Night photography, what shutter speed?

Question

I plan on taking a series of night shots of well lit streets. I have a tripod, a vintage Minolta SRT101 camera, 10 rolls of ASA 400 film, a f1.7 lens and a release cable. What I'm asking is, what shutter speed(s) would you recommend for taking still images of lit streets with absolutely no movement present (i.e. no light trails from cars or people).

To narrow things down a little, I'd like really clear shots with minimal noise and really deep blacks to contrast the street lights.

Asking alot I know but please try and help, thanks.

Answer 1

This is info from my professor when we had to do our night photography assignment based on ISO 400. At film speed of 400 you will not get a grainy print. What you might need is a tripod. As for the cable release I found it useful when wanting to capture movements.

Brightly lighted downtown streets scences: 1/60 sec f/2.8
Subjects lighted by street lights: 1/15 sec f/2
Brightly lit street scene: 1/2 sec f/5.6
Cityscape @ night: 5 secs f/16

Bracket and keep notes! Goodluck!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Here is what my FotoSharp (fotosharp.com) Day & Night Exposure Guide suggests for "Brightly Lit Street Corners" :

ISO 200

f4 @ 1/15 sec.
f5.6 @ 1/8 sec.
f8 @ 1/4 sec.
f11 @ 1/2 sec.

ISO 400

f4 @ 1/30 sec.
f5.6 @ 1/15 sec.
f8 @ 1/8 sec.
f11 @ 1/4 sec.

For a "City Skyline In the Distance" :

ISO 200

f4 @ 4 sec.
f5.6 @ 8 sec.
f8 @ 15 sec.
f11 @ 30 sec.

ISO 400

f4 @ 2 sec.
f5.6 @ 4 sec.
f8 @ 8 sec.
f11 @ 15 sec.

These settings should get you acceptable results. However, since you're using film, you might want to bracket each exposure and make notes. Frame 1 at f8 @ 8 sec., frame 2 at f8 @ 7 sec., frame 3 at f8 @ 6 sec., frame 4 at f8 @ 9 sec., frame 5 at f8 @ 10 sec. You can then do a side by side comparison and decide which exposure gives you the results you like best.

IMO investing in the Day & Night Exposure Guide is worthwhile.

Answer 4

It's really impossible to tell in advance. Night scenes have a lot of contrast, between the darkness and areas lit by electric lights. Your best bet is to experiment with time exposures. You will certainly want to use the tripod and cable release. I'm not sure if the SRT has a mirror lock, but if so you'll want to use that too (to lock the mirror up so it doesn't flip up during the exposure, shaking the camera).

A couple rolls of experiments will teach you a lot!

BTW if you get the negatives scanned in a film scanner, you can edit them and arrange the tones very easily and nicely in Adobe Photoshop!

Answer 5

Well lets put it this way. At night pretty much any aperture will give you a slow shutter speed at ISO100-400. Pretty much you just say how much depth of field do I want? And pick the necessary aperture for that. Set it to ISO 100 or 200 (depending on your base ISO speed) and then meter for the shutter speed, if it's more than 30s then use reciprocity to calculate it. Then use your cable release to set it off.

Answer 6

It's also my understanding that faster film will be more grainy due to larger particles of the chemicals on the film to make it faster. A lower ISO rating will provide a sharper image, but you have to adjust your shutter speed to stay open longer in order to compensate.

I'm really stretching my memory on this one since I came into photography after the digital age.

fhotoace, can you confirm or deny this?

One thing I really like to do on long exposures is set the timer to 2 seconds or more. This gives the tripod time to stop shaking before the shutter opens.

Answer 7

f8 1/4 - 1/2 second, use a tripod,

film doesnt give noise thats the digital thing, film has grain, if you want sharp grain free images use iso 50, 64 or 100

a

Answer 8

you need to get a light meter, I took some night shots a few weeks ago, I kept the shutter opened for 15 seconds... they came out great, but I was using a large format camera

Answer 9

2

Answer 10

1/1000 sec will stop all movement short of speeding bullets.

Hope this helps.