[Closed] what camera settings for night time shots?

What camera? You'll need something with a high degree of manual control. See if you can get the camera to meter at a wide open aperture and then work out what an equivalent exposure length would be at f8 and start here. Or trial and error, start at f8 and 30 secs, and remember at those exposures a couple of seconds either way makes no difference - +1 stop means doubling the exposure time to 1 minute, -1 stop means halving the exposure to 15 seconds. You'll need a bulb setting on your camera, a remote release and a tripod. Ideally, you want a bit of dusk in the sky - the best "night time" shots (in my opinion!) always have a bit of colour in the sky still...

Definitely going to need a tripod unless you've got a camera that has a stupidly high ISO setting like a D4!

That said if you have a lens with decent image stabilisation it's possiblt to hand-hold down to about 1/10 second, but unless your subject is travelling fairly fast then you won't really get much in the way of a ligh trail.

If you don't have a remote release, use the camera's self timer (assuming that you can figure out when the subject is going to be in frame) and don't forget to cover the eyepiece to prevent light entering through the viewfinder.

long exposure biking shots

I would suggest a long exposure.

Really though, it's a little technical. Not hard to do but you just need to understand the settings and know how to work your camera. 30s and f8 might work, it might not, depending on how dark it actually is 🙂

I bought a remote for my NEX for £5 which does the job.

I also picked up a little cheap tripod which only weighs a couple of hundred grams and can be strapped to my pack for summit camps where it just wouldn't be practical to take a regular tripod. Provided you can weight the feet (I bury it in the snow) then it works pretty well.

Then it's just a case of playing around with the settings! I spent about 2 hours outside the tent in -20 just to get 2 decent shots. I'd therefore advise trying to learn your camera before you need to use it 🙂

Depends how much detail you want in the background too, but 30s and f8 is probably a good starting point. You also might want a camera with rear curtain sync on the flash if you want that ghost rider kind of effect. It really is trial and error though I'm afraid!

thanks for all this advice so far folks, but just to qualify my question, I've got a Canon eos 1200d, lightweight 4' telescopic tripod and the nouse to use it. I got some awesome milky way shots last year and have taken many a snap with it in various light conditions.

I'm just wanting the settings you've had success with really, anticipating that the high powered lights on the bike will over expose the shot and then me and my mate will be too cold to experiment!

edit: I'll start at 30 and f8

I would approach it like this;

Look at the piece of trail that you want to capture in the shot and either time a rider through it or estimate how long it will take. Use that as your shutter speed.

Now adjust your apperture to get a balance between the background and the lights - it will take some trial and error though.

If you want to see a clear image of the rider at the end of the light trail you will need to use a flash with second curtain sync - and have really good anticipation/timing!

Once everything is set up on the tripod I would be tempted to take a number of shots of the scene (with no riders in it) at different exposures to enable some exposure blending / HDR later.

30s and f8 might work, it might not, depending on how dark it actually is

Yeah, and a million other factors - but it's a good place to start 😆 If it doesn't work, try f8 / 15 secs and f8/ 60 secs and see if you're getting close - easier with digi that it was in the old days of film 😆

Couple of night time, non biking shots:
[url= http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2161/2340935872_91ec666a20.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2161/2340935872_91ec666a20.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescoulson/2340935872/ ]Img_2472[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/jamescoulson/ ]James Coulson[/url], on Flickr

[url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3111/2340100929_8903e75e61.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3111/2340100929_8903e75e61.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescoulson/2340100929/ ]Img_2477[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/jamescoulson/ ]James Coulson[/url], on Flickr

[quote=irelanst ]
If you want to see a clear image of the rider at the end of the light trail you will need to use a flash with second curtain sync - and have really good anticipation/timing!
If your flash (external or built in) doesnt; support this, you could (if you have an external flash) trigger it yourself manually as you close the shutter

Also, if you've got a bulb mode (I know nothing about Canon!) you can time the shot exactly to how long the rider takes by opening and closing the shutter manually. It's something I also have planned for one evening soon, though it will involve experimentation and possibly hypothermia.

This was taken @ 30s f6.3 ISO 100 0.0ev

[img] [/img]

Quick browse on FlickR.. some, like [url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/lm55/8006499479/in/set-72157631582189742/ ]these[/url] show the camera settings used.

Definitely going to need a tripod unless you've got a camera that has a stupidly high ISO setting like a D4!

The D4 is good for ISO 12,800 before noise starts to become too obvious:

[url= http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7094/7400853222_dc2104abe1.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7094/7400853222_dc2104abe1.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/7400853222/ ]Main square[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr