Tips for shooting lights at night with XT

[David97]

I've tried city lights but never get anything good. What settings are best to use? High ISO is a tripod a must? X-mas will be here soon so that means loys of lights :)

[shingi]

Since I'm just getting mine, I can't offer great advice yet. However, if it is anything like my older P&S cameras, it'll be something like a 8 sec shutter speed (would greatly depend on avaliable lighting), as larger an aperature as you can manage, and I would say use ISO 800, with a tripod, since 1600 does have some visible noise levels. Really good lenses also make a big difference as well. Perhaps use the time-delay so you don't bump it if you have a tripod, or maybe a remote control. Again, mine just broke (getting a new one tmorrow) so I haven't tried it yet, but it could be a lot different from my P&S. I know some have said things like ISO 1600, 1/60 SS/ f/2.8, but again, it all depends on the lighting you do have.

So, I'm prolly no help at all, but I might as well post what I can, right? haha

[24Peter]

I gather you're talking about Chirstmas lights, outside at night. Generally speaking, outdoor night exposures are long exposures. Multiple seconds, maybe 2 to 30 seconds or longer depending on the shot. You may want to use Av mode (apeture priority - see apeture discussion below) and let the camera determine the appropriate shutter speed. Of course as was mentioned, long exposures require a tripod, otherwise you'll end up with a blurry mess. If you don't have a remote control to trigger your camera, you can use the self timer. This will avoid camera shake when depressing the shutter release button.

With long exposures, you want a LOW ISO (100) to minimize the noise that will accumulate (for really long exposures, the XT and I think 20D have a special add'l noise reduction feature in the custom menu. There's also mirror lockup in the custom menu to minimize vibration from the mirror opening & closing but I've never noticed much difference using it.)

Next, you generally want a small apeture to get a large depth of field to help maximize focus. Somewhere between f8-22 depending on the lens and what you are shooting. The smaller the apeture, the less light you let in, so a longer shutter speed is necessary.

Note that if there are moving objects in your shot they will be blurred by the long shutter speed. So if you want to freeze any action, then a shorter shutter (and higher ISO and larger apeture (smaller f #)) may be appropriate.