Nightshooting with EOS

[ziggy]

Hi.

This weekend I would like to go take some pictures of copenhagen at night. I already bought a 400 ISO B&W film which I would like to take the photos on.
Now. How do you shoot at night with EOS cameras? I thought that changing the target light to something less than the optimum (0 = optimum), but I'm not sure about the value.

Any suggestions?

[GB1]

I'm not familiar with the EOS specifically, but if your subject is pretty well illuminated and you're pretty close to it, the 400 speed film should mean you can use your meter modes such as Aperature priority. Use a tripod and cable release (if you have one - else, use the self timer) and set your aperature to about f 5.6 to start. Then try more depth such as f 8.0, etc. Note that built-in camera meters often under-expose film at low light conditions (due to resiprocity failure of the film), so you should bracket, adding one f stop, then two, etc.

You can also experiment with your camera's B setting, which essentially sets the cam on manual and holds the lens open as long as you depress the shutter button. But you def need a cable release for this.

A good thing is that you don't have to worry about color shift with the B&W film.

If you camera's B setting is electronic, you will use batteries up fast when using it. (Actually, you will use batteries fast with any long exposure.) Sooo, Bring extra batteries. Coppenhagen might already be pretty cool at night this time of year, additionally taxing the batteries.

Good luck

GB

[ziggy]

Well. I dont really have a tripod, and I'm going to Christianshavn and Trianglen, they have a decsent light as these are the rather crowded areas at night.
My thought was setting the default light setting to -2 (the nice thing that shows you how much light you will get from your current shutter and aperture settings combining with your film speed) should solve the problem somehow. Anyway - I'm going out saturday night to try it out.
In fact I can go out at 1800, you can call it night then.. ;)

[GB1]

Hey, pick up a cheap tripod. Even a table-top version would be better than nothing.

Make sure you set your camera exp compensation to PLUS (+) and not minus (-). Also, remember to bracket. I'm not sure how off that film might be in low light, I suspect not nearly as much as Velvia 50 or something like that. Plus, 400 speed film has large latitude when printing. So you may not need a full +2 f stops - I'd try 1 and see how it goes.

Good luck and post your shots if they come out!