Night shooting

[Gacop]

I am a true beginner and am trying to learn by trial and error. How do you take pictures at night say of a pond where there is nothing but the moon light and your camera will not focus?

[DGK*CRONE]

maybe you are too close to the main subject in your picture. if you can describe the situation a bit more it would be easier to answer the question.

[MNRyan]

You could be either too close or too far away to the subject. (I've ran into both) If your camera has an autofocus assist beam/light having that on might help. Otherwise if the subject is to far out I've been known to use a high powered flash light (Streamlight Stinger) just to get the focus. This also means you'd need to use manual mode and shoot in raw or set your white balance to manual to get the color to come out right. And then you could also avoid all of it and manual focus I guess :yikes: LOL.... DGK is right though, explaining what your shooting will probably get you the best advice.

[Loupey]

Guess.

When you say a "pond", I'm assuming you're shooting wide (with a wide angle lens or a zoom set for wide angle) and/or from a distance. In either case, you will be at or very close to the infnity mark of the focus ring. Put it in manual focus, set it near infnity and go.

Then check the shot on the LCD.

Modify as needed.

Repeat.

[Gacop]

I'll try to explain it better. I was on a camping trip the other night and we were beside a pond. The only light we had came from a fire and a halogen light. I basically stood about 6 to 8 feet from the pond with the light source behind me and shot out across the pond. It was very dark all you could see was the silhouette of the trees on the other side and of course the pond and the answer to you question Loupey I was using a 18-55mm Nikkor VR Lens with a Nikon D3000. While I have your attention I also tried to shoot some small fish on the edge of the pond in very shallow water in the daytime and could not get the camera to focus so I could take the picture.

[Greg McCary]

If there is not enough light for your camera to see it will not AF. I do it all the time, get a flashlight, for you to see the lens, and manually focus to infinity. you will have to adjust shutter speed by trail and error.

[freygr]

I'll try to explain it better. I was on a camping trip the other night and we were beside a pond. The only light we had came from a fire and a halogen light. I basically stood about 6 to 8 feet from the pond with the light source behind me and shot out across the pond. It was very dark all you could see was the silhouette of the trees on the other side and of course the pond and the answer to you question Loupey I was using a 18-55mm Nikkor VR Lens with a Nikon D3000. While I have your attention I also tried to shoot some small fish on the edge of the pond in very shallow water in the daytime and could not get the camera to focus so I could take the picture.

Two things:

For night photography a tripod will be needed for most shoots do to the long exposures required specialty out camping (no city glow). You will have to manually focus and use manual settings as the light level is from the stars and or the moon, simply there is insufficient light for the camera to function in auto mode.

As for the fish you will have to put the camera in manual focus mode, and you may need a polarizing filter to kill reflections.

[Gacop]

Thanks freygr for the information I'm sure it will come in handy.