5 Frames with a Leica M3 & Ilford HP5 pushed to 3200

I’ve been wanting to work on my low-light film shooting skills for awhile. I’d already tried shooting some Ilford HP5 pushed to 1600 at our family Thanksgiving celebration, and at a wedding (see: my previous post, Traveling. Light) with mixed results.

The first attempt was made using my Nikon FE, relying on its normally terrific metering. Experienced shooters will immediately recognize where this all went wrong for me. What I learned was in an otherwise dark scene, and seemingly regardless of the location within the scene, any bright source of light would cause the image to be significantly underexposed in “A” mode. This is one of those things one realizes after reviewing the scans, while simultaneously exclaiming, “Duh?” out loud. Or, maybe that’s just me. Further complicating matters, the low light condition makes it so I couldn’t see the needles on the typically intuitive meter inside the viewfinder on the FE to shoot manually.

Recently, my wife and I were headed to dinner with friends, so I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to experiment with Ilford HP5 pushed to 3200. This time, I brought my Leica M3 with a Summicron-M 50mm f/2 attached. (Saying it like this makes it sounds as if I have a vast selection of Leica glass, when in fact this is the lens I have for it) I thought this might be a better setup for low light shooting for a few reasons. First, at 3200, I would be able to shoot some around f/4, and at shutter speeds between 1/30 and 1/60, meaning the odds of nailing focus would be better. This is especially true when it was so challenging to detect sharpness through the viewfinder. Second, as good as the old F-mount Nikkor lenses are, I’ve found to my untrained and neophyte eyes, my Summicron has a much gentler fall-off wide open, making images I thought for sure would be soft focused look sharper than I thought possible. And, finally, I have a KEKS KM02 light meter I keep in the M3’s cold shoe. I do not believe it measures light any better than the Nikon’s internal meter does. However, the display is a bright LED making it easy to read in dim light.

What I learned from this experience was things like candles, white sweaters, and bright reflections anywhere in the scene really trip up the meter. Without a spot meter in-hand, it is easy to be fooled by what the meter suggests. I think based on this experience, I will make a conscious note to identify these items in a shot, and adjust the exposure by at least one or two full stops. Any tips from the more experienced low-light shooters is welcomed in the comments.

Finally, as I use a lab for all my developing, I can’t speak to how it was processed. I used Darkroom Lab here in Southern California, merely indicating “+3” on the canister. I think they did a superb job. But, perhaps processing my own black and white film is in my future.

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