Lights??

[pickypics]

How do you photograph christmas lights and fireworks and city lights without them going blurry??

Thanks
pickypics

 

[Peacemaker636]

With a tripod.

 

[fmw]

....and by not overexposing them. Remember, the metering system tries to reduce everything to medium gray, thereby, overexposing night time subjects. You need to expose less than the meter recommends.

 

[LaFoto]

Tripod is crucial.
Small aperture helps to get nice star effects on the lights (with no need for any star filters or so).
So you need a long exposure, but not too long, for the camera will automatically also register all the dark around things and meter for that, so what is really light will often come out too light.
So make sure you follow Fred's advice and expose less than the meter says! Too true.

 

[Treymac]

When its completely dark outside, what kind of shutter speed should it be? I was taking firework pictures last week, but they all turned out awful and they just looked like thick lines in the sky. I was using a tripod, I think that it was the shutter speed that was my problem. What should it be, 5 seconds, 1 second?

 

[sabbath999]

....and by not overexposing them. Remember, the metering system tries to reduce everything to medium gray, thereby, overexposing night time subjects. You need to expose less than the meter recommends.

Great advice... If you are unsure, you should bracket your exposures so you have different exposure levels to choose from.