Night Photography Must haves?

Geronimo · Oct 31, 2004

What are the items you must have along with you during your night photography. Just curious what others brought with them, mainly the misc things.

Since I most of my night photos are in extremely lowlight areas I bring
Headlamp (red and white/blue LED)
Medium Maglite
Smaller Maglite
2 liters of Coffee
Cellphone.
CD player with a few CDs.
And since it is starting to turn cold, layers of clothes to stay comfortable.
plus all the photo related things.

malachite · Oct 31, 2004

Food

Sunflower seeds

A small, lightweight folding chair if I'm not going far from the truck

Gum

A notebook (for babbling and exposure notes)

Geronimo · Oct 31, 2004

malachite said:
A small, lightweight folding chair if I'm not going far from the truck

I have a nice little stool for some day hikes. Never really thought of bringing it along during the night though.

mentos_007 · Oct 31, 2004

ubrella

Jamie R · Oct 31, 2004

"I have a nice little stool for some day hikes. Never really thought of bringing it along during the night though."

We all have stools, but perhaps it's not nice to have to bring ours along with us

I've started to carry ID with me, only because the police seem to want to arrest me for looking suspicious.

Here's some things I bring:

1. Gloves to feel my fingers
2. Scarf to blow my nose if I run out of tissue
3. Tissue for cold and runny nose if I remember
4. Something to munch
5. Low-light hand-held meter
6. Reciprocity tables
7. A camera - that helps. Otherwise I'd just be taking readings
from the hand-held meter

8. Girlfriend - this is the most important: I need someone to
carry all my stuff (better run for cover now!)

I appreciate some of us can't carry a spare girlfriend around (underage?!), but it's one way to keep warm.

malachite · Oct 31, 2004

Geronimo said:
Never really thought of bringing it along during the night though.

I shoot film in the 64-100 ISO range and I bracket a bit sometimes so it's not uncommon to spend 2-3 hours in one spot for 5-10 exposures of the same thing at few different angles. I chair helps you keep your patience at 7-20 minutes per exposure. I've got my eye on a new chair that happens to be just a tad smaller than my tripod when folded up and at 2lbs it'll fit the tripod carrier on my photobackpack like a charm.

ksmattfish · Oct 31, 2004

Don't forget the tripod and cable release.

I also bring a laser for battling aliens in case I am abducted. :alien:

Actually I use it to help focus. Point it at your subject, and focus on the red dot. I've never actually tried this with an SLR, but it works great when focusing on a ground glass.

malachite · Oct 31, 2004

ksmattfish said:
Don't forget the tripod and cable release.

Make that: Cable Release(S)....Stoopid things only ever break in the dark or turn into a stick when you drop them. Acutally I have a white one now that's a snap to find in the dark so I've taken to putting a few stripes of white electrical tape on my black ones.

A focusing aid I use sometimes rather than totting a huge spotlight around is masking tape. You can run a big'ol strip of it across a rock, hang a strip from a tree limb (with a rock at the bottom so it's like a plumbob). Works great with a spilt prizm finder. Even with groundglass it works pretty good if you can just prop up a normal flashlight to aim at the tape from just a few feet away. Just get the edge of the tape sharp and you're good to go.

If none of that works.....learn hyperfocal.

ksmattfish · Oct 31, 2004

malachite said:
ksmattfish said:

Don't forget the tripod and cable release.

Click to expand...

Make that: Cable Release(S)....Stoopid things only ever break in the dark or turn into a stick when you drop them.

No kidding. As long as you bring 2, they never break or get lost, but when you've only got one...

I lost one in the snowy woods once when out shooting 4x5 landscapes. I knew from previous experience with the camera I was using that not using it would affect image sharpness. I was bummed, as it looked to be a long afternoon in the snow (the guy I was riding/shooting was planning to stay out all afternoon). Amazingly I was able to backtrack because of my foot prints in the snow, and I managed to find it.

The laser thingie I'm talking about is just one of those keychain lasers you can get at a gas station. They are very small; I just tape it to what ever camera I am using.

Geronimo · Oct 31, 2004

really like the lazer idea. Been trying to figure a way to get the focus on a scene. Usuallly depends on the area I am at.

I never seem to lose the cable release though. There are times when I have forgotten my quick release plates for the tripod at home. Not just one but all of them.

malachite · Oct 31, 2004

Pretty slick idea indeed but a flashlight to go around everything along the edge of your viewfinder is a good idea sometimes too. You'd be amazed how many times I've found the tops of bushes intruding into my pic from the bottom and small tree branches poking in from every angle.

Geronimo said:
I never seem to lose the cable release though. There are times when I have forgotten my quick release plates for the tripod at home. Not just one but all of them.

You may have just jinxed yourself now. Quick....Knock on wood :wink:

My weeklong vacation I took last month I ended up leaving 3 out of 4 QR plates at home. Right where I left em' when I was re-organizing everything to make sure I had everything before I left. 4 cameras and 1 QR plate sucks...............

santino · Oct 31, 2004

the laser idea is just great :thumbsup:

btw. beer to reduce coffee's effect

Geronimo · Oct 31, 2004

malachite said:
Pretty slick idea indeed but a flashlight to go around everything along the edge of your viewfinder is a good idea sometimes too. You'd be amazed how many times I've found the tops of bushes intruding into my pic from the bottom and small tree branches poking in from every angle.

Geronimo said:

I never seem to lose the cable release though. There are times when I have forgotten my quick release plates for the tripod at home. Not just one but all of them.

Click to expand...

You may have just jinxed yourself now. Quick....Knock on wood My weeklong vacation I took last month I ended up leaving 3 out of 4 QR plates at home. Right where I left em' when I was re-organizing everything to make sure I had everything before I left. 4 cameras and 1 QR plate sucks...............

It never fails to happen when I travel for a few hours. Last time I did it I drove 3 hours round trip to get the QR plates and then drove back 1.5 hours. Spent the next few hours shooting. Course I didnt have anything planned the next day so I sleep in really late.