Need more info for taking shots of Holiday lights

[GeeBee12]

I've read quite a bit and still do not have an answer for what I'm trying to do. I have both a Sony digital camera and a Nikon D60 and I'm relatively new to 'taking a step further' in photography and can't seem to get the right shot. I love the Holiday lights; however, without using a tripod, how do you get crisp, clear shots--all mine are blurry? We like to go riding during the Holiday season, looking at lights & decorations and it's not always feasible to stop in the middle of traffic & set up a tripod to take a picture. Is it impossible to get a good shot this way?

[gs.davies]

Hi there, if you're getting camera shake it's because your shutter speed is too slow.
Aim for a shutter speed no longer than the reciprocal of your lens length I.e at 50mm, shutter no slower than 1/50th. At 200mm, no slower than 1/200th.
Open the aperture on your lens to let in as much light as possible and don't be afraid to increase the sensitivity of your sensor by increasing the ISO. In low light, you're probably going to be looking for ISO800 or higher. Don't forget that your cameras inbuilt meter will want to expose for longer than is necessary as it's probably seeing more dark areas which it will try to render as mid grey, so feel free to ignore the reading :-)

Try also steadying yourself against something and make sure you have a good grip on the camera, making sure you're supporting the lens. A gentle squeeze of the shutter release can help too. Try resting the camera on something, like a wall or a bag and use the timed release instead of the shutter. This can often work. Of course nothing beats a tripod! Except perhaps an image stabilised lens for this purpose...

Hope this makes sense. Good luck.

[RichardTaylor]

This thread may help.
CANON 7D settings

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by GeeBee12

I've read quite a bit and still do not have an answer for what I'm trying to do. I have both a Sony digital camera and a Nikon D60 and I'm relatively new to 'taking a step further' in photography and can't seem to get the right shot. I love the Holiday lights; however, without using a tripod, how do you get crisp, clear shots--all mine are blurry? We like to go riding during the Holiday season, looking at lights & decorations and it's not always feasible to stop in the middle of traffic & set up a tripod to take a picture. Is it impossible to get a good shot this way?

Hi and Welcome!
It is going to come down to how fast your lens is and how high you can crank you iso and get acceptable results. You need to maximize those to levers in order to gain the fastest shutter speed. Depending on your gear, it may not be possible without a tripod. gs.davies gave you a pretty good target for the shutter speed you want to attain...and maybe a bit faster as a lens on a crop body will behave like a longer lens.