film for night photography

[subhuman]

Ok
I did a search for this and couldnt find what I was looking for, our county Fair is here again
and fortunatly the fair grounds are right across from my house. I took pics last
year of the ferris wheels & etc they were fine but the lights came out blurry
...This year I have a tripod which I know is a must for nighttime shooting but what speed
of film do I use, I used 400 last year...I have read in some instances that you should
use 800 speed film with long exposures...... I just dont know if the local wally world
carries 800,also any other ideas for taking night pictures would be
appreciated Thanks

[Dylan8i]

well the higher the speed film, the less exposure times are required. however they also get more grainy. with a tripod you can shoot night pics with 100 speed film. however because of longer exposure times, things like a farris wheel spinning or the chance of people walking in front increase. so you should be able to shoot what ever you want, or experiment with other film.

[another view]

Exposure is like an equation (aargh... algebra class again...). For a given amount of light, you will have an EV or exposure value which can be translated into shutter speed, aperture and ISO. In-camera meters do this translation so you never see (or often need) the EV number. But for a given EV, you can use any combination of shutter speeds, apertures and ISO speeds. If you end up with 1/60 at f4 and ISO400, you could use 1/125 at f4 and ISO800 because you've switched to a faster film. Lots of possibilities depending on which film you want to use, how fast your lens is, etc.

Night exposures can have long shutter speeds just because there isn't much light - a long exposure time (or wider aperture or faster film) lets the proper amount of light hit the film so your picture comes out. I hope I haven't confused you...

So yes, if you need faster shutter speeds try using ISO800 film instead of ISO400.