Tom Paiva's Night Photography Blog

Last month, I got access to a fuel dock for a major oil company, where ships offload into storage tanks (tank farm) here in the LA area.  I’ve wanted to shoot here for a couple of years, and finally got in.  I only had about an hour, but I shot as quickly as I could with my 4×5 view camera.  I did seven views that evening, and here are five of them.

These images are in sequence of how I shot them.  Notice how the light changes.  It was unseasonably warm that day with clear skies.

I used select focus on the white freshly painted foreground valves.  It might not be as noticeable on a monitor.  I shot this because I liked the diagonal lines and the interesting mix of colors of the twilight sky and the green structure and the warm tones of the sky and the cool blue/white of the pipes and valves.  The red really popped, as well.  At this time of day, the colors are very saturated.

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The lights are beginning to come on in this view of the chicksans (the articulating “hoses” that hook the ship to shore).  I liked the magenta/blue gradation in the twilight sky.  That is a hawk perched on the lit light fixture, left of center.  In these two shots, above, the sunset was behind me (looking east).

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I’ve turned the camera towards the north-west for this shot of the tanks.  The camera is positioned to block out the bright lamps and is only 2 foot off the dock.  I shot this because of the mix of colored lighting.  Considering these pipelines move oil and gasoline, they are remarkably clean, as was the whole facility.

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I am now looking west, looking into the twilight sky.  The curved bulkheads in the water reflect in the still waters.  They mimic the huge round tanks.  This is shot on negative film and has a very different feel than the image above, on transparency film.

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It is now completely dark.  This is shot with a longer lens across the slough at a different tank farm.  The water was very still and I shot this because of the two barges names are ‘Big Boy’ and ‘Bad Boy’, which made me chuckle.  There was more movement in the water than I expected (possibly from the current?) in this 6 minute exposure, as the names are unreadable.  The motion of the barges gives a softness to the image, sort of like the roundness of the tanks.  The reflections from the white tanks in the water make the shot.

I had never been to this facility, so I had to spend about 20 minutes scouting where to shoot.  Also, I could not bring my car in, so had to carefully pack what I thought I would need and carry it the quarter mile to this location.  Because of my limited time, I shot all these views within 50 feet of each other.  I had an escort and was prohibited to use an electronic camera.  Frequently, I take a few snaps with my point-and-shoot during the exposures–but not this time.  Hopefully, I will be able to come back to this multi-acre location, as this is just a small portion of what is there.

I was gone over the holidays for a couple of weeks, one week working in San Francisco and then with family.  Afterwards, we drove into Nevada and south down highway 395 back to LA.  As with most of the country, it was unusually cold and nasty.

This weather made for some nice twilight and night shooting.  Following is a few images I shot–just for fun, with my Sony digital camera.

This was shot on the front steps in San Francisco of the place we stayed with friends.  It was all there, nothing was moved.  The light from the window made a triangular patch, highlighting the pumpkin.  The green railing balanced the color.

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This is simply a view of their next door neighbor’s house.  The yellow “bug light” glowing in the entryway contrasted with the cool blue-gray building and foliage.

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This is the laundromat on the corner.  The warmed toned fabrics in the window contrasted with the cool evening light.  It took three exposures to get the balance I wanted.

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There was a light rain falling when I shot this.  It did not really move me, until a car came by and double parked for a couple of minutes.  Below is that shot.

This image adds interest with a sparkle off the wet stonework.

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Here is the same laundromat as above, different night.  The facade was painted electric blue and the late overcast twilight,really intensified the color.  The upper building is gray.  This was shot on Christmas Eve, and sad to say three people were doing laundry…

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We left the San Francisco area for the Sierra foothills after Christmas and stopped at a motel.  Despite the light rain and mid-30s temperature, I still went for a walk around the motel grounds and found many good angles and interesting light.  A minute after this shot was made, the light in the room went out, changing the image completely.

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The mixed lighting, depth and different textures prompted me to shoot this view behind the motel.

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We spent the next few days in the Eastern Sierras.  This unusual shot was done inside the general store in Bridgeport CA.  I usually avoid photographing neon, but occasionally shoot light reflected FROM neon signs.  In this case, the blacked out backing of the neon tubes cut the light down, yet still giving some nice colors.  It was about 12 degrees outside, with blowing snow.

