Night photography/cityscapes advice

[photo_rev]

Hi, I am new to night photography, and could use some advice. When shooting cityscapes with long exposure, the lights tend to be all blown out and blurry. How might I correct this?

Camera setting for this photo: ISO200, F/8, 20seconds, manual focus, shot on a tripod.

 

[Destin]

That’s actually a really nice city scape. May have been a little better if taken earlier with slightly more light in the sky, but you did a nice job with it!

The lights being blown out is something that you can never totally avoid. Sure you could make an HDR but it would tend to look pretty fake because our eyes almost expect the lights to be blown out. If you were to shoot a little earlier when the sky and lights balance better, you could use a shorter exposure time and get the lights to be somewhat less blown out.

The key to shooting nightscapes like this is timing. You need to catch the perfect moment when the light in the sky is equal to the brightness of the city lights.