film speed

[hobbsphilly]

Hello,
I am a new member as well as new to the photography field. Thinking photography would be a good hobby, I picked up a canon eos slr 35mm camera.
I am facinated by taking pictures of buildings at sunset or dark and am looking for some help as to what kind of film would be best for that.

any help would be great!!

Thanks

[another view]

Welcome.

Probably the best bet would be slow speed film and a tripod. At sunset or dusk, light levels will be fairly low and you'll usually want to use a smaller aperture (say f11 or so) for this, so even with ISO800 film you might have trouble handholding the camera and keeping it steady at the shutter speed you'll be at. Tripods also have the benefit of letting you precisely line up your shot which is important for architecture. Since buildings don't move (we hope!) you may as well take advantage of less-grainy slower speed film.

Dusk and sunset are usually the best times to photograph buildings, especially if they're well lit at night. Shooting after dark won't work as well - it's best to have some color in the sky.

[Dzerzhinski46]

I would be careful about reciprocity failure. Read up on this if you don't understand what I am saying. Basically, the longer your exposure time, the less sensitive your film becomes, so you have to increase your exposure time. This is usually not a problem for times under 1 second. Over that, you have to start adjusting. It varies from film to film, so read carefully what the reciprocity factors of the film you chose are.

Because your camera is automatic, it will not factor in reciprocity failure. You will have to override it in this case. Good luck.

Dzerzhinski

[hobbsphilly]

I would be careful about reciprocity failure. Read up on this if you don't understand what I am saying. Basically, the longer your exposure time, the less sensitive your film becomes, so you have to increase your exposure time. This is usually not a problem for times under 1 second. Over that, you have to start adjusting. It varies from film to film, so read carefully what the reciprocity factors of the film you chose are.

Because your camera is automatic, it will not factor in reciprocity failure. You will have to override it in this case. Good luck.

Dzerzhinski

Thank you for the information. Although, reciprocity, seems like a foreign language to me right now, it wont be when I read up on it..

Thanks again