Lighting at night in a parking light

[sina12345]

Does anyone know how well a 50m 1.8 lens with a 550D hold up at night in a parking lot. The parking lot has street lights every..say 20 meters or so. With my stock 18-55mm 3.5-5.6 night shooting is really hard with out my own lighting, and videos on youtube with low-light shots are helpful, but its hard to tell what kind of lighting the location had.

Winters coming and a buddy of mine want to shoot a quick drift montage, and I want to know if it would be at all possible to pull something like this off. I'm pretty sure I just got to go buy the lens and try this out for myself, but anyone have some insight?

Thanks

 

[Cracker Funk]

The 50mm 1.8 will hold up, quite well, if your subjects are standing directly underneath a street light (you'll be amazed, actually). I wouldn't have them move around the parking lot, though.

Haven't heard from you in a while. You're one of my favorite young filmmakers on this forum. Happy holidays!

 

[sina12345]

The 50mm 1.8 will hold up, quite well, if your subjects are standing directly underneath a street light (you'll be amazed, actually). I wouldn't have them move around the parking lot, though.

Haven't heard from you in a while. You're one of my favorite young filmmakers on this forum. Happy holidays!

Hmm that might be difficult seeing as how my subject is supposed to be in a car, moving.

And Thank You! Happy Holidays to you as well (in Canada we have our turkey day in October though, haha). Been busy with university stuff as of late, need to start sending applications in soon, and it's a little overwhelming.

PS. Cool monkey

 

[Cracker Funk]

Oh, well in that case, you're fine. There are ways to light the inside of a car. I haven't looked too much into it, so I don't know if this is the best method, but one method that I think might work well would be to get Christmas lights on the ceiling of the car. I guess you'd have to play with moving them around, and stuff, to make it look natural, but my gut tells me you could make it work. And I think that'd probably be enough light for the 50mm f1.8. Only one way to find out. Of course, you'd have to have some kind of electrical converter, to get the lights to run off the car's lighter, and you'd want to find the all-white Christmas lights.

I'm sure there are plenty of alternatives. I'm confident you can find a way to light the car plenty well-enough for that lens.

Good luck with the college apps!

 

[sina12345]

Oh, well in that case, you're fine. There are ways to light the inside of a car. I haven't looked too much into it, so I don't know if this is the best method, but one method that I think might work well would be to get Christmas lights on the ceiling of the car. I guess you'd have to play with moving them around, and stuff, to make it look natural, but my gut tells me you could make it work. And I think that'd probably be enough light for the 50mm f1.8. Only one way to find out. Of course, you'd have to have some kind of electrical converter, to get the lights to run off the car's lighter, and you'd want to find the all-white Christmas lights.

I'm sure there are plenty of alternatives. I'm confident you can find a way to light the car plenty well-enough for that lens.

Good luck with the college apps!

Hmm I actually got my hands on box of LED christmas lights yesterday, that coupled with the lens and a hopefully 'snowily' reflective parking light and over head lights should make for a passable situation!

Thanks, feeling less crappy about this now.

 

[chilipie]

You actually might be able to work it out a little bit before you get the lens…

The difference between f/1.8 and f/5 is three stops - this means you're letting in eight times more light at f/1.8. If you go into stills mode for a minute, you'll be able to adjust the shutter speed to compensate for the slower lens, and see what the 50mm will be able to "see" in those light conditions.

So - go into stills photography mode, open the aperture to it's fullest, and then zoom in as far as you can go until the aperture jumps from f/5 to f/5.6 - this is a slightly wider angle than 50mm, but it makes the calculations a little easier. Choose your ISO, and set your shutter speed to 1/50.

Now, we need to make the shutter speed three stops slower, to compensate for the lens speed - one stop is 1/25, two stops is 1/13, and three stops is 1/6. Take a photo (using a tripod is a good idea) and have a look. The depth of field won't be the same as on the 50mm at f/1.8, the picture will be a bit sharper, and any moving objects will be very blurry, but that's the amount of light you'll get using the 50mm lens. If it's not bright enough or too dark, adjust the ISO to suit. You won't be able to shoot video like this, but it'll give you a good idea of what you can achieve with the lens, and you won't be unexpectedly disappointed if you do buy it.

