shot film at night without light

[Jerome Cain]

I would like to shot a super 8mm film at night without light that i can instruct developer to push f-stop but how many f-stop should developer push to have picture more accurate than dark looks. Any feed back on that? Thanks... Jerome Cain, pride deaf filmmaker

[Actor]

I'm assuming you do not mean total darkness but ambient illumination such as street lighs, moonlight and such.

Doing the math I'd say about 10 stops. That's just theory. In practice I think the result of pushing film that far would not give good results. The contrast would go all to **** . And you'd have to do it with B&W; forget color.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ September 26, 2002 03:04 AM: Message edited by: Actor ]</font>

[mattias]

i've shot outdoor concerts and the strip in vegas at night, using k40, and it always came out slightly underxposed but beautiful. i've also shot 16 mm double-x negative (200 asa) at night with only car headlights and a street light and that came out way underexposed but also beautiful.

so, what am i getting at? first, night shots *should* look dark. bringing the shadows up will just make the shot look flat and grainy. you have to make sure you keep the contrast up though by having at least one bright object in the frame, or even really dense areas will look gray.

second, everything depends on your stock and the light level, just as when shooting in daylight. just take a light reading, open up all the way and see how many stops you're under and tell the lab to push that many. if it's only one or two i wouldn't bother though, since it will probably look fine anyway. and remember you can't really push k40, although i believe dwayne's offers that as a super expensive option.

/matt

[eddie]

Ive shot various night time scenes -
The darkest was probably in a loft, with a weak torch pointed at someones face, using a 50 ASA film.
This came out (suprisingly) but would have been much better with new batteries in torch.
But what Im saying is that was enough to determine someones face - although quite gloomy.
Also filmed funfairs at night using K40 - came out fine.
Its very forgiving film.
Just open up the aperature wide and you'll probably be OK.

[Greg Crawford]

Can you shoot Day for Night in the Magic Hour?

If you can, then make sure you shoot in the shade, without seeing any sky in your shot.

Some of the other suggestions about having a bright areas in your shot are good. Your blacks will look darker if you can play them off White in your frame.

You could also Blue up the image when doing a transfer to Video.

Assuming you want a theatrical look.

I hope I did not in rage any of the censorship gods!

[Jerome Cain]

Thanks for your feedback. i got its' conception. I agree about push thing would be expensive and may came out tasteless. I will go for lights. Thanks!!! Jerome

[mcarter4121]

I shot some 125 Ektachrome R8 at 12fps wide open in a Bolex RX and had the stock pushed one stop for beautiful results. Neon lights got blown out but street water reflections were great. A telecine with a variable lamp control works to get the detail back on the blown out parts.