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Heading to Paris for New Year's...would love some tips or websites that will help me take better night time photos. I have a Nikon D40 DSLR....thanks!
Night Photos in the City of Light-can you help?
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You will need a tripod to get good photos at night, or need to rest the camera on something. If all else fails then increase the ISO, but not too much or you will get noise.
The best night time photos are actually taken in the half hour or so of twilight after the sun has set - the sky is a lovely deep deep blue then, much nicer than later. Of course that assumes a clear sky which you may not get at the end of December. Nonetheless it is still the best time if you can manage it.
Do you shoot RAW (NEF) or Jpeg? If Jpeg then you need to experiment a bit with the white balance to keep the atmosphere in the photo - the AWB may work, but I'd play a bit and see which works best.
If you want to include a person in the photo then you will need to use flash - ideally use rear curtain synch if you can to get the background correctly lit than flash the person at the end of the exposure. I am not sure if your camera has scene modes - if it does one will be for just such a case - often shown with a figure and a moon.
I suggest you go to your library and find a book on exposure and techniques - Scott Kelby has a couple, and David Peterson has the 'Bible' on Exposure but there are plenty of How To books out there.
Make sure you understand your camera fully so you can get the most out of it on your trip, and don't spend all your time looking at Paris through a lens! have a great time.
hetismij - thanks for the tips. I shoot jpeg (tried RAW but didn't really see the benefits).
The benefits of RAW are that if you screw up an exposure you can often rescue it. Plus Jpeg is a loosy format, heavily compressed. Every time you open a Jpeg you lose a minute amount of the data in it. By shooting RAW and converting that to jpeg you keep the maximum amount of information and can always go back to it and try something else, as RAW converters leave the RAW untouched.
It can e a pain to convert several hundred photos but it is generally worth it in the long run.
Of course if you can nail the exposure, white balance and everything at once then Jpeg is fine - just make sure you save the original untouched (in more than one place!) and always work on a copy for any post-processing.