What is the best iso setting for taking night time shots?

Answer 1

We can't answer this question unless you tell us what camera you have and what kind of shots you are trying to achieve. Long exposures? Or cityscapes? I would suggest you leave it on the lowest ISO you can. If you camera is any good, it will allow you to set a longer shutterspeed to allow you to use low iso. Remember for long shutterspeeds, you need to keep the camera steady on a tripod.

Answer 2

If you use a high iso you will get a lot of graining. It depends on what type of shot it is. Is it a scene, are you using a tripod with a long exposure? Then use a low iso. Is it a night club with people moving about and the camera is hand held, then use a higher iso.

Answer 3

It depends on the type of image you want to make.

If you want light trails or if you want sharp detail and to be able to read the neon signs.

For sharp images I suggest that you try ISO 50 - 200. Try different apertures and speeds until you get the image you want. Look at the metadata of the image you really like so that you can do it again.

For grainy ambiguous images and light trails set the ISO 400 - 800+ and experiment with longer exposure times.

It is best to use your DSLR on manual.

Answer 4

I like taking photos by candlelight. I aim for smooth tones, lots of subtle detail in shadow areas and preferably no 'blown-out' highlights. Obviously this is confined to still life pictures unless you aim for 'trailing light' or 'painting with light' experimental work. Capturing movement in general can often generate really interesting abstracts. Whatever you go for has to involve the correct choice of aperture, shutter speed and iso. For a straightforward candlelit still life i use low iso (80-100) and a long shutter speed coupled with a suitable aperture for whatever depth of field I require. On some cameras you can select the shutter speed and aperture and the iso is selected automatically (eg. PentaxK10D). A complex area but generally governed by the subject matter and what you want to achieve!!!

Answer 5

It is going to vary, depending on your camera and just how dark it actually is. For starters I would say a minimum of 800 but even that is relative because the actual lighting is unknown. Keep in mind that as you crank up your ISO you are going to see more noise in your photos.

Answer 6

It would be helpful to know exactly what kind of night photos you want to do.

For good results you'll need:

Tripod, cable release, camera in Manual Mode

If its a city skyline in the distance after dark, try these:

ISO 100

f5.6 @ 15 sec
f8 @ 30 sec
f11 @ 60 sec

ISO 200

f5.6 @ 8 sec
f8 @ 15 sec
f11 @ 30 sec

Taken from my FotoSharp (fotosharp.com) Day & Night Exposure Guide. Owning one is recommended.

Answer 7

For something like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Griffithparkobservatory.jpg, I increased the ISO to 500 because I wanted to capture people standing around (see photo). But I would have gone down to 50 to get less noise.

Answer 8

Depends. We need more info. What is the subject?

Answer 9

use 'night mode' on the camera