So... stumbled into this art installation based on sentences written out in neon.
(...) Are there specific tricks ?
Also another question : has anyone experience with using a neon tube as lighting equipment, for example for portraits ?
Any help much appreciated !
Hi,
Neon light is very bright, or even extremely bright - as we can see in your image...
You have to expose a lot less and by doing so there will be nothing seen but neon tubes. So, the dynamic range o our sensors are exceeded, by a whole lot. There is no film or other sensor handling this range either, btw.
What to do? If the image is important to you the only way to make it is to revisit the place and bring a tripod. Then take several images at different exposure values. Doing so you'll run into the next problem with tube light, it flickers.
Flickering light causes banding if the exposure time gets too short and thus we have to stop down the lens rather than shorten the exposure time. You can do some experimenting at place and you'll probably find that it is safest to stay around 1/10-1/20 second, or longer of course. Ouch... stopping down too much is never recommended and in the worst case you'll have to use a neutral grey filter.
Then mix your images per taste when processing them to get a final image with some light showing the place and the text in neon very bright but still possible to read.
All the above assuming the motif is in a sort of room. If outdoor the best result is usually from images taken at dawn or dusk where you can get a good natural balance between the different light sources.
my cents,
Jonas