Long exposure with film???

[fenderphoto]

Hello everyone. I am interested in taking long exposure shot with film. I have three scenarios in mind and I need film that accommodates all three. Sunset/sunrise, River and stream, general landscape. I've been looking at Illford but what exposures should I get?

 

[limr]

Hello everyone. I am interested in taking long exposure shot with film. I have three scenarios in mind and I need film that accommodates all three. Sunset/sunrise, River and stream, general landscape. I've been looking at Illford but what exposures should I get?

Do you mean ISO or exposure times? If you want long exposures during the day, you should look at the lowest ISO you can find - Pan F is a good one, ISO 50. You want a film that isn't as sensitive to light so you can have longer exposures without blowing anything out. You still might want to use ND filters to cut down on the light, depending on what you are shooting and how long an exposure you want.

As for exposure times, you're going to have to meter for that.

And I assume that you're interested in color film for the sunsets/sunrises, which you won't be getting from Ilford. Look at Ektar 100 or Portra 160, both from Kodak.

 

[fenderphoto]

Hello everyone. I am interested in taking long exposure shot with film. I have three scenarios in mind and I need film that accommodates all three. Sunset/sunrise, River and stream, general landscape. I've been looking at Illford but what exposures should I get?

Do you mean ISO or exposure times? If you want long exposures during the day, you should look at the lowest ISO you can find - Pan F is a good one, ISO 50. You want a film that isn't as sensitive to light so you can have longer exposures without blowing anything out. You still might want to use ND filters to cut down on the light, depending on what you are shooting and how long an exposure you want.

As for exposure times, you're going to have to meter for that.

And I assume that you're interested in color film for the sunsets/sunrises, which you won't be getting from Ilford. Look at Ektar 100 or Portra 160, both from Kodak.

ok cool. Yes ISO is what I meant. The river and stream shots will be the ones in B&W. and color for sunsets/sunrises. What about for general landscape. as for someone as an example for what I'm looking for, Ansel Adams, love his work.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I've done late evening with a slow shutter speed on occasion, usually in color but I have on occasion done something in B&W (or had two camera bodies and did a few shots of each - interesting cloud formation etc. - I like Ansel Adams too). But I don't do looooong exposures! As Leonore said you'd probably need slow film (low ISO) and a filter to block some of the light.

I have some slow speed expired film in my stash in the fridge, one of the oddities I got thru Film Photography Project | An Internet Radio Show & On-Line Resource for Film Shooters Worldwide , you might see what they have in stock. You could ask on their forum or Flickr group discussion page too. Or try APUG and see if there are any discussions there on doing long exposures.

Did you look on Ilford's site? They have resources on there, or try Films Not Dead, they're in the UK but I don't know offhand if they have any info. on long exposures.

 

[limr]

ok cool. Yes ISO is what I meant. The river and stream shots will be the ones in B&W. and color for sunsets/sunrises. What about for general landscape. as for someone as an example for what I'm looking for, Ansel Adams, love his work.

I like Pan F for landscapes as well. There's also Delta 100 from Ilford. For other brands, there's Agfa APX 100, Kodak TMax 100. I'm mentioning the slower speeds because I'm assuming you want long exposures. If you'd like some landscapes with normal exposure times, I'd look into TriX, which is a 400 speed film, but very tolerant with great tonal range. Depends on how you feel about grain, I suppose. If you like Adams, perhaps you want to stick to the finer grain films like Delta or Tmax.

The other thing to consider is the reciprocity failure of the film. This essentially means that for longer exposures, you'll need to add more time than you think. For example, a one-second exposure, depending on the film, might actually need 1.5 seconds. Here's a chart for some various films:
http://www.huecandela.com/hue-x/pin-pdf/PinPLUS_Rfail.pdf

According to that, for example, if you wanted a 3-second exposure and were using Pan F, you'd actually need a 5-second exposure. There might be better charts - that's just the best I could find at the moment - and I'm sure you can look specifically for whatever film you end up using (each film will have a different reciprocity failure rate so you have to check it for each type of film you use.)

 

[minicoop1985]

I gotta say for sunsets, I prefer slide film. Big time. Something like Velvia 50 would work perfectly-it's slow, it's pretty, and hot damn does it do colors well.

 

[dav305z]

I gotta say for sunsets, I prefer slide film. Big time. Something like Velvia 50 would work perfectly-it's slow, it's pretty, and hot damn does it do colors well.

Speaking as a newbie, I worry slide film is very unforgiving. I've gotten good results shooting with Fujifilm 100 ISO. It's not being produced anymore, but you can find recently expired rolls on the interwebs.

 

[unpopular]

^^ is that the old sensia that was marketed for consumers, or new sensia/astia?

I loved the original Sensia. Very neutral and more forgiving than most slide films. Astia always seemed too warm. Velvia seemed too barfy.

 

[minicoop1985]

Then, there's Ektar and Portra, of course.

 

[AlanKlein]

You ought to investigate using graduated neutral density filters for sunrise/sunset work to help work with the large difference in exposure between the light and dark areas. This will help regardless of the type of film you use.

 

[minicoop1985]

^^^ What Alan said is absolutely true.