night shots help

[Ross_N]

hiii i use an olympus om10 and am quite new to photography .
what im looking for is advice on taking shots at night because i dont get a meter reading tht is possible to set on the camera should i just use the b setting and hope for the best??
also taking shots at the moon with slr any advice with this??

 

[seriousrikk]

Night shots can depend a lot on what you are shooting. Are we talking lit streets or moonlit landscapes? Lit streets you can usually set to a shutter speed between a few seconds and 1/60th depending on the effect you want (Looks best B&W IMO). Nightime landscapes you can be running into the multiple minutes dues to reciprocity - a good light meter will help here

Shooting the moon is much easier. Use the good old suynny 16 rule. By this you set the shutter speed to the ISO of the film and the aperture to F16. Although using a long lens you probably want to up your shutter speed in which case open up your aperture accordingly. Say on ISO100 film go with 1/400 F8

 

[Ross_N]

ok im using 400 iso ....and its only black and white i use because of my course....so what would i use i wouldnt use B setting??

 

[PaulCowan]

For long exposures B should be fine. Remember the difference between e.g. a 10 second and a 15 second exposure is only half a stop, so you don't need to be too precise in your timing.

With the moon, an exposure of about 1/125s at 400ISO and f16 will probably be in the right ball-park, but bracket the exposures quite widely. You need a really sturdy tripod, mirror lock-up and a long lens to get a good look at the craters, not to mention a very clear sky. Camera shake is probably your worst enemy.