# Shooting film at night



## kevinfoto (Jul 9, 2011)

I have an assignment to shoot night photos with 400 speed film.
 What should my shutter speed and f stop be? Any thoughts?


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## Derrel (Jul 9, 2011)

f/8 works pretty well. SHutter times of from 15 seconds to 240 seconds are the norm in most modern cities and towns. Keep in mind, at times longer than around 1 or 2 seconds, most films suffer from reciprocity failure, which for example means if you can get an exposure reading at say, f/2 at 1 second, stopping the lens down for greater depth of field, we see exposures of f/2.8 at 2 seconds, f/4 at 4 seconds, f/5.6 at 8 seconds, and f/8 at 16 seconds; however, the one stop, one shutter speed slower rule, that of "reciprocity" does not hold true at f/8, and the actual, needed exposure is likely to be 32 seconds, and not 16 seconds.

Many better automatic cameras can "time out" lengthy timed exposures when shot in A mode at f/8.


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## kevinfoto (Jul 9, 2011)

Ok. Thanks for the tip! I have shot some with 15 shutter speed at f4 or 5.6. Do you think that's to fast?


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## kevinfoto (Jul 9, 2011)

I have a pro  master manual camera. Not fancy but I think it can do the job


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