Bad quality night photos

[PumpkinMan]

Hello everyone

I have a DSC-HX9V camera. Whenever I take night photos they are very bad quality. They look much darker than what I see with my eyes and streetlights/the moon turn out blurry. How can I get clear, great quality night photos?

Some examples.

CLEANEDTAGhttps://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/537830_522573041111348_1058846173_n.jpg

CLEANEDTAG

CLEANEDTAGhttps://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/601787_522573044444681_674798698_n.jpg

CLEANEDTAG

Please help.

PumpkinMan

[Mick2011]

Hi

Night scenes can very difficult to record well, depending on conditions. Your examples show the most difficult of all: you have little or no 'ambient', natural light to fill the shadows, combined with extremely bright points of light.

The moon and the street lights are so much brighter than the surrounding darkness, the camera attempts to find an average exposure that accommodates both the large, very bright light sources and the very dark shadows, and often without 'knowing' what it is you want to see properly exposed.

If you want to see detail in the moon, you will lose all detail in the surrounding sky. It's simply too dark, compared to the surface of the moon, for any camera to record both at the same time. You have to force the camera to do this, as (set to automatic) it will attempt to average the exposure for the sky and the moon. Have a look at the procedure for using Manual exposure on the HX9V

If this is a little too technical and you'd prefer to let the camera make the best of it, don't rely on Intellgent Auto settings. Some scene settings will be worth experimenting with: details here

However the easiest and most effective Auto night-time shots settings must be with Superior Auto. The camera will take several shots in very quick succession and combine them to expand the exposure range between lightest and darkest areas in the frame. Find out how to set this up here

You need to hold the camera very still – in fact this is extremely important no matter which mode you shoot, as shutter speeds will be slow – and a tripod or strudy support is almost essential to avoid blurring the shot. Place the camera on a wall, or top of a car, for example, if a tripod is not an option.

One last thing: you'll get much better results when there is still a little light in the sky, just before dark or at first light, as it keeps this light>dark contrast down and gives some colour and detail to the shadows.

Experiment with these settings and techniques and I think you'll find your camera is actually pretty good at night scenes after all

Cheers

Mick

[PumpkinMan]

Thank you Mick for so many tips. I will try them.