So you were shooting the city, at night with a wide angle… right?

Also, what kinda camera are you shooting with? Does it have a mirror “lock-up”?

Those parameters will influence the results/expected effects.

Things to consider:

• Night Photography tends to be contrasty, and this means that you may need to slightly over-expose and under-develop the film
• Don’t be afraid to shoot at many different exposures - between 10 seconds > two minutes.
• At those long exposures, you need to imagine what anything that’s moving will appear like during that two minutes exposure. For example a plane flying by in the background may appear as a streak of light. It may be nice, it may be distracting.
• People walking by in the picture may not appear at all, etc.
• If shooting with a B&W film, I recommend the Tri-x 400. It’s an awesome film, I’d expose it @ 400 ASA bc @200 ASA it will lead to very long exposures for the same results.
• If you dont want to waste anymore rolls, TAKE NOTES!! Record your shutter speeds and aperture to be able to correct next time.
• Don’t forget the reciprocity factor, and make sure to check Kodak website to see what they recommend as far as the stops are concerned.

There are no golden rules. It all depends on the effects/results you wanna achieve so feel free to experiment! That’s what photography is about…