A Couple of quick ways you can get great shots at night-

Taking photos can be a great way to keep your memories fresh. But what about those night memories, how come those pictures always come out too dark or blurry? There are some simple ways of making sure your night photos come out clearer than your memories!

Many times the images at night come out blurry as your hand or body slightly vibrates. To the naked eye the photos might look great but when you print them you see the lights around your image and the main focal point is not always clear. To stop this from happening a great way to take photos is using a tripod. Put your camera on the tripod and set up the shot, this way you don’t have to be completely still but your camera will still stay locked in place and the lights won’t go blurry.

If you don’t have a tripod to place the camera on a sturdy surface such as a wall or table. If your camera has the option put on the mirror lockup setting, this is to make sure that no shakiness occurs when you press the button to take the picture, whether on a tripod or not. It is also advisable to use the self-timer which gives the camera a couple seconds to stabilize before the picture is shot.

For some subjects the best way to get a great photo is to change the photo setting. For many photographers, especially those first starting out, keeping the camera on its manual setting just seems easier. But the settings in the camera are made to be used.

Try some night photographs in black and white or on the twilight setting and see what you like. When you find the perfect setting remember it and use it every time you shoot at night. When you take night photos you need to allow as much light as possible to get the best shots.

To allow for this to happen you should change your camera setting to long exposure. This maximizes the light on the photograph to make the pictures brighter and therefore give you better night shots.

It is a general rule that with night shots you do not need to have the flash on. This is to say when you are taking photos of lights in a night skyline this is because the flash adds an unnatural light which can change and remove the natural beauty of the dark sky and city lights.

However there are some exceptions to this rule, this being when trying to take a picture of a person or group that is in the foreground using a night sky or dark room as the background. In this case you want to use the flash to make sure that the image in the foreground is illuminated as the background is not the focal point. This will keep your focal point bright while also allowing you to see the beautiful dark sky around it.

These shots are best taken when you use the flash with the long exposure as this compliments the foreground while allowing the light of the background to be exposed longer making it more illuminated. To make sure that you foreground doesn’t move before the exposure is done, change your setting so that the flash goes off at the end of the exposure as sometimes the flash makes people flinch or scares unsuspecting focal points such as animals.

No matter which camera you use the best way to get great photos at night is to play around with the settings of the camera to see which one you like best.

This is easiest to do with a digital camera then uploading to your computer to allow you to see them all side by side so you can pick your favourite. Just remember that each scene you shoot is different and what might work for one at sunset may not be the best for another once the sun has set.