I have an upcoming project, and as part of that I want to create some Troy Paiva inspired night photos. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Troy creates nighttime photos of abandoned buildings, cars, airplanes, etc., illuminated by colored lights and the full moon (check out his Instagram). For this project, I want to do something similar for some of the pictures. I don’t have very much experience with this type of photography, so I need some practice before attempting the important images.

Some critical parts for this project arrived yesterday, namely lights and a Fujinon 23mm f/1.4 lens*. I’m not sure yet if the 23mm f/1.4 is the lens that I want to use, but I think it might be. We’ll see. Fujifilm let me borrow it, so I can try it out before deciding. More important than the lens are the lights, which are cheap Neewer mini portable LED lights I found on Amazon for $27 each. I purchased two. All of this arrived in the mail yesterday, so as soon as the sun went down and the (nearly) full moon came up, I grabbed my trusty tripod, set up the camera, and took some test shots.

Because I parked on a dirt lot, it stirred up the dust. I had no intentions of having the car lights on, but it looked cool, so I tried a handful of exposures with the car lights. I set one LED light to red (actually, I thought it was a rusty orange color) and the other to green (I thought it was teal), placing the red light in the backseat and the green in the front. The Recipe I used was Vivid Velvia, but I modified it slightly, setting Color to +3 instead of +4 and Highlight and Shadow both to -2. I tried a few different angles. Then I moved the lights from inside the truck to underneath, placing them behind the passenger-side wheels. After a handful of shots I moved them back inside.

I quickly realized that two lights weren’t enough for what I wanted to achieve. More ideally I needed four, so I ordered some more once I got home. But, not to be defeated, I made a double-exposure picture using the multiple exposure feature in the camera, moving the lights in-between the shots. At the time, I was a little afraid that the Vivid Velvia images were a little too punchy, so I switched to an experimental Recipe I’ve been working on (not sure yet if it will get published); however, in retrospect, I think I should have stuck with what I had been using.

Overall, the experiment was a failure in that I didn’t quite achieve what I was hoping to achieve; however, it was a success in that I learned some important lessons. It’s a step closer to the goal. For certain, I need more practice. That’s the point of this article: if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Don’t expect that your idea will work on the first try, and don’t get discouraged when it doesn’t. Learn from what went right and what went wrong. Go back out on another occasion and try again. With enough practice, eventually you’ll get it. I will practice a few more times before beginning the project.

Below are a couple more pictures I made last night. The image at the top of this article is my favorite, and the closest to what I want to create (although it’s definitely not quite right). The double-exposure at the bottom is another that’s along the lines of what I’m looking for. I’ll keep trying, and eventually get it right. I can’t wait for that to happen, and I’ll be thrilled when it does.

*Edit: I mistakenly said the lens was the Fujinon 18mm f/1.4 when it was the Fujinon 23mm f/1.4. Guess that’s what happens when I write an article before my first cup of coffee after just six hours sleep. Won’t do that again. My apologies, and I hope it doesn’t cause any confusion or problems.

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Fujifilm X-T5 in black:
Amazon, B&H, Moment, Nuzira
Fujifilm X-T5 in silver:
Amazon, B&H, Moment, Nuzira
Fujinon 23mm f/1.4:
Amazon, B&H