Advice for newbie re night settngs

Hello everyone,

Joined this site yesterday and this is my first post. I've had the D3100 now for around a year but due to work commitments I've not had that much chance to use it. I'm fairly ok with some settings and modes but have always had a problem with getting decent pictures at night. I will shortly be off to Thailand for a break and amongst other places will be visiting Bangkok's Chinatown at night. This it a pretty vibrant area with plenty of opportunity for capturing street scenes with plenty of colour, neon light and street food being cooked on open flames etc. I'm after advice on what settings I should use to get the best results, I could leave it on auto but want to move away from using this whenever possible. At present I only have the standard 18-55 lens but later today will pick up a 55-200 which according to some posts I've seen on this site isn't a bad option for my next steps and isn't a bad overall lens for general travel photography.

All advice will be welcome

Jim

I have always heard that ones first progression away from "Auto" is to put the camera in the "A" Aperture setting and if night choose the widest opening on your 18-55mm that would be f/3.5 and let the camera choose the rest.But I am fairly new to this as well. So take it or not for what it's worth.

Also think about getting the Nikon 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S DX instead of the 55-200mm;
1.) 100mm more reach
2.) metal mount, tougher construction
3.) same specs ... f/4.5-5.6G ED VR AF-S DX
4.) but with VRII not just VR

This is a tough question to answer since everything will depend on what situations you will be trying to capture. Will it be shots from across the street or on the sidewalk in front of you. Across the street the 200mm will work great but if you are trying to capture a store front with anything longer than the 55mm you will need to practically stand in the street trying to avoid people walking on the sidewalk between you and your subject.
The biggest problem in any night scene is capturing enough light with a slow shutter speed and not getting movement blur.

Not being familiar with the setting options on the D3100 I can't recommend much other than if using flash and you have the option to change it, set it to "Slow Rear" which will light up areas behind the subject giving depth to the capture.

Thanks for the advice, I will use the 18-55mm as it will be fairly close quarters and will try both settings to see what happens

Jim