# 35mm SLR question - Night time Shooting



## Canon83 (Jul 14, 2010)

How do i take a great night time pic using a 35mm canon elan with out the flash?  I can do it with my POS Kodak digital but i have yet to do it with my canon.  any tips?


----------



## PJL (Jul 14, 2010)

Fast glass, high speed film, tripod, and a remote shutter release.


----------



## Mitica100 (Jul 14, 2010)

That all depends on the subject(s). For architectural shots you will need a sturdy tripod (invest in one, you'll never be sorry) and a flex shutter release (remote). That way you can take long exposure. For people/action shots, follow the advice above.


----------



## PJL (Jul 15, 2010)

Yeah, I was contemplating my post a bit more on the way to work.  

If you go with a tripod and release for still subjects, you can use any ISO film you want, you'll just need longer exposures for slower films.

If you want to do handheld, you'll need fast film and a nice low f-stop lens, preferably with image stabilization.


----------



## Canon83 (Jul 15, 2010)

i mainly shoot still objects.  Mainly cars.  I typically use 100 or 200spd film, anything higher then that i get a lot of noise and grain.  What setting should i use on the camera? i dont want to use flash cause i dont want the picture to wash out


----------



## PJL (Jul 15, 2010)

It's not as easy as just telling you the correct shutter speed and aperture to use because different situations require different amounts of exposure. You can use your camera's on-board metering system as a guide or go buy a light meter. Just make sure when you're metering you don't have the car's headlights on or something else that would throw off the result.  In the end, it's gonna take you a bit of experimentation to find results that are to your liking.


----------



## Mitica100 (Jul 15, 2010)

Canon83 said:


> i mainly shoot still objects.  Mainly cars.  I typically use 100 or 200spd film, anything higher then that i get a lot of noise and grain.  What setting should i use on the camera? i dont want to use flash cause i dont want the picture to wash out



First, glad to meet another Arizona poster! For your type of photography there will be lots of experimenting, since there are so many variables, like PJL mentioned above. Metering well does not always give the expected result, hence another 'tool' might be needed. I have such tool, a simple yet efficient exposure guide (all manual, no metering involved) made by some guy in the North West USA. The guide is called Black Cat Extended Exposure Guide and you can find it on eBay. Here is a link: *CLICK*. Unfortunately, the guy sells them in pairs, so you can gift one to your photography friends. It helped me with the exposure in difficult situations and trust me, this guy takes care of any difficult exposure calculations.

Good luck with your project!


----------



## Early (Jul 15, 2010)

Canon83 said:


> How do i take a great night time pic using a 35mm canon elan with out the flash?  I can do it with my POS Kodak digital but i have yet to do it with my canon.  any tips?


If you can do it with the Kodak, use the same settings on the Elan, assuming you have bulb setting, of course.  Just make sure the Kodak's iso is the same as the film you are using.

PS  You may have to bracket to account for the reciprocity failure of film at slow speeds.


----------



## beala (Jul 15, 2010)

First, if you don't know what reciprocity failure is, go read this: 
Reciprocity (photography) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Early said:


> PS  You may have to bracket to account for the reciprocity failure of film at slow speeds.


+1

But don't just bracket. Find the datasheet for your film, and look up its reciprocity failure characteristics. It might be under a section labeled "Schwarzschild effect" or "reciprocity departure." I say this because the Schwarzschild effect can oftentimes change the exposure so significantly that simply bracketing +/- a few stops won't even get you in the right ballpark. 

Also note that for very low light conditions (eg, landscapes under a full moon, star trails, etc) lower ISO film will actually turn out to be faster than high ISO film. Why? Because lower ISO film suffers less from the Schwarzschild effect. So, for very low light conditions, 100 ISO is faster than 3200 ISO.

Now have fun and good luck! 

EDIT: I should add that for low light photography, keeping a journal of your camera settings/exposure for every frame is especially important. The first time you go out at night, most of your pictures probably won't come out, which is why you'll want to keep track of the settings for the few that do come out!

EDIT 2: I can't believe no one posted this yet. You'll find this useful: The Ultimate Exposure Computer

EDIT 3: Final edit. I promise! Anyway, I should also add that for color film, you might experience a color shift because the different layers of emulsions will have different reciprocity failure characteristics.


----------

