At night a host of different exposures can give a myriad of different and impressive results. Anything can happen, and that's the beauty and excitement of shooting at night. Each shot is unique.
The hour after sunset is usually the best time to shoot. City lights start to dot the landscape, yet enough light from the setting sun remains, enough to soften harsh contrast on subject matter. I use high speed film when I shoot at night, Fuji 400 to 800 ASA or Kodak 400 to 800 ASA. High-speed daylight color film intensifys warm city lights and deepens the deepest blues of the twilight sky.
When I shoot in low light, I travel light. I get by with a tri-pod, my wide angle lens, and cable release. Shooting at night is a whole new way to
paint with light on film. I find my subject and open up the aperature and slow down the shutter speed. I usually shoot at 1/60 sec. or slower with aperature set to the largest f/stop allowed. Colors remain rich and adding a flash to the mix can bring out some unique results.
If you're looking for exact or correct exposure of your subject, move in close enough to meter the lighted area of the subject. Avoid any stray light that may directly enter your lens. Stray light will throw off your reading. Often shooting at twi-light or into the night is educated guess work. I like to bracket my exposures. I leave the f/stop fixed and alter my shutter speed one stop on either side of the metered exposure. If I want to increase the effect I'll extend the exposure by two shutter speed stops. If your shooting with slower film or have set your ASA/ISO reading to 200 to 125 on your digital, doubling your exposure time is suggested.
The photo of this office building was shot at 1/30 sec. at f2 using Kodak 400 ASA film. This shot was taken within 30 minutes of sunset.
This picture is taken in the LRT, Kuala Lumpur. This picture shows that this auntie was alone with bags, and her emotion was telling that she was bored in LRT, waiting for LRT to reach her place. This picture was taken at a food court, at Holland Village. I used the rule of third to take this picture. This picture shows this old man, the cleaner is having a short break for his work. This picture was taken on the bus. Where everyone is sitting on the bus, waiting. Riding bus is bored and alone, especially you take bus alone. Thus, looking out of the bus, the surrounding is the only thing we can do. This picture was taken along the roadside, where there was a worker sitting there resting. His emotion shows that he was not happy, felt tired of his job.
This picture, I put the light source from the front, as you can see the fur of the doll is smooth. The focus is on the head of the doll. The joint line of the head is shown in this picture.
This picture, the light source is from top. It show up the texture of the fur, besides, it creates more interesting light and shadow than the first picture.
Apologies to Michael Itkoff for taking way too long in putting up these images he kindly sent me. They are from his brilliant series called Wrecked. Here is his introduction to the project:
"The Bad Boys, Derby Boys, and All Banged Up are demolition derby teams from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. During the summer months members of the group work on junked cars with the intention of entering them into competition.
Derbys consist of one or more 'heats' where cars or trucks ram into each other until only one is able to move. An ambulance and fire truck is always on hand to evacuate injured participants and control any fires that may break out.
The demolition derby combines the love of cars with the love of destruction. This tradition may become threatened by dwindling oil supplies, but in the mean time, the sound of revving engines and crunching metal will continue to emanate from rural America."
Born 1981 in Philadelphia, Michael Itkoff is a photographer and a Founding Editor of Daylight Magazine. Itkoff has been a recipient of the Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism (2006), a Creative Artists Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Arts Council (2007), and a Puffin Foundation Grant (2008). Itkoff's monograph, Street Portraits, will be published in January 2009 by Charta Books. He earned a BA in Photography from Sarah Lawrence College and will earn an MFA from the ICP-Bard program in 2010
crafts, projects, food, photography, design and other good things
Last Update on:
2009-02-05 01:15:22
unexpected blessings
this week involved a lot of resumes, a lot of praying and a lot of BLAH, what in the world am i going to do?? and then out of nowhere, before my job is even done with (this fri was my last day), they have a big meeting and say we don't want you to go..completely. so i'm back part time, they raised my pay per hour and are having me do all their design work from now on. so every week, i will do that and photography.
anyways, here is a (bad) poem on how my week has been:
i had a job and then it was gone no money for rent leads to begging at dawn just mochi and me, eating veggies together while i thought about me, broke, lounging in the warm la weather
i guess it's not so bad i thought, getting tan while i wait until i thought about being evicted, j's stuff in the trash he might hate so i turned in some resumes and talked to everyone i knew and then my job resurfaced, my cube i could come back to
i'm still broke and poor but happy in spirit i'll get to do more photography, now will you hire me?
Here are some Christmas cards that I am offering. Note that I am only offering these to clients that have hired me to take their photos and will print them out to the lab that I use. I cannot sell these as templatesbut will sell them as printed cards. If you would like to see some more card designs that I have personally made and am selling as templates, please check out Design Eleven Templates.
Art, photography, fashion, music and films during the 1930s
Last Update on:
2009-02-04 13:49:26
Amanda Palmer "Oasis"
I already posted this amazing track a few months ago, but now mrs. Palmer has some problems getting air-play in the UK because she's, apparently, making fun of rape and abortions. She writes a blog post about it here:on Abortion, Rape, Art and Humor.
Thought I'd at least give her some 'air-play' here one more time, now they've made a video:
When I got to the party, they gave me a forty and I must've been thristy 'cause I drank it so quickly When I got to the bedroom there was somebody waiting and it isn't my fault that the barbarian raped me When I went to get tested I brought along my best friend Melissa Mahoney who had once been molested And she knew how to get there, she knew all the nurses they were all very friendly but the test came back positive
Oh I've seen better days but I don't care Oh I just sent a letter in the mail
When I got my abortion I brought along my boyfriend we got there an hour before the appointment And outside the building there were these annoying fundamentalist Christians we tried to ignore them
Oh, I've had better days but I don't care Oasis got my letter in the mail
When vacation was over the word was all over that I was a crack whore Melissa had told them And so now we're not talking except we have tickets to see Blur in October and I think we're still going
Oh, I've seen better days but I don't care Oh, I just got a letter in the mail Oasis sent a photograph It's autographed and everything Melissa's gonna wet herself I swear
I deserve an ang pow
Had finally finished going through most of the weddings shot in 2008 to shortlist images for the website update and also for the upcoming WPJA competition. It's really madness to browse through so many image within a day.
On the other hand, I feel a little nostalgic while browsing as I recall how each wedding went by and many of the great times I had while working with each couple. Though I've not really caught up with some of the couples after the final delivery due to the hectic schedule, I still hope they are going good with the next stage of their lives as man and wife...some had moved on as daddys and mummies too.
Anyway, here's one shot from Russell and Grace's wedding which I like too. It's really funny what Russell's uncle had done to get a red packet. Well, he didn't succeed in getting anything though. Haha.
I will provide you with camera settings I used on each single shot, as well as location, and direction on how to get there (by train, bus, tram, walking or driving).
**** Photos in this blog have been taken using ether the Nikon D80 or the D90
Last Update on:
2009-01-27 18:08:06
St. Patrick Church
Located on 5th Ave., Manhattan, NY.
