# shutter speed for night time shots



## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

ive just got a new sony point n shoot camera , it has ajustable shutter and apeture values

i was hoping to get some snaps in usa ..stuff like neons at night , and views over the city of all the street lights at night

heres the blurb

_Select a shutter speed from 1/1600 to 30 seconds.
• When zoom is set fully to W, you can select an aperture of F3.5 or F8 (when used with the Internal
ND (Neutral Density) Filter).
When zoom is set fully to T, you can select an aperture of F5.5 or F13 (when used with the Internal
ND (Neutral Density) Filter)._

can anyone suggest a good starting point ? any tips /suggestions for a dummy


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## Mini 360 (Jul 17, 2009)

For night shots get yourself a tripod or stable flat surface. Set the shutter to various slow speeds (1/100 or slower) and adjust the aperture to as small as it can go (going by your settings above F13 seems the smallest) and play about till you get what you are after!


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## butcher (Sep 3, 2010)

As above, make sure you can keep the camera still. Obviously a tripod's the best bet for this.. A good sturdy one. User the timer on the camera to avoid shaking it when you press the shutter. 

Experiment with different shutter speeds - no harm in using a 30 second exposure if the camera's steady, so go as low as you like. Check the exposure after the shot's taken and adjust accordingly. 

A wide aperture will let more light in quicker, but it will also have a shallow depth of field - meaning that a smaller area will be in focus. Whereas a smaller aperture will retain a wider area of focus but let less light in, requiring a longer exposure. That might be confusing if you're not familiar with it, but what you use depends entirely on the shot you're trying to take, so have a think about it. A small to medium aperture will be good for a lot of round the city shots though. 

Just have a play about, see if you can get some cool light trails from passing cars, and maybe even pick up a cheap old flash on ebay to light up stuff in the foreground. Even a torch does the job!


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## johnnyguitar (Mar 24, 2010)

I think (and I'm not sure) that F13 is the largest aperture allowed under a particular mode. You'll probably find that you can go much smaller, probably down to f22 or somewhere around there. 
+1 on a tripod, as butcher says, use the timer or get yourself a remote and definitely play around.

The more light, the shorter the shutter you'll need and you'll be surprised at what you can get with a couple of seconds.


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## bretti_kivi (Apr 22, 2008)

Neons are a pain as they're pretty bright and can lead to localized overexposure, which is why the ones I posted not too long ago are HDRs. I'd consider reading up on how to to do those as they may well be worth it.

Bret


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## Feeex (Apr 6, 2007)

Sorry to hijackthe thread a little but I'm thinking of buying a tripod but would also like it to be a monopod. The reason being that I want to use it for night time shots but also, I'm off to the MotoGP in Sepang on Sunday so want to be able to take it there with me.

Any suggestions?


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## Andy. (Apr 11, 2010)

If you get a flash, on the longer exposure shots try setting the flash of at the end of the exposure will give you a different variation on the shot. Also as you are going to use a tripod use a low ISO to help reduce the grain in the photo. Or if there is a long exposure setting in the camera setup (custom function) switch it on as it will also help to reduce the grain, assuming you want to reduce the grain.

FEEEX: Tripod / monopod combo "Sunpak VersiPod II" is one although I would be very weary of using it as a tripod way to top heavy & unstable.


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

right thanks all for the pointers

i really have no idea lol....so what sort differance should i expect between 1/100th and 30 secs 

also..what sort of time do people use to get that effect where car taillights are long trails?


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## mtxfiesta (Nov 8, 2007)

depending on how many trails you want it can vary start off around 15 secs then open it for more or reduce it for less

30 secs lets the most amount of light in at night and 1/100th would be not really much use unless you have loads of external flashes, 1/100th is ideal for the likes of panning cars

heres a car at 1/125









and a cityscape at night for 6 seconds










this will show the kind of difrence with shutter speeds


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## butcher (Sep 3, 2010)

steveo3002 said:


> i really have no idea lol....so what sort differance should i expect between 1/100th and 30 secs


Massive. 1/100th of a second will let very little light in in any dark conditions, and will pretty much freeze any moving objects - unless very fast. Going slower than that, moving objects will begin to blur.

At 30 seconds, everything within those 30 seconds will be captured. So if you have a passing car, say, that car could well be been and gone by the time the exposures finished. At that kind of exposure, you'll get a lot of light, even from very dark conditions.

If you want to capture light trails, just give it a blast at maybe around 5 seconds, and adjust. It really depends on the shot you're taking. You can correct the exposure using the aperture and ISO (if necessary).


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

grabbed this off google..its the type of thing im after ...obv im no pro , but as nice as i can get


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

also...any chance of a run down of iso settings for a dummy please


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## bretti_kivi (Apr 22, 2008)

low iso = less noise, less sensitivity to light.

Bret


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## butcher (Sep 3, 2010)

Film used to have an ISO rating. Well it still does, if you use it! Fortunately now you can just adjust the ISO straight in the camera. 

Most of the time, you want it as low as it can possibly go. Which isn't always possible if you want to use a fastish shutter speed in low light conditions. Since you're potentially using massively long exposures, you can set it right down (50) and see what you get. There might be times when you need to up it, but again, trial and error.

Ideally you'd generally be in the 50-200 range. Back in days before digital, above 400 was pretty much exclusive to b&w film, where the grain's acceptable.


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## johnnyguitar (Mar 24, 2010)

Depends on your camera too - my D40 doesn't have an ISO setting lower than 200. My brother's older D50 goes down to 100. At a higher ISO (400, 800 and upwards) you can take pics with a faster shutter in lower light, but the result will be more noise in your picture.


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## steveo3002 (Jan 30, 2006)

it does 80-3200


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