Take Great Looking Night Photos Sans Tripod

Taking night photos is probably one of the most challenging tasks in photography, but some night scenes are just too beautiful to be missed. I've been wondering how to take night shots without a tripod for a long time, especially when I'm in Vegas or New York City where there's no shortage of beautiful night scenes. I used to carry a portable tripod around for those occassions, but packing a tripod is not always a priority for me.

Instructables put together a few tips on how to do this by experimenting with your camera's ISO, Exposure and Aperture settings. They recommend you try these settings first: Set your "ISO at 200 and 400, shutter speed from 1/15 of a second to 6/10 of a second, and aperture set to whichever setting allows the LCD to appear as bright as you want the photos to be, but not much brighter. In other words, set ISO first, shutter speed second, and aperture to the just-bright-enough setting. Now, start taking pictures." You'll need to read your camera's manual to learn more about these three features first.

This is an exercise you will go through only the first time, until you discover which settings produce the best photos. Once you find the best settings for your digital camera, all you have to do is set them as your preferred settings, and take 5-15 photos in continuous shooting mode until you get one that isn't blurry. Remember, that even the smallest movement will cause some blur, so keep your arms tight, and hold your breath for a few seconds when you snap that photo. Other tips include packing a large memory card, taking lots of photos, and writing down each photo's settings by looking at the "info" details for each image. That's it, now you're ready to take some beautiful night shots in your city. You can read the entire tutorial over at Instructables.

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