How to shoot moving boats at night?

[JulieNick]

Not sure if this is the proper place for this.
I live in Nova Scotia. The lobstering season is going to start in less than a week and a bunch of us want to get together to shoot the boats as they are leaving the wharf. It will still be dark when they leave. It's like a city of lights on the water.
What setting should be used to get good shots? Not shots of the abstract lights.

[JuiceBox]

If you want the boats to be properly exposed, make sure you bump your ISO to somewhere between 800-1600; maybe even more depending on how much light is there. This is, of course, if you want to perfectly freeze the boats and not have any motion blur. I would experiment with both; I think, done properly of course, some movement could be kind of cool. However, if you're trying to freeze the boats, a high ISO will be necessary.

[Vulcan58]

How odd!
I posted a similar thread last week on the same sort of subject.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=599049

[JulieNick]

Vulcan58, didn't see that last week and I was scanning for posts similar to yours last week to. Should get my eyes checked :)

JuiceBox, with the higher iso won't there be a lot of noise? I was thinking of keeping the ico at 400. I will give the high iso a try

Thanks :)

[JuiceBox]

You would have some noise, but it's the price you pay to get the shot. Regardless, I've heard Canon is good with noise reduction. I shoot Nikon, so I wouldn't really know, but it shouldn't be a huge problem. There are also programs out there that can help tone it down as well. They're not perfect, but they can help.

[JulieNick]

I shoot with canon xti. I will try it and see what I get. If I get crappy shots, then I will wait till next year for lobstering dumping day.

Thanks :)

[JuiceBox]

Pleasant travels!