Night time pictures of Denver

Just got a Canon A630 and am experimenting with taking some night pictures of the Denver skyline. I have a tripod but really am somewhat clueless about where to start with the settings. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!
Russ

I'm not familiar with the A630, but I do a lot of night shooting. So I hope my tips will work on the A630, but it might take some reading of the manual. A tripod is a must, I feel, and so is bracketing until you get used to things. A remote cable release is extremely handy, but using the camera's Timer feature will also work.


With my 20D, I will set the camera to use only the center focus point, and then I will aim that point at a light which is at the correct distance. I half-press the shutter to cause it to lock focus. I'll then flip the lens from Auto-Focus to Manual-Focus so that it won't re-focus as I recompose and shoot.


I'll then set the Exposure Compensation to -2/3, and set Auto Exposure Bracketing to +/- 2/3. So I'll take 3 exposures, one at -1-1/3 EC, one at -2/3 EC, and another at 0 EC. This really does depend on the amount of light in the scene - these numbers would be for a "generic" late night city shot where the primary lighting is from distant streetlights, buildings windows, etc. A scene just after sunset will have more light in the sky, as would a night shot close to a bright street light. Adjust at will.

In fact, for your first night shoot, it's not a bad to try as many as 5 expsoures all set 1/2 or 2/3 of a stop apart. Also try dark scenes as well as bright scenes. You'll be sure to get some good exposures this way, and you'll learn a LOT. Be sure to check the exposure setting of you good exposures when you get home! Compare the scene brightness to the +/- EC setting on the good exposure.


When taking the shot, a remote release is best. If you don't have one use the auto-timer feature (if you have it). On my 20D this is normally 10 seconds, but I can also enable Mirror Lock-Up, which reduces the timerto 2 seconds. Very nice for the impatient photographer (like me). But did what you can to ensure that the camera doesn't move when you hit the shutter.

However, long shots - maybe 10 seconds or longer - probably won't even be affected by a little camera shake when you hit the shutter, as long as you're careful. If I'm lazy I might not even grab my remote release for longer shots - I'll just carefully press the shutter and carefully let go. If you shake the camera a little it will stabilize quickly and the short amount of motion won't register on a long shot. (Use this tip at your own risk, or just play with it to see how steady you are.)


I hope this helps, and I hope you camera has some of these features. Good luck!
(And don't forget to bracket!!)

Some of the best "night shots" are taken while there's still some light in the sky, so start early.