i suck at taking nighttime shots, anyone with any suggestions on getting some good night time shots with a DSLR? I've heard a tripod can help get better shots. is that true? planning to pick one up tomorrow. also i've heard of lowering the aperture? or was it raising the aperture up? so i can allow more light from the flash in. suggestions anyone?

heres my fail attempt

 

Usually for night shots i put my iso up a bit. That would give you a higher sensitivity to light. A tripod is necessary, or at least something to rest your camera on. You will need a longer exposure time to allow light to get in.

Also, it is a lot easier if you find some sort of light source, Street light or building lights and use those to light up your car a little better. Just mess around with the white balance settings to get the right colors

 

This was like a 1.3s exposure with no flash or anything, just kinda used the lights that were around in the area. Used the timer so with my camera resting on a circuit breaker box.

 

Tripod is VERY beneficial, it will allow you to have your shutter open for longer durations, for more exposer (brighter image with ought more lite) But really after that, just mess around.

 

i'm definitely looking around for a tripod. i'm getting one locally at best buy since i will need to use it this weekend for a photoshoot with some friends so no time to wait for shipping. I'm torn between these tripods which is good and stable.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Manfrott...&skuId=9358116

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Manfrott...&skuId=9358081

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sunpak+-...&skuId=8480636

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sunpak+-...&skuId=8775916

or any other tripods thats recommend from best buy? i'm leaning more towards the 2nd choice

so i basically need to open up the aperture? and increase the shutter speed to about 1 to 2 seconds?

 

Another thing to do (not just night photos, any photo) is to make sure to correct your brightness levels via photoshop (or similar program).

This link explains how to do it

Learned this in my photography class this semester... really helps a lot to make your pictures look better

 

I like the third or fourth ones myself... just looking at the overall simplicity whilst still maintaining all of the functionality... but its really up to you, and for stability they should all be fine.

Also +1 on "Trust's" Post.

 

yes! alot of ppl think photoshop is just for doing custom **** but almost ALL photography is edited on photoshop just to improve some minor flaws and balance out the color. for those of you who dont want to buy an 800 dollar software and end up not liking it, i reccomend you download the trial from adobe's website. they give you 30 days to try it free. also, if you are a college student, check with your school because most schools have discounts on software.

 

From what I've heard from some very good photographers, lower the iso down, increase the aperture, and use extremely slow shutter speeds. One photographer said he uses shutter speeds as slow as 10 seconds. Obviously, you want a tripod.

My understanding of why you lower the iso is because in most point-and-shoots and a lot of entry-level DSLRs, raising the iso will cause grainy pictures.


Also, I personally hate using the flash, as it tends to screw with the lighting; you'll have an area with a lot of light, then the rest of the picture is dark.


Oh, and as far as photo editing, all I ever do is add a border and lower brightness and raise contrast for night pics. If I was a better photographer, I wouldn't even need to do that =/

 

Good points.

If you don't want to spend 800 bucks and aren't a student try downloading Paint.NET - http://www.getpaint.net/ or GIMP - http://www.gimp.org/ . Both are free (they ask for donations).

Paint.NET is a good basic editor. It will do brightness/contrast adjust colors, cropping ect.

GIMP has a feature set closer to Photoshop, with a steeper learning curve.

Happy editing