[womble]

I have a roll of Cinestill 800T and I thought it would be fun to try photographing the various Christmas decorations around the town centres in my area, probably at dusk or early evening using a tripod, my LX and a cable release. All my decoration photography in recent years has been digital where I have the luxury of checking the histogram and adjusting the exposure. Does anyone have any recommendations for metering this sort of scene with film? Usually, the metered reading with digital over exposes making the background lighter and the lights dull or burnt out. I was wondering about taking some test shots on my K-3, and when I found an exposure I liked, transferring that to the LX with the addition of some reciprocity correction if needed.

Any thoughts or tips welcome.

Thanks, Kris.

[TwoUptons]

Unrelated to the reciprocity issue, in my area of the world a lot of Christmas decorations have gone to LEDs, so they have a wildly different color balance than the old incandescents.

Being Christmas decorations, they'll probably still look good...

-Eric

[aaacb]

taking some test shots on my K-3

I do exactly that, but on my phone since I have it anyway with me when I'm out: set iso, see the shutter and aperture the phone picks, and adjust for what aperture or shutter I want with the camera. I've tried a few free metering apps, none were any easier or more reliable. I use this primarily with a camera that has no meter (rangefinder, never got the right low voltage batteries for it). After a while I kind of get used to what I should set and guesstimate it.

[ramseybuckeye]

Yep, take your K-3, it may be a lot extra, but you could get settings. I know with digital the metering doesn't really work well with many Christmas lights, but it's easy to sample.

[DWS1]

I don't know if the readings from a digital camera metering system will translate directly to the proper exposure on a film camera. I always had best results by using a daylight white balance and spot metering directly on led Christmas lights.

[ismaelg]

Hello,

For film outings I take my K-01 / 40XS combo as a light meter, set to center weight metering. With film, I tend to over expose slightly as I have found in my experience that in digital I have to protect the highlights but in film I have to protect the shadows.
I also have a light meter app in my phone I'm starting to get familiar with.

Thanks,

[TwoUptons]

I don't know if the readings from a digital camera metering system will translate directly to the proper exposure on a film camera. I always had best results by using a daylight white balance and spot metering directly on led Christmas lights.

Cinestill 800T is tungsten balanced though, right?

So you'd set the camera white balance to tungsten (or whatever custom white balance would match best what Cinestill likes) and do it...

It still may look a bit different, but it should be pretty close... and you'll be able to tell if you need to worry about reciprocity.

If it's on a tripod, and you're getting 10 minute exposures, maybe, but if it's 1/2 s, probably not...

-Eric

[LensBeginner]

Unrelated to the reciprocity issue, in my area of the world a lot of Christmas decorations have gone to LEDs, so they have a wildly different color balance than the old incandescents.

Being Christmas decorations, they'll probably still look good...

-Eric

Yes, noticed this as well...
Also, it might be a coincidence, but LED "look" smaller and the light is more concentrated in one single spot than other light sources - this WRT to Christmas decorations, of course.
While the difference might be subtle, I found it increasingly difficult not to burn all color information into pure white... also, smaller light sources look "insignificant" in a photo if perfectly in focus.

Was eager to try my new Sigma 70-200/2.8, but we're still on a mild semi-lockdown here

[TwoUptons]

Yes, noticed this as well...
Also, it might be a coincidence, but LED "look" smaller and the light is more concentrated in one single spot than other light sources - this WRT to Christmas decorations, of course.
While the difference might be subtle, I found it increasingly difficult not to burn all color information into pure white... also, smaller light sources look "insignificant" in a photo if perfectly in focus.

Was eager to try my new Sigma 70-200/2.8, but we're still on a mild semi-lockdown here

It looks like it's taken the manufacturers a few years to add effective faceted covers to the leds.
That's helped, though they can still look funny.

Maybe it's time to break out that 1990s-vintage Cokin star filter

-Eric

[Michail_P]

I’d take my cell phone and try a light meter app when going analog. Mine is accurate enough but you still need to take reciprocity in consideration. It’s a good idea to give a go with the 800T. If you have a lot of color it’s gonna be fantastic. Can’t wait to see the shots!

[tuco]

That Cinestill 800T has a lot of dynamic range from what I've seen. I think you can have confidence in one of those light meter apps for your phone. If a light meter can place highlights so they are not overexposed for the low dynamic range of slide film, it should have no problem placing the shadows/highlights well for higher DR of negative film with the same exposure. I'll post this test again of a Lightmeter app for a phone where I used it in the picture taking mode to get the exposure.

A picture of Provia 100F slide film of various formats on a light table. The highlight placement looks good to me and you can't really expect a lot of shadow detail with this film.





Here is using the Lightmeter app again on negative film and I compared it to what I'd select for a middle grey exposure with my one-degree spot meter. The metering compared close enough for me.
Fuji Pro 400H

[LensBeginner]

It looks like it's taken the manufacturers a few years to add effective faceted covers to the leds.
That's helped, though they can still look funny.

Maybe it's time to break out that 1990s-vintage Cokin star filter

-Eric

nice corny vintage look!
Nah... I'll just underexpose and stop down a bit with my Sigma - with its nice 9-blade aperture

[Huss]

You're over thinking it. I shoot Cinestill 800 @500, here with a Rollei QZ35W. Hand held.

[gofour3]

I have a roll of Cinestill 800T and I thought it would be fun to try photographing the various Christmas decorations around the town centres in my area, probably at dusk or early evening using a tripod, my LX and a cable release. All my decoration photography in recent years has been digital where I have the luxury of checking the histogram and adjusting the exposure. Does anyone have any recommendations for metering this sort of scene with film? Usually, the metered reading with digital over exposes making the background lighter and the lights dull or burnt out. I was wondering about taking some test shots on my K-3, and when I found an exposure I liked, transferring that to the LX with the addition of some reciprocity correction if needed.

Any thoughts or tips welcome.

Thanks, Kris.

I'd just bracket the shots and let the LX metering system do its thing. (Add +1 and +2 exp comp to darken the sky)

I also checked the Kodak Tech pubs on the original Kodak 500T movie film that the Cinestill 800T is based on and it was not much help.

Have fun.

Phil.

[LensBeginner]

It looks like it's taken the manufacturers a few years to add effective faceted covers to the leds.
That's helped, though they can still look funny.

Maybe it's time to break out that 1990s-vintage Cokin star filter

-Eric

Update: I went and took some pictures... not much in the way of decorations this year, still something was there.
It's always a fine balance to hit when editing the RAWs, between having a picture where the lights looks too dark, and having a nice, strong, colored bloom from the LEDs destroying all the fine detail... not easy
Taking my time, will probably post something somewhere when I'm done.