35mm Film

[SilverHalide]

Does anyone have any experience with shooting 35mm film on the playa at night and during the "blue hour"? If so, what did you use in terms of brand of film and Speed/ISO?

I plan on doing some early morning long exposers pictures. I picked up a really well taken care of Nikon 8008 with a bunch of filters that I really want to play with on the playa.

All input is appreciated. Thanks!

[Canoe]

Test before you're there, so you have an idea of the results you'll get.

Each emulsion has its own colour pallet and texture, and that varies once you're into long exposures.
I assume you won't be pushing the film development.
You can even radically change the texture with B&W emulsions based on the chemicals used.
There is no one answer.
Or two.
Or three.

[some seeing eye]

I have, back in the day. My main problem daytime was overexposure with all the beige playa and the sky. You can spotmeter the blue hour and do the zone system in your head. For night, suggest bringing an inexpensive digital camera and tuning your exposure on that, then duplicating it on your film camera.

There have been photography topics searchable on ePlaya.

[SilverHalide]

Test before you're there, so you have an idea of the results you'll get.

Each emulsion has its own colour pallet and texture, and that varies once you're into long exposures.
I assume you won't be pushing the film development.
You can even radically change the texture with B&W emulsions based on the chemicals used.
There is no one answer.
Or two.
Or three.

Thanks for the reply Canoe.

Good idea. That inspires me to do a shoot with "Space Whale" early one morning, in downtown Reno. That should give me some idea of my exposure settings in regards to capturing the lights at night on the playa. And doing a camping trip out to the Black Rock would probably be a good idea too.

No, I don't plan on doing my own development - this year. I would love to take a small old camper and turn it into a darkroom so I can push, pull, burn and dodge like it's 1986.

[SilverHalide]

I have, back in the day. My main problem daytime was overexposure with all the beige playa and the sky. You can spotmeter the blue hour and do the zone system in your head. For night, suggest bringing an inexpensive digital camera and tuning your exposure on that, then duplicating it on your film camera.

There have been photography topics searchable on ePlaya.

Thanks for the reply Some Seeing Eye.

Good idea on the spot meter, I completely forgot about those! I don't own one, but I found an app for my iPhone - go figure. I am going to have to use that in my film trials to get it dialed in.

The last post I could find on 35mm film was 2013. Film is so out of style now. The guy I used for film development just closed down and I understand why. I shoot a Nikon D750 that has amazing night resolution and get images I could never get on film. And the cameras and post processing software is only getting better. It is so easy to fix the blown highlights of the playa and sky now. But part of me cannot let the art of shooting film die.

[Canoe]

I miss the colour palletes and textures.

But I love digital bracketing, to get exposures for different parts of the scene, combined after the fact.

[SilverHalide]

I love the "creamy" texture you get with black & white film. No matter how hard I try, I cannot get that same look with pixels in post processing.

And don't even get me going on Kodachrome color. (RIP Slide Film)

However, no way could I get a good star shoot at 3200 ISO on film.

[Savannah]

Does anyone have any experience with shooting 35mm film on the playa at night and during the "blue hour"? If so, what did you use in terms of brand of film and Speed/ISO?

I plan on doing some early morning long exposers pictures. I picked up a really well taken care of Nikon 8008 with a bunch of filters that I really want to play with on the playa.

All input is appreciated. Thanks!

I got some wonderful 35mm shots back in the day, using Kodiak and Fuji 800 a long time ago. But I don't think I was as ambitious or as playful--just hopeful.