Night Photography

[srg]

I'm hoping to do some photographing of Parliament Hill here in Ottawa while it is lit up by Christmas lights at night; I'm using a Canon Powershot A570 IS w/ the CHDK installed. What are the best settings to use? I haven't had too much luck with night photography yet.

[Carlson]

Most new Point and Shoots have a Night time setting or Manual mode.

I would say the best thing to do is pick up a cheap $10-20 little table top tripod. Either use the Night time setting and it should do all the work. As far as Manual mode you have to adjust the camera depending on the lighting... Easy to do just takes some time.

Also if you can use a timer to release the shutter or try and keep it very still as you press.

good luck. I know it can be done I have taken some good nightime photos with a P&S.

[jpiper]

Don't forget to stick your camera on the lowest ISO you can - your pictures wont be noisy as hell this way.

What I would do is Shoot in RAW and as a starting point use automatic mode and see if it gives you what you like, you can then use EC to notch up or down (if CHDK does this) within 2 stops. Use manual and trial and error if needbe. If you want to get some motion into your image, shoot shutter priority and then muck around a bit. You'll learn alot just by practising, but by all means, go and get a tripod.

If you can't afford/get a remote release for your P&S then just set the camera's settings and put it on delay/timer - this will mean that you're not touching the camera when the shutter goes off.