Taking night photos

[melinda1981]

Hi there everyone!

I am new here, thanks to Tara for giving me the link. What a wonderful site.

Anyhow, im wanting to know about what settings are best for taking photos of night skies (storms etc).

I have a Kodak Easyshare DX6440. 4.0 megapixels, 4 x Optical Zoom, Schneider lens, Kodak colour science.

Thanks in advance, hope this is enough info.

[me_wrestler]

It kinda depends on exactly what you are shooting ie... city skyline, lightning, fireworks etc.... I shot most of my city skylines at f11 at about 8 sec and bracket my exposures from there. Fireworks and lightning I shot at f8 on bulb setting and keep it open as long as it takes to capture the subject. I'm not sure whether your camera has these settings but I'm sure it can capture a city scape.
Good luck and have fun,
Colin

[JCW3]

Impossible question to answer, when the answer if found please let me know...

Over all the reason no one can answer this question is that each senic night shot will vary greatly...

I mean you could be taking one of Xmas lights, fire works, moon, sunsets/rise, and so on.

All of these conditions will give differant lightings and require differant settings.

The biggest thing is study your camera and grasp the meaning of the shutter speed and f-stop. Then play, play, play....

I would recommend shooting in a bracketing mode, this will help with any user errors.

[Flutterfly]

I am looking for information also, on taking just basic night photos of the stars and things. I have been playing with my settings but still cant capture that great photo.