a phenomenon known as "reciprocity failure" which is indicated by a slight color shift which becomes more pronounced with really long exposures. However, I have found the shift to be quite aesthetically pleasing, and lends just a touch of funky color to the images. By the way, my longest exposure in the MelbourNocturne series was just over 6 hours, made possible with an external battery pack attached to the Pentax 6x7.
Back to your question, I am unsure what you mean by "lighting" when conducting night photography exercises. Do you mean existing or supplemental?
If it's existing light you're looking for, I shoot with the color balance left alone (i.e. no color correction filter used on the lens), and rely on the colors of light to fall where they might.
Supplemental light is a little trickier to use if you don't have a flash meter. Calculate the Guide Number for the flash unit you're using, then apply it to the aperture setting you are shooting with.
To find the Guide Number for your flash:
1. In a "darkenable" room (night-time works good for this), set up a black card, a white card, and an 18% gray card on a wall. Load your camera with 100-ISO slide film (a 12-exposure roll, if you can find it, will be perfect for this. Otherwise, perform the test on a part of a roll you are using for regular shooting). Put the camera on a tripod 10 feet away from the cards, aimed and focused on the display, and attach the flash.
2. Set the flash unit to Manual (M), and Full Power (1/1). Turn it on and wait 20 seconds after the "Ready" light comes on. Set your shutter speed (on the camera) to 1/30, and your aperture to your slowest setting (usually f/22). Write "22" on an index card and tape it near the cards on the wall. Make sure all four of the cards are visible and focused in the camera. Turn off the room lights and fire.
3. Advance the film, open the aperture to the next setting (in this example, f/16), and replace the "22" number card with "16". Repeat the steps, for this and every setting down to wide open.
4. Get the film processed, and examine the test slides. Find the one that looks the best, and make a note of the corresponding aperture.
5. The math. If the best aperture is 11, you multiply 11 with 10 (feet), and get the GN=110, which means that at ISO 100, [number of feet from the subject] times [aperture] = 110. So by this, of you follow the math, a subject 5 feet away would get the aperture setting f/22. For ISO 200 film, multiply the GN by 1.4; for ISO 400 film, double it, and for ISO 50, divide the GN by 1.4. Then it's just math to derive the other values for variable power settings.
This is a long bit of string to wrap the package, but I hope that it helps! Good luck!
Darin
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