How to do...NEON

[studiozahzah]

I won't go on and on and on and on about how much I love neon. We're fast coming upon "neon season" -- carnies and fairs and such! Now that I have some very nice new glass, I might have a shot at some decent photos finally. I just want to make sure I have the appropriate camera settings for neon hunting. I won't carry my tripod with me, so that's out. Not sure if I'm posting this in the right section but hoping the NEON sign will help guide some tips my way.

Renata

[Mr. Pickles]

Not sure that you would shoot neon any differently than a normal light scene. if it is night time, and you want the neon to be the light, I think you have to meter towards it and set the camera up based on its light output, but probably adjust it by a stop or so...?

[Steven G Webb]

The settings are going to be different depending on what ambient light you wish to cut or allow in. Dragging the shutter too much will cause the aura from the tubes and the reflection from the sign itself to be broad and fuzzy. I love neon signs, especially vintage and restored ones. In night pictures where I want the background dark and the color of the tubes to stand out, I start out at ISO 100 f8 and 120th then adjust the SS to taste.

Neon signs in carnivals and such really look good just after sundown with the sky adding color. Since you have no way to change the ratio of the neon:sky you're dependent on timing. Too early in the day and the background will overpower the neon, too late and you'll end up blurring the neon holding the shutter open to record the sky.

There are many options for changing effects things like zooming with a slow shutter speed, adding a flash at the end of a long exposure, using an ND filter to knock out the background.
Experimentation is, for me, part of the enjoyment since I don't shoot street scenes and lights for a living.

Steve

[studiozahzah]

Originally Posted by Songman45

The settings are going to be different depending on what ambient light you wish to cut or allow in. Dragging the shutter too much will cause the aura from the tubes and the reflection from the sign itself to be broad and fuzzy. I love neon signs, especially vintage and restored ones. In night pictures where I want the background dark and the color of the tubes to stand out, I start out at ISO 100 f8 and 120th then adjust the SS to taste.

Neon signs in carnivals and such really look good just after sundown with the sky adding color. Since you have no way to change the ratio of the neon:sky you're dependent on timing. Too early in the day and the background will overpower the neon, too late and you'll end up blurring the neon holding the shutter open to record the sky.

There are many options for changing effects things like zooming with a slow shutter speed, adding a flash at the end of a long exposure, using an ND filter to knock out the background.
Experimentation is, for me, part of the enjoyment since I don't shoot street scenes and lights for a living.

Steve

Your tips will help me to have a good starting point. I think I'll practice them on the minnows first (local carnivals) before the fair. I always get where I'm going early enough to get the fair food and aimless meandering out of the way so that by dusk, I am ready to hunt neon. It's basically the same setups wherever you go but every year I find a new way of seeing something.

[Steven G Webb]

Here are some neons and some fair pictures:

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[studiozahzah]

Love the urban decay pic of the Underwood Motel. Irony in depleted neon. I ogled the rest of your pics. I guess I should have added "and other lights" to neon, since there's a lot more of the other lights at fairs and such. But there have been some nightime neon shots I missed because I didn't know how to take them. Not a vintage sign but I wished I'd have taken one of our "Coles Muffler" locations when they had so many letters out it just said "le Muff" -- sigh.

[Steven G Webb]

I love it when the "out" lights change the words. My son's and I used to play a traveling game to see who could find the best, funniest or most obscene neons. Remember "Bo Knows"? Our local Johnny Carino's restaurant currently says Johnny no's. Not as good as your Coles Muffler sign but I get the idea.
Steve

[studiozahzah]

Originally Posted by Songman45

I love it when the "out" lights change the words. My son's and I used to play a traveling game to see who could find the best, funniest or most obscene neons. Remember "Bo Knows"? Our local Johnny Carino's restaurant currently says Johnny no's. Not as good as your Coles Muffler sign but I get the idea.
Steve

Oh, lordy, that's funny. I forgot about that. I was living in Los Angeles at the time the t-shirts came out, "Bo knows your sister." There is a neon shot I wished I had taken years ago. Skid Row in Seattle. As you looked down the street at night, you'd see all the neon bar signs lit up one behind the other and the very last neon sign was a cross and under it "Jesus Saves." The signs were all juxtaposed so that looking down the street you could see them all.

My dad and I used to play the same neon game (sans obscene, I was young) on our drives back home from Ruidoso to El Paso. Something melancholy thinking about that now -- listening to Patsy Cline on the AM while looking out the car window for crazy neon signs under a Texas starry night sky.