Mousehole Christmas Lights

[Spavo]

I'm going to be heading down to Mousehole, Newlyn for the Christmas lights. I've never been successful on taking shots at night time what would you recommend

Will be taking canon 7d mk2 and either canon 17 -40mm f4
Canon 50mm 1.8 and tripod

What settings am I looking for long exposure which I think might get noise as in people walking around etc or higher ISO and a "quick snap"

Phil.

 

[Alastair]

Tripod, patience, remote-release or self-timer and don't be afraid to try more than one approach to see which works out best. If in doubt, bracket the exposure value by at least two stops either side.

 

[69Bonni]

As Alastair said. Try and keep the ISO as low as you can (I don't know what the Canon is like in low light). I guess if its busy just tuck yourself out of the way first and take a few test shots, check to see your happy with the settings and that will give you the ball park settings, then you should be able to set the camera to bracket around those settings as stated above. So you can set off then and work around those base settings.
If you have a long enough exposure you may find that you loose the people walking around as they would have passed through the frame during the exposure. BUT it depends on how bright the ambient light is. In some cases you might struggle to get a very long exposure if you are pointing the camera and fairly bright lights, then you can drop the ISO right back.
For snaps If the lights are bright enough, you may be able to keep the shutter speed to 1/focal length or a tad faster (ie 1/50 sec for the 50mm or 1/40 sec for the 17-40mm). keep checking your shots and the Histogram, you may want to give a little exposure compensation...
Have Fun...