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We went to the only tavern in town to have a beer and check out the local color, when the neon beer sign in the window caught my attention.  I shot this bleak street scene before we went in.  The red glow added to the glow of the sodium vapor street lamps warmed an otherwise cold shot.  Most of Bridgeport is closed for the winter, and I was actually able to shoot in the middle of the street at night–with very little traffic.

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I walked around Bridgeport for a while and shot the oldest working county courthouse in CA.  That is why the sidewalk is swept clean of snow.  This was shot around 5pm, and there were people still coming out of the building.  After about a half hour of shooting, my bare hands could not take the 10 degree weather any more.  We then walked back to the motel, where I did the following shot:

I wanted to find a way to shoot the side lighted icicles, and shot this from about 7 foot level to bring the icicles tighter into the image.  The neon from the motel sign is lighting up the gray motel office a hot pink.  The elevated shot also let me see more of the pink building and hide some trash cans.  Yes, that is my latest car, my new/second hand Subaru Outback, that sure was helpful in the ice and snow of the wintery Eastern Sierras.

Some of you might notice the new blog header.  This panorama is from a 90 second exposure on 4×5 transparency film of the San Francisco skyline from Treasure Island in the last touches of twilight.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, as I did.

This particular post is going to be directed to the film-shooting readers.  The digital shooters have the chimp-screen and histogram graphs to check on the fly.  There are a few tricks for twilight shooting for digital shooters, and will address them in a future post.

One of the most common questions that is asked in workshops and lectures is when is the right time to shoot twilight?  It is not as obvious as one might think, as your eye has the remarkable ability to adjust for almost any sort of light, but the camera and film have to told how and when to shoot.

Many years ago, I tested and re-tested, taking copious notes to find that “magic hour” to shoot when the ambient light matches the artificial lights of street lamps, etc.  I did my tests with 35mm transparency film, processed it and left it unmounted, to keep the images in order.  Shooting 35mm film is still cheap and easy, and I suggest testing the same way today.

You will need a light meter of some kind, preferably a spot meter.  I use a Sekonic, but there are several others.  Also needed is a watch or similar clock and a notebook and pen or recording device.  Years ago, I quickly went to the recording device, in those days a compact cassette recorder, as fumbling with a pen and paper in the dark is not fun.  Today, I still take notes for every sheet of film I shoot, but use my smart-phone and a simple recording app.  I save the (.wav) files (that can even be emailed) and play them back when the film is processed while I am viewing them on the lightbox.  I then write the exposure information on the sleeve.

My examples below are to give you an idea of what the images will look like, as there are many variables such as density of the cloud cover (if any); direction of the view (east or west); time of year; location; film type, etc.  Don’t try and shoot by my times, as they are just a constant to give an idea.  My watch might be off a minute or two anyway.

For this exercise I shot Kodak E100-VS transparency film, a daylight balanced positive film, in this instance, in 4×5 format.  I shot 5 sheets of film, predicting one of the middle exposures would be the best.  The location is a well hidden spot on Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay, overlooking the Bay Bridge with the SF skyline beyond. Unfortunately, a light rain began just as I started my exposures.  I had to use the darkcloth to protect the camera and the lens from raindrops between exposures.

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This image was shot a bit early, but a good starting point.  I used my spotmeter and took readings from four areas of the image:  the sky about 1/2 inch (on this image) above the two towers left of center; one of the darker building on the right (one with few lights); the Bay, about one inch to the right of the bridge; and the road bed of the bridge itself, metering between the cars, avoiding lights.  I then averaged the four readings to get the exposure.  These are key exposure points for a balance of highlights and shadows.  I chose not to meter the trees, since I know they will go dark very quickly and will become silhouetted and never meter lights.  Using your eye and watching the lights come on is an important part of the exposure, and keeps you “in the moment” of the image at hand.  After all, you are supposed to have chosen the perfect location–enjoy the view!

This exposure is 4 seconds at f16 on 100ISO film, with my 210mm lens (equivalent to about 70mm in 35mm).  Time of day is 451pm on December 2nd.  All of the film is processed normally.  I will keep the f-stop the same for most of the shots to keep things simpler, varying the time.

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I metered the same way every couple of minutes as the light changed, waiting for a one-stop difference in exposure from the first view.  This will give a notably different exposure than the previous shot.  I shot a few seconds early for this shot, since a containership was sailing by and thought it would add some interest–and it did!  Notice how the light of the bridge and city are becoming more prominent.

