printing redlights at nightshot

[Alexandre Samori]

Shooting tests in a huge traffic jam, at night, with wide angle lenses, I had problems to print the cars red backlights, the red highlights came completely white. Does anyone have this problem before? Using filters to increase the reds would take a considerable amount of light from this nightshot. Is there any tip or advise to decrease this problem or solve it?

 

[Cail Young]

You'll need to underexpose enough to make sure the cars' lights aren't clipping the sensor. Good luck!

 

[Roberto Lequeux]

Could it be that they are not clipping and only show clipped due to a higher ISO setting... that that they may actually still be there?

 

[jimhare]

I shot these the other night in Sydney. Zeiss ZF 85mm 1.4 wide open. How do they compare with your results?

Jim

 

[Brian Harbauer]

The red lights are lower frequencies close to that of infrared. Silicon based sensors are inherently more sensitive to infrared light, so it's going to see that light quicker - and over expose quicker. Try some tests with a hot mirror/infrared filter to block those lower frequencies. There's a few threads that talk about this issue in the lens section. Good luck! Would love to see your results.

Sincerely,
Brian Harbauer