How can I compensate for not having lighting at night?

B

billygraydon

Active member
While trying to shoot the city at night how can i compensate for not being able to use artificial lighting without having grainy images?
 
That's like asking how can I compensate for not having food without being hungry. You need light to shoot stuff
 
Or buy a Canon 1D Mark IV. Anyone seen that video shot entirely at night with available light? Pretty intense stuff.
 
Finnegan said:
Or buy a Canon 1D Mark IV. Anyone seen that video shot entirely at night with available light? Pretty intense stuff.
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Yes, but they used the streetlamps and car headlamps for light. So the "available light" was more than just moonlight! And they had the luxury of positioning people exactly where they wanted to.

Again, no light, no video.
 
PerroneFord said:
Yes, but they used the streetlamps and car headlamps for light. So the "available light" was more than just moonlight! And they had the luxury of positioning people exactly where they wanted to.

Again, no light, no video.
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I'm pretty sure billygraydon meant available light instead of artificial light.
 
Use a 360 degree shutter. That'll help you a little. Things will get smeary, but hey, you'll have an image.
 
Crimson King said:
I'm pretty sure billygraydon meant available light instead of artificial light.
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I'm sure he did too. And my answer still, is no light no video. We don't know what the ambient light levels will be. But if there is none, he's not going to get anything. And if he has some ambient, but it's weak, it's going to be grainy.

There is no "compensating" for it.
 
PerroneFord said:
I'm sure he did too. And my answer still, is no light no video. We don't know what the ambient light levels will be. But if there is none, he's not going to get anything. And if he has some ambient, but it's weak, it's going to be grainy.

There is no "compensating" for it.
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No light no video for sure but you can get good enough ambient light in the city (not everywhere but many places). I shoot video at night very often in the city without any lighting equipment. My setting is iso 640 ~ 5000 f 1.4~2.8. I usually get very good results after color correction. Grain looks not very bad if you have a good color correction skill but it's simply not possible without using 5d, 1d or d3s.
 
You need something to work with (lighting). As Peronne pointed out, think out creative ways yo use available lighting. However, I am not sure the Sony you are using is ever going to look all that good in street available lighting.
 
alright. Thanks everyone for all the input. time to get creative with how I will use the city lights.

phudsontx just out of curiosity why wouldn't my ex1r ever look all that good in available street lighting? image sensor size?
 
billygraydon said:
... why wouldn't my ex1r ever look all that good in available street lighting? image sensor size?
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Yes, among other things. The EX1r simply can't get enough light into the camera to do shoot at night with no lights. You can do a few things like go shutter off, shoot 60i, shoot near 50mm equivalent so you get the F1.9 part of the lens, but in truth, it's just not going to be enough.

Even with the 5D I don't truly shoot at dark unless I have to. I shoot around sunrise and sunset and then darken in post. Even Hollywood shoots day for night where they can.
 
Peronne is right on about the EX1. I did shoot a Nikon D90 on the streets on New York one night recently. It came out very good for a D90. However, it is New York, there is a lot of light "available".
 
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