The exposure is 8 seconds at f16, one stop darker.  Time is 457pm, just 6 minutes after the previous shot.

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It’s getting later, and the lights are becoming an important part of the image, as we are now into true twilight.  This is my favorite time of day, and I think you can see why.

The exposure is 15 seconds at f16, another stop darker.  Time is now 505pm, 8 minutes later.

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Notice how the sodium vapor lights on the bridge are beginning to dominate, becoming overexposed and overpowering the red taillights of the west-bound cars.  The city lights now seems to glow.  Note also that the trees are now virtually black.  The reflection of the city lights off the Bay really adds to the shot.

The exposure is now 30 seconds at f16, again, a stop darker.  Time now is 511pm, 6 minutes later.

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Here is the fifth sheet and the bridge lights have overpowered the taillights and image.  Note how the sky is darker and we are able to see the city lights reflected off the clouds.  I was going to shoot another sheet with the near black sky, but the rain became too much.

The exposure is now 30 seconds at f11, a stop darker.  Note that I opened the aperture a stop so I would not have to do a one minute exposure, subjecting the lens front element to raindrops.  The time is now 517pm, 6 minutes later.

On this particular evening, the dense overcast sky prolonged the twilight about twice as long than a clear night because the cloudy sky acts as a soft box and scatters the light.  In reality, the “magic hour” was really 15-20 minutes in this case and would have been 10-15 on a clear night.

The reason there is only a 20 minute window is that you have to keep extending the exposure for the ambient sky and subject and the lights, which are a constant brightness, keep getting brighter to the point of over-exposure.  What you want is that perfect balance.

Another point is that large format negatives and transparencies also hold the shadows and highlight much better than smaller formats, allowing you to retain more balance the exposure.  Also, color negatives will extend the twilight time because of its longer tonal scale.  Personally, I like what the transparency gives for twilight and save the negatives for urban night shooting.

As usual, questions or comments are welcome, as I am sure you’ll have some.

It being that time of year, I will take a couple of weeks off from the blog and do another post in early January.  Happy holidays to you all!

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Last week, while driving to San Francisco from LA, I decided to scout some of the Valley farm towns heading north.  I also wanted to try out a new camera in the field that I just bought.

The towns are Patterson, Newman and Gustine, in central CA.  There is a lot to be shot there, if you like the agriculture industry, which I do.  Back in the 70s and early 80s, I lived in Stockton for a few years, so the sights and smells were familiar.

The camera I purchased is a Sony NEX-5, which I became smitten with while playing with one in NYC last month.  I spoke with a National Geographic photographer in NYC who used one on assignment on South America and loved it.  Its low-light capabilities interested me (including a top speed of ISO 12000 with a multiple exposure stacking capability to reduce noise considerably; and  auto customizable HDR).  With an APS sensor size (very large for a point-and-shoot) and 14.5MP which renders much better tones and sharpness than my former point-and-shoot cameras, appealed to me.  It is also both completely automatic and can be used manually to whatever degree you want including interchangeable lenses.  You can set shutter speeds, apertures, ISO, turn off the auto-focus and it you have the option for shooting RAW files, too.  It also has “bulb” for long exposures.  I purchased the 17-55mm zoom and 16mm “pancake” lens which makes it a very small package.  What makes this camera appealing is its very small and light weight because it does not have the pentaprism of a typical single-lens-reflex (the “bump” on top).  It uses the chimp-screen for all composing.  Without the lens, it is a similar size to the smallest point-and-shoots.  This enables virtually any other 35mm lens to be able to be used via adapters.  I bought the Nikon and (older) Canon FD adapters as I have many of these older lenses kicking around.  There are mounts for Minolta, Pentax, Sony Alpha, Olympus, Canon EF and Leica bayonet or screw mount, too.  This will give new life for older lenses and give the flexibility that view cameras have, being able to use virtually any lens made.

Here are a few images I shot at twilight and at night with the camera.  All are hand-held, leaning up against the car or poles or whatever to help steady the shot.  All are totally unmanipulated in “post” or Photoshop, and are the downsized for this blog-post from the as-shot jpeg files (I also shot RAW, but felt I did not need them for the web).  I did have the built in “Dynamic Range Optimizer” set to 2 out of 5 to lower the contrast a bit and save the shadow/highlight values.