 

[PaulGriffith]

Try the lights in the lap also. May look more natural having light coming from the "gauges".

And if you can use tungsten (regular) lights the color will probably be a bit better compared to the headlight and streetlight colors. They aren't tungsten, but still closer.

 

[sina12345]

You actually might be able to work it out a little bit before you get the lens…

The difference between f/1.8 and f/5 is three stops - this means you're letting in eight times more light at f/1.8. If you go into stills mode for a minute, you'll be able to adjust the shutter speed to compensate for the slower lens, and see what the 50mm will be able to "see" in those light conditions.

So - go into stills photography mode, open the aperture to it's fullest, and then zoom in as far as you can go until the aperture jumps from f/5 to f/5.6 - this is a slightly wider angle than 50mm, but it makes the calculations a little easier. Choose your ISO, and set your shutter speed to 1/50.

Now, we need to make the shutter speed three stops slower, to compensate for the lens speed - one stop is 1/25, two stops is 1/13, and three stops is 1/6. Take a photo (using a tripod is a good idea) and have a look. The depth of field won't be the same as on the 50mm at f/1.8, the picture will be a bit sharper, and any moving objects will be very blurry, but that's the amount of light you'll get using the 50mm lens. If it's not bright enough or too dark, adjust the ISO to suit. You won't be able to shoot video like this, but it'll give you a good idea of what you can achieve with the lens, and you won't be unexpectedly disappointed if you do buy it.

This completley slipped my mind, thanks for this, I'll have to try this out on the next snowy day, the more reflection we get too the better off we'll be.
I'm wondering though if I plan on shooting at 60fps instead of 24, would I go three stops less than 1/120? And would that be 1/15?

Try the lights in the lap also. May look more natural having light coming from the "gauges".

And if you can use tungsten (regular) lights the color will probably be a bit better compared to the headlight and streetlight colors. They aren't tungsten, but still closer.

Hmm, you might be right, but the thing is I'm shooting more for the car than the subject inside it. After all it's going to be about drifting, so the actual driver is not important, just that the car itself is visible drifting around this parking lot.

 

[PaulGriffith]

Oh ok. Well then in that case, could you have other car's "headlights" fill in the darker blank areas between the streetlights?

Or shoot day for night?

A fast lens will get a lot of light, but if you're quickly transitioning between lit under the lamps and unlit between, you could end up with blown out footage or too dark footage in the different areas. Be sure to set your contrast as low as possible to help keep it flat and a bit more even.

 

[sina12345]

Oh ok. Well then in that case, could you have other car's "headlights" fill in the darker blank areas between the streetlights?

Or shoot day for night?

A fast lens will get a lot of light, but if you're quickly transitioning between lit under the lamps and unlit between, you could end up with blown out footage or too dark footage in the different areas. Be sure to set your contrast as low as possible to help keep it flat and a bit more even.

Yea I'm starting to think we would probably have to bring another car to fill some areas up, and as for shooting day for night...*cough* cops *cough*.

I also totally forgot about the contrast settings, thanks for the reminder.

 

[chilipie]

This completley slipped my mind, thanks for this, I'll have to try this out on the next snowy day, the more reflection we get too the better off we'll be.
I'm wondering though if I plan on shooting at 60fps instead of 24, would I go three stops less than 1/120? And would that be 1/15?

Yep, exactly!

Yea I'm starting to think we would probably have to bring another car to fill some areas up, and as for shooting day for night...*cough* cops *cough*.

I also totally forgot about the contrast settings, thanks for the reminder.

Yeah, I think another car for a bit more light is a good idea. I might consider buying a couple of high powered flashlights as well - if you position them well, they can pick out the car where the streetlights don't, or you could bounce them off the snow for a bit more general fill.