Need tips for shooting at night.

[turbotom]

I took the following picture last night, just to see how it would turn out.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/244/521631078_c5c0670774_o.jpg

The picture has been cropped, resized, and the quality was reduced, but you can still tell that the original was quite blurry.

I searched the forum and found some amazing night shots and I want to know how to get mine looking like that.
Start with the basics, like what type of lens I should be using, fstop settings, shutter and iso speed.
I think the above picture was at f2.8 with an 8 second shutter speed!

[dougxt]

try f11 or 16 for city nightscapes, 100 iso. shoot in manual. play with the exposure time.
use a tripod and either a timer or remote.

[turbotom]

I couldn't imagine not using a tripod, but I guess that picture does look that bad.
I'll take some more shots tonight and see how they look. I'll post the best looking one here.

[rhys]

I did some night shots of DC. Check my Picassaweb gallery. All handheld with a 17-85 IS.

[dougxt]

I couldn't imagine not using a tripod, but I guess that picture does look that bad.
I'll take some more shots tonight and see how they look. I'll post the best looking one here.

well, you never know. sometimes it's the obvious things we overlook.
I've done some handheld night shots at 800 iso that turned out well.
good luck with it.

[Tdragone]

A few things...
@ 2.8; your Depth of field definitely needs to be addressed. As others have suggested; use something a lot smaller (I use either 7.1 or 11) and adjust my shutter speed accordingly. Make sure you either nail the focus on your main subject; or make sure all AF points are active so you can hope for the best when shooting in low contrast situations.

If it's at all windy; try to avoid shooting foliage in the foreground. Swaying trees can kill an otherwise well composed picture.

You're shooting digital; experiment! Try shooting with Exposure Bracketing on and see what turns out best!

You ask for lens suggestions; but we don't know what lenses you have besides a lens with a 2.8 aperture.. I love my 17-40 at night; but if I didn't have it; I'd work with what lenses I did have to see what settings work best with the equipment I did have avaliable.

Good Luck! Post more pictures so we can continue helping.
-Tom D

[Lightstream]

STABLE tripod. This means no $20 tripods, no shaky tripods. Something serious with a fair bit of heft will help. I have had wimpy tripods before, I understand. Had all kinds of softness with the images.

Use f/8, Av, and play with it from there.

Do not shake the camera during the exposure. Try the self-timer if you are concerned about hand movement and do not have a remote release. I combine the self timer with mirror lockup (see manual, custom functions). Mirror locks up, 2 second countdown and exposure is taken.

http://pix.lightrefineries.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3114&g2_serialNumber=2

[turbotom]

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/224/523457090_b0f7122c72_b.jpg

Much better.
30 second SS at f11, iso100

I have a cheap tripod that was given to me. I've noticed that it kinda shakes. Oh well, I'm kinda happy with how that picture came out, but I know I can do better. I think I need a nicer lens as well.

[dougxt]

for something that bright, I'd go 10-15 seconds....maybe even less. lots of light there.

what lens are you using currently? I've had good results even with the kit lens. still use it a lot.