Advice please

I am a relative newcomer to photography and my camera a D3100. I am going on holiday next week and am really keen to photograph at night. Where I am going (Isle of Skye, Scotland) has no light pollution. I have never had the opportunity to photograph at night and would like some advice. I have a 18-55 kit lens and a 70-200.the sun does not fully set below the horizon either. I have looked on line but there is nothing better than advice from someone on here.
Thanks
​Maureen

You cannot do night shooting without a tripod. That should be your number one item on your list. After that, you need to have a good understanding of how to change the ISO and shutter speed. But none of these things will help if you don't have a sturdy tripod

I have a tripod and a gorilla pod. Filters and flash

The only thing I would add would be a wireless remote like the Nikon ML-L3. You could employ shutter delay, but using the remote is just so much easier. If you're going to be doing a lot of this something more sophisticated like a wireless Shutterboss might be in your future. I love mine but no need to get that pricey unless there's a need there.

Lastly, if you have an idea of *what* you anticipate you'll be shooting at night, we might be able to provide you with more specific advice.

Ah, okay, good. Doing night photos is really easier than it might seem. You have essentially 2 choices of night photos - light trails vs. frozen shots. Do you want the moving objects, like car lights or stars, planes) to be frozen or to leave a trail? Once you decide that, the rest is fairly straightforward.

To get a good trail, set your ISO to 100 and your shutter speed to 30 sec (Anything longer than 30 sec you will need to use BULB settings and have a remote. But typically, 30 secs is more than long enough for most shots).

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If you want to freeze things and not have light trails, bump up your ISO to one or two levels below it's highest setting and then experiment with shutter speed. Take a test shot at 1 sec and check its exposure and adjust accordingly.

First, let me tell you Dave_W is THE MAN in my opinion for night shot advice. He has helped me out immensely.

The best advice I can give you right now is to go out and start practicing night shots. Even if it is of nothing good. Just do it. It is a whole new world when trying to work in the dark.

Few others.

Red flashlight. You will want this to see in the dark and navigate your way around the camera without destroying your night vision.

ISO 1600-4000 is your friend. I was really hesitant to push up that high until after I did it. Unless, as was mentioned, you're trying for star trails and you want a lower ISO and really long shutter.

Your biggest challenge will be getting focus on the 18-55 lens. Use your lowest number aperture for the most light and focus on the farthest thing you can while there is still light and then switch the lens to manual so it won't try to refocus later in the dark.

​Hope this helps.

Horoscope Fish said:

The only thing I would add would be a wireless remote like the Nikon ML-L3. You could employ shutter delay, but using the remote is just so much easier. If you're going to be doing a lot of this something more sophisticated like a wireless Shutterboss might be in your future. I love mine but no need to get that pricey unless there's a need there.

Lastly, if you have an idea of *what* you anticipate you'll be shooting at night, we might be able to provide you with more specific advice.

Click to expand...

The D3100 does not use a Wireless Remote. You will need the wired remote.

New Nikon MC-DC2 Wired Remote Shutter Release Cord D3100 D3200 D5100 D7000 D5000 on eBay!

They can use the WR-T10 Wireless Remote controller, along with the WR-R10. It's a bit of an expensive solution, but that is what Nikon has come up with.

Tracsoft - Don Kuykendall said:

The D3100 does not use a Wireless Remote. You will need the wired remote. http://compare.ebay.com/like/261074647822?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

Click to expand...

Hmmm... Well... In that case I suggest the wired remote!

AC016 said:

They can use the WR-T10 Wireless Remote controller, along with the WR-R10. It's a bit of an expensive solution, but that is what Nikon has come up with.

Click to expand...

at a Price of $219.95 I think I would stay with the wired remote. I recently moved up to the D5100 and bought a wireless remote for it. I had an occasion the need of remote capabilities to shoot some things recently but decided to use the wired one instead of the wireless one. I think there is probably good uses for both.

Thanks Guys I knew I would get the answer here.

Youll love it... you can get some super shots at night...