How do you focus at night???

I've been experimenting with my XTi at night (tripod and built in flash). The autofocus will not latch on to something sometimes and will not allow me to take picture (I'm usually in TV mode). I can take one in manual focus mode...but I cannot see to focus. The flash burst is not long enough to give me time to focus. Please help...there must be a way. I have a Rebel XTi and 17-55IS lens.

Manual focus without the flash. The viewfinder is pretty small, but try to find some light in an area that you NEED to be in focus, and work based on that spot.

Sometimes depends on what you are taking a picture of. If using a flash the flash will fire pre flashes to light up subject to focus off of. When not using a flash sometimes the subject is far enough away where focusing to infinity to work. Other than that you have to find something that is somewhat lit to manually focus to. Hope this helps.

Sometimes at night for macro or objects that are reasonably close, I'll light up a spot with a flashlight to get an AF lock.

If you're trying to focus on something relatively close, the AF assist light bursts from the built-in flash should work. If its something too far for the AF assist to help, the flash probably isn't going to work very well anyway. Though I suppose you could try one of those crazy bright rechargable spotlights you can pick up at Target, etc.

Depending on what you're shooting, you could try just using a tripod and long exposure and manual focus on something visable at roughly the same distance as the subject.

If you have the luxury of having a speedlite (480EX, 580EX), the speedlite will emit an infrared light to assist in auto-focus. Also, as mentioned earlier with manual focus, you can judge the distance visually (say subject is about 10 feet) and then rotate the focus ring until 10 feet is lined up with the focus line. Hope this helps.

AberyClark wrote in post #4102601
I've been experimenting with my XTi at night (tripod and built in flash). The autofocus will not latch on to something sometimes and will not allow me to take picture (I'm usually in TV mode). I can take one in manual focus mode...but I cannot see to focus. The flash burst is not long enough to give me time to focus. Please help...there must be a way. I have a Rebel XTi and 17-55IS lens.

Are you doing long exposures( 20 second ish?).
If so than stop down as much as possible= f22 ish and just manuall focus until you can get some decent results. If your going for a static night shot with a flash and movement than good luck haha.

if possible get a friend to stand next to the object your photographing and flash a torch directly at you.

Put one of the AF points on the brightest part of the photo. I've also used a flashlight to focus before...

If you know the distance to the subject, your 17-55 has a window on the top with a distance scale. Try using that instead of the view finder. If you need maximum dof, figure out what the hyperfocal distance value of the focal length you are using. This is old school. When cameras looked like geekyrocketgy's avatar.

Chris Stewart wrote in post #4103770
if possible get a friend to stand next to the object your photographing and flash a torch directly at you.

Say what, now? What will that do besides blind him?

rowdyred94 wrote in post #4104805
Say what, now? What will that do besides blind him?

Yeah. What? I would rather not have a bright light shone down my lens. Not cause it would hurt the lens, but my eyes would be sore .

Get a flashlight to shine on the area you want to focus on.

Laser Pointer.

I use the flashlight method, but when the autofocus locks, I switch the lens to MF mode. That way, you can recompose or shoot multiple exposures.