Hey im a complete noob to the slr cameras, so bare with me.

I picked up a D5000 the other day with the nikon auto 88-55mm lense and the nikon auto 55 - 200mm lense.

I have a real interest in night time photos.. and cant seem to get the results i got with my little point and shoot cam. A) in manual mode with the auto focus, it just says the subject is too dark, so i go to manual mode with manual focus and can never get the right iso etc etc and the pics never look crisp..

So what do i need, apart from practice lol

Is there a certain lense i need to acquire? or are my settings just ghey?


Thanks for any help to make me unstressed

Night time shoots, now I'm sure there must be a BILLION books on this but basically..

You need A) a tripod
B) a camera that can focus manually (e.g. DSLR)
C) a subject
D) patience


Set your camera up on a tripod, read your manual on how to set the ISO, shutter speeds and aperture on that model and set your ISO for the best possible quality (usually 200 for Nikons) set your aperture to a decent value, somewhere around 8-11 for a scene and then leave the creative side take over if you want lots of bokeh etc..

Use the self timer to set the camera off as pushing the shutter will make the camera and tripod shake a little, the self timer gives it time to settle down before the shutter is opened, use mirror lock-up if avail too (these tips are for the sharpest possible pictures of course).

Focus manually and take an exposure, check the metering on your camera to see what it thinks (whether it'll be under or over exposed) and then review the shot on your cameras screen, if it looks out of focus, re-focus and try again.

Good luck.

i agree with this one
You need
A) a tripod
B) a camera that can focus manually (e.g. DSLR)
C) a subject
D) patience

Just set it up on a tripod
Doesnt matter what lense aperture you have
s/s is the key here
Try set the ISO as low as possible
Play around with the s/s. Some scenes will need longer exposure eg. car trails
Oww and set it on a few seconds to take the picture for minimul vibration
Have fun

Thanks guys, i think im gettin the idea now..
scooby pic

what yall recon?

It's nice - pity over the shadow under the front - seems to be dominating somehow. Something I like to use with long exp is a remote shutter. Mines wireless I picked up from ebay. Seems to work ok...most of the time.

If he sets it on say f/32 with ISO at 100 he isn't gonna see shit unless he's got a remote and BULB ability you spaz, unless someone detonates the moon that is.

So a shutter speed of 30sec at f/1.8 trying to take a photo of the city is going to work? srsly ghey

You have to match you aperture to you shutter speed for an exposed pic. otherwise you will over/under expose. Its all about aperture AND shutter speed. They go hand in hand.

Don't fry his mind with depth of field though when talking apertures.

Although I think we should lay off this guy, after all he can't even spell lens.

Aperture is all about DOF. Should do some tuts up for people to read and get em made sticky

Do it.

I'll write the first line here:

Aperture, it starts with an A.