I was temped to drive up this ramp and see-saw down the other side, but my better judgement told me otherwise.  Note the nice pink light on the side of the wall.

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I wanted to see how the camera did with that sodium vapor lamp shining directly at the camera.  It seemed to do just fine, with  no visible flare and held the highlights and shadows well.  I like the clouds in that rich, blue sky contrasting with the warm SV lamp.

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I had to shoot a few shots of this view to get one sharp enough, since this is a 1/2 second exposure–hand-held.  As you can see, the image stabilizing system works quite well.  Note how I placed that lamp behind the pole.  This was shot from the car window, working between traffic at “rush hour”.

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The sky was quite dramatic and the color was barely discernable, but came out well in the photo.  Note how I hid the light fixture.  There is excellent tonal range throughout.  Even though it is slight crooked, I wanted to show the un-altered image.

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For those of you who are wondering if I still shoot film, here I am shooting in the middle of  a lonely valley road with the 4×5 camera.  4×5 and 8×10 are the only films I shoot anymore, with the relentless progress with digital capture muscling out the smaller formats, with the Sony making a major milestone.

No cars came by for the 15 minutes I was there setting up and making two different shots.  I shot this with the Sony hand-held at a half second, being careful to block the street lamp with the 4×5 camera body.  It is slightly soft, but considering the awkward position I was in, it is not bad.

In the next post or two, I will show some 4×5 views and discuss them.

One question that comes up regularly is what I mean by “hiding lamps”.  This expression simply means positioning the camera in such a way to block the bright lights in a scene behind some object, such as a pole or tree.

Night photography is inherently contrasty, with near black skies and lamps of some sort in urban settings.  This contrast is higher than the film or sensor can handle, so any way we can reduce that contrast, will help make a better image.  Hiding as many of the light sources is one of the best ways to lower contrast.  This is not always easy, but hiding the brightest lamps will help a lot.  Following are examples of “well hidden” and “not so well hidden” lamps and comparisons.

In this simple shot of an entrance to an industrial area, I simply fired off a shot (as an example) with no thought of placement.  I knew there was a shot to be had here, but I would have to carefully place the camera and tripod.  Following is the final shot I made, after moving just a few feet.

I hid the lamp on the left with the horizontal pole by lowering the camera a few inches and hiding the lamp on the right behind the vertical pole by moving to the left a bit.  This also got rid of the nasty flare and has more mood.  The reflections off the razor wire also adds interest and becomes an important part of the image.

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I purposely shot this view which is the same locale from last week’s blog post in Jersey City to show all the nasty bright lights.  I knew there were a couple of good shots to be made at this location, with the colorful mix of lights.  We are looking right into the green mercury vapor lamp between first and second trucks and a sodium vapor lamp is right above the third truck.  Also, that billboard on the highway in the background is very distracting, since it is blown out in this one minute exposure.

By moving to the right a few feet and lowering the camera a few inches, the MV lamp is hidden behind the middle truck and I hid the SV lamp behind the third truck.  I like it that you can still see the lights off the back wall through the truck’s cabs.  By moving in tighter, eliminating the bright, uninteresting wall on the left and by rotating the camera left, I cropped out the over-exposed billboard.  This made for a much better contrast ratio and more sky color because I was able to extend the exposure time a half stop to 90 seconds for better better sky and shadow detail.

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There is a very bright lamp behind that tree that would have blown out the shot.  The lamp on the right is far enough away and is not as bright.  Note how the hidden lamp has illuminated the second tree.  The fall foliage at night caught my eye in this north Battery Park shot in Manhattan.

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Here I also positioned the camera to place the lamp behind the tree.  You can see from the shadows, that there are additional lamps on the left and right.  The left lamp lit the tree and bench.  I had to use a card to keep the light from flaring from the right, since it was so close to the edge of the frame.  This is also called a “gobo”.  I like the mix of cool MV lamps on the walkway with the warm SV lamps behind on West Street, Manhattan.

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This shot of a playground on Manhattan’s Westside, was a challenge because there are so many lamps hidden in this shot.  There is a lot going in this shot that is appreciated at a larger size.  Note the many streaks of light on the ground from all the different directions.  A move of a few inches in any direction would show a bright light.  The apartment lights being so bright show that it was darker here than it appears in this shot.  By blocking the lamps, I was able to double the exposure time to preserve the shadows.  This is a 2 minute exposure.