Night Photography???

[rhys105]

Hi all,

I have recently been trying to learn how to get good shots in the night, but all of my shots seem to come out blurry and don't look very good at all. I am new to DSLR photography (got a nikon d60 for christmas) and am trying to learn. Please could you give me some tips on how to get better night shots?

Thanks!

[shutterbug_wannabe]

What sort of photos are you wanting to take? Landscape, cityscape, etc? Any movement will be blurry in the photo. If doing photos outside at night or low light, pick a calm evening with very little if any wind/breeze.

#1 and most important, TRIPOD! You cannot even consider hand-holding for a night shot. The shutter has to be open considerably longer than lit shots and even your breathing will move the camera. If you don't have a tripod, find a stable surface to sit your camera on (so it won't have a chance of falling). Use a remote shutter release to trip the shutter or the self timer. This eliminates you having to touch the camera at all. #2 You can always increase your ISO. Yes, this will introduce some noise into the photo, but better a little noise then a lot of blur!

Hope this helps, have fun with the new D60!

[Jim Bryant]

Need a tripod and cable release.

[glyphon]

yes, a tripod is necessary.

cable release, not so much. helpful and convenient? yes. very much so. necessary? no.

you can either use the timer, or even better, the mirror lock up. your camera should have this. this allows you to have the mirror move out of the way of the image sensor before the shutter opens. it also allows you to program in a specific amount of time to wait before opening the shutter to allow any small vibrations from the mirror moving to dampen out.

of course, that is assuming landscape photography. if you photographing anything moving, you'll need light, and the easiest and most portable form of that is a flash.

a faster lens and higher ISOs will help out as well by allowing the same amount of light to reach the sensor in a shorter period of time. faster sutter speed, less blurring.

[carl yeomans]

This is where i started, with this great little read from Steve Paxton.
http://paxtonprints.com/index.php?x=...ght_landscapes

I came away with this shot shortly after reading his tutorial. My first night shot.

[pjnr56]

Absolutely beautiful Carl and thanks for the link to the article. I will be reading that tonight.

[gh patriot]

uhh... WOW! Thanks for the link to the article also.

[Zayc]

I'm not a a professional photographer but here's my way of taking night shots.

Yes, you do need a tripod to take good pictures at night.. (learned it the hard way) but if you came across a good scene to take the photo and have no tripod, you can try finding a good spot where you can stabilize your camera. Find anything like railing, a wall, just almost anything that could help.

For example:


In this picture, i didnt use a tripod but instead, i hold my camera while my elbows rested on the bridge's railing.

hope this helps