Camera settings for night time shots

[Punkinsmom]

Ok, I've looked and looked, I know I saw a thread about this but I can't seem to find it. I need to know what manual settings to use on my Rebel XT for a night time shot. Aperature settings, focal length, lens whatever it takes I want to master this thing. Can anyone out there steer me in the right direction.:) Please oh please!

[PaulH]

I use a variation of the one - the only Jiffy Calculator published orginally in Pop Photo 1964 or so.... Mine is probably from 1970. Kodak also had some pocket guide books.

Now the neat thing about digital - use this as a guide - and shoot a lot - bracket - guesss - and you WILL get good images. Sometimes the histogram will help - but generally there are too much shadows.

I was going to scan mine and put it on a web page - but someone else already has.

I actually have the orginal in my camera bag - laminated and still working.

Here it is in a pdf - print it out - cut some holes - fold and use like a slide rule. Consider it a scrapbooking project :)
http://www.stacken.kth.se/~maxz/files/jiffy.pdf

Here is one on Ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7600429897&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_ReBay_Pr4_PcY_BIN_IT#ebayphoto hosting

[TonyW]

Could have been this thread (http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7479) you remember. Don't think you'll find there's one answer for settings (other than use a tripod and preferably a remote shutter release or use a shutter delay). It all depends on how dark it is and what effect you're trying to achieve. The nice thing about digital is that you can experiment as much as you want.

Tony

[MikeH]

Sherrie,

What subject are you taking...?

Mike

[Punkinsmom]

Mike, a full moon. Then there are Christmas lights when that time rolls around again.

[Punkinsmom]

Tony, that's the thread, Thanks!

Paul, I tried to print that first link and all it will do is ask to save to my hard drive. No printed page! Thanks for the info, I thnk I will stop by my local camera shop and see if they have one of those.

[willpresley]

Here is a book that might prove useful.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0817450416/ref=pd_ys_ir_all_8/103-6959784-6656618?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

[PaulH]

Tony, that's the thread, Thanks!

Paul, I tried to print that first link and all it will do is ask to save to my hard drive. No printed page! Thanks for the info, I thnk I will stop by my local camera shop and see if they have one of those.
It's a PDF - i you have adobe reader you can just save it and open in Adobe - you also can open in PSE.

[TonyW]

Mike, a full moon. Then there are Christmas lights when that time rolls around again.

The problem with a full moon is that it really isn't a night shot. If you expose for the moon (I last used about 1/150, f5, ISO 100) then everything else is dark but the moon will show detail. Best bet is to take two shots - one exposed for the moon and a longer exposure one to capture some surrounding detail then merge the two.

Tony