newbie with g5

[bluelex]

hello all, i just recently got the G5 and love it so far, i doing well with day pics on my tripod but seem 2 have problems with night pics. :( now i have it on the tripod and moved it into tv mode and played with the shutter speed ...at 5" it gave soem pretty good shots just how could i or what is a good rule of thumb as 2 where 2 start whne takeing a pic at night...whats a good ratio 2 folloe if any? any help would b appreciated...

[shniks]

Hi there, I am a newbie too so I dont really know any good rules to follow, I guess experimenting is the best thing.
What I have found, though, is that using a small apeture ie f8 will make the lights look like stars, which looks great. Also, experiment with different white balance, as some night lights give off yellow or blue colour casts to the shots, which can be fixed with different white balance settings.
And if you are like me and dont like the noise in the pictures, get yourself a free trial version of Neat Image at:
http://www.neatimage.com/index.html?Q
It makes night pics look so much better.
Hope this was of some use. Good luck!