Taking night shots of the city landscape

[ccino]

I'm a klutz when it comes to my camera. I was wondering if there are any digital photography experts on here.

How would you make your night shots look less grainy? I know my cousin was having similar problems when we first came to visit then discovered something about shutter speed, but didn't know how to explain it with our difference in camera.

Anyone got any good tips? Web tutorials? Etc?


Thanks in advance

[er2]

the grain is called noise and stems mainly from signal amplification. If there is little light, you camera will - at least in full auto mode - increase the sensitivitity (referred to as ISO number). If you can
a) use a tripod
b) use a mode called Av
c) set the aperture to a decent value (like 3.5 for digicams or ~6.3 for DSLRs) to get a decent depth-of-field without diffractiond)
d)set the ISO value to the lowest possible value

this will increase the shutter time (probably beyond one second), therefore (a). Even better:
e) use the timer mode, such that you don't touch/move the camera when releasing the shutter
f) if you use a DSLR and have a bright background, cover your eyepiece (some DSLRs have a cover attached to their straps)

a,b,d should already improve your photo significantly. Good luck!

[dot.zen]

Get a tripod, or rest the camera firmly on something so that it can not move/shake.
Try and set the camera to take a longer exposure (this is the shutter time) so that it does not have to increase the ISO (amplification). There is a direct trade between exposure time and ISO. If you double the exposure time you can half the ISO. Any exposure time of longer than 1/60th of a second will usually need the camera to be on a tripod, not hand held.

Here's a tip. Try taking photos at dusk, while there is still some colour in the sky. If you take photos when the sky is truly dark then most images will look very harsh. If you get some light still in the sky then you get a nice deep blue, plus all the lights of the buildings. This shot was taken about 7:00PM in late August. Exposure time was 1/4 second. The sky looks brighter in the photo that to the eye. I just sat the camera on top of a cabinet by the road side. Set the self timer so that you can put the camera in position then let go of it before the shot is taken.

dot.zen

[ccino]

the grain is called noise and stems mainly from signal amplification.....luck!

Get a tripod, or rest the camera firmly on something so that it can not move/shake.....

dot.zen

Thank you both for the great advice. That's a great pic Dot.