How to calculate exposure for bridge pictures at night?

I have always failed to get the correct exposure while shooting bridges night time.

I am planning to take NYC bridge pictures and would like to know how to determine the exposure during night time.

I would like to shoot at f11, ISO 100, the only confusion is the shutter speed.

Night photography is guess work..Try starting at 10 seconds and see how that goes..

BTW,,why F/11 @ 100ISO??

yogestee wrote in post #5723039
BTW,,why F/11 @ 100ISO??

nothing specific but f11 for the DOF and ISO 100 to keep the noice level low..do you suggest different combination?

I agree that night photography does take some guess work.....at least with digital cameras, we can see the results very quickly. That said, just pick an exposure at go from there. Analyze the histogram and adjust from there. Good Luck!

sgogula wrote in post #5723066
nothing specific but f11 for the DOF and ISO 100 to keep the noice level low..do you suggest different combination?

I'd start at F/8.0 because most lenses are at their sharpest at F/8.0 but really that's academic and 400ISO..Higher ISO settings can give you a higher dynamic range..

Jason,,good advice..

pictures of city skyline at night

My advice is take several shots with varying shutter speeds, as you might want to blend multiple exposures later if you find a lot of dynamic range in your shot. I also shoot at f/11, ISO 100, and usually find speeds between 10 and 25 seconds most useful, but of course it depends on the light at the time.

Trial and error is the only real answer to this.

But you'll need a rock-steady tripod and a remote release (or use the timer function).