Analogue Nights
By Tj Watt
24 Sep 2008
Welcome to the wonderful world of night photography. A place that holds a fine balance between being rather spooky and numbingly peaceful. While many people are quietly slipping into their warm beds for a good nights sleep, we will instead be zipping up our bags and tip-toeing out for a moonlit adventure. When out at night we get to walk into multiple dreamlands of our own creation full of psychedelic colors, shape shifting objects, and teleporting people. Here's what you'll need to get there, the stuff to have with you, and how to bring the surreal images back home.
To begin with, unless it's mid summer or global warming is already affecting your neighbourhood, you're going to need to dress warm. It might not seem that cold outside but after standing still and waiting for a few 30minute+ exposures to finish, it gets damn chilly. Good shoes, 3 pairs of socks, long underwear, warm pants, layered shirts, sweater, gloves and a toque usually does it for me. Now that you look like a mummy you're almost ready to go. Review this equipment checklist and try to make sure you have most of these items. For starters , a tripod, cable release, and fully charged batteries for all your gear is a must. From there you need a film camera with bulb and multiple exposure options, a wide angle and telephoto lens, a few rolls of Fuji Velvia 100 and Kodak 164 T (tungsten film), 1,000,000 candle power flashlight, colored gels of any sort, camera flash with a test button or remote slaves such as pocket wizards, hotshoe bubble level, laser pointer, pocket timer that glows, tape, a knife, and a cell phone in case you are abducted by the night aliens and need to call in sick the next day from another planet.
Now it's time to look for the scene to capture. Preferably you want to be away from light pollution produced by big cities which messes up your sky. If it's possible, a drive out to the country away from street lights and buildings will do the trick. I prefer to go out near the full moon as you get an additional fill light to your shot that shortens exposure times dramatically and the moon itself can be included in the image if done correctly. Try and find a scene that interests you and visualize how it might look with some added color and light. You're going to be bringing life to a currently inanimate scene. Maybe a broken down shed, a lone tree on a hill, or something entirely different. Before loading your film you must consider these things. The Velvia film is a daylight balanced film and is going to give you true black skies in the country and yellow to orange near the city. It will capture your flashlight colors fairly accurately and your camera flash perfectly. The tungsten film is slightly different as it's balanced for tungsten light. This film will give you bluish to deep blue/black skies and can help correct for city light pollution. It will capture your flashlight colors perfectly but your camera flash will appear blue. Contrary to how many people might try to shoot night photos with high iso film or digital settings, we are using a very low iso. This will give us beautifully smooth final images, free of ugly grain or digital noise that is so common in these types of shots. Once your film is loaded, tripod levelled, and shot framed, you can shine your flashlight onto something prominent and set the focus. Put your camera into bulb mode and set the aperture to f.8. This is a great setting as with most lenses it's the prime spot for sharpness and also provides enough depth of field for the whole scene. Another reason for doing this is the best way to get good at shooting like this consistency. By keeping the same aperture each time you go out, you can develop an intuitive sense of exposure times for the future. Now click and lock the cable release and....breath.......silence. This here is my favourite part of making these shots. The peace and solitude you will find in the wee hours of morning, alone, bathed in moonlight with maybe the sound of a hidden owl or the tide lapping the shoreline. You get the whole world to yourself for a few hours. And here is where you get to bring your visions to life. Once your oversized flashlight is covered with your desired gel you can begin to shine it back and forth over whatever you decided to paint. Consciously go over each part of the object so not to miss any spots and it's important to keep your flashlight moving at all times so you don't create hot spots in the image. Something like a tree 30ft away takes approximately 3-6 minutes of light on it, the ground being closer about 2-3. Reflectivity and distance from the light source are the two factors that will guide you in deciding other adjustments. Exposure times from start to finish can range from about 5-10 minutes if lit brightly by the moon to 30mins–1 hour if the scene is darker. Don't let those be limits though. You can stretch exposures to the 5-8 hour range in truly dark places! Also, if you need to you can actually walk right through the scene to get somewhere else as long as your light is shut off. You are too dark to be recorded by the film. If however you want yourself in the picture, or even multiple you's, simply carry your camera flash into the shot and make it fire towards you. There are so many neat effects you can create with this technique.
If you've played around enough now with colored lights and have accidentally sent out a distress call to a passing star ship, it might be fun to try the trick of placing the moon into your photograph. For this trick you are going to need both a telephoto and a wide angle lens. First, set your camera to a multiple exposure setting of 2 frames and attach your telephoto lens. Next set your exposure in manual mode to 1/250 @ f 5.6 This is the correct exposure for the moon that will let you keep the detail of it's craters, etc and not make it a blown out white blob in your shot. With the scene you want to eventually include it in in mind, zoom in placing the moon right where you will want it in the future and take the shot. It's handy to use the auto focus squares as guide markers. Next, put your wide angle back on and re-frame the main shot you want on a tripod, insuring the moon will now end up in the sky (or wherever you decided for that matter) once they are layered together. It's important to remember how shooting your camera vertically or horizontally will effect how the scenes match up. Now lock your cable release and try any of the previous procedures learned and the possibilities are endless!!
Shooting at night is one of the most intriguing, rewarding, and relaxing things you can try. Patience, dedication, and lots of trial and error are a big part of the game but the trade offs are well worth it. When you finally get to print one of your shots from a gorgeous slide, rich in color and free from grain, you'll understand why you froze your toes off at 3am on a windy beach in December. When the government comes knocking at your door to ask about the giant silver dish with little grey men parked in your back yard after it followed you home is a whole other story.
6 responses
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Christa Hazel gave props (26 Sep 2008):
Perfectly timed info for me -- I have been wanting directions on light painting! Thanks!
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Ana Magalhaes said (27 Sep 2008):
Perfect timing for me too =)
I've just started shooting at night!
Thank you
I voted -
Markus said (29 Sep 2008):
This is very informative. Thanks for this post.
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Thomas Mckinnon said (1 Oct 2008):
Thanks for the tip.
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pdtnc said (4 Oct 2008):
cool stuff :)
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Scott Baker gave props (5 Oct 2008):
Good Story. Voted
