If you want the best night shots you need to shoot in the best image quality, and that means RAW. By shooting in RAW your images will retain the most 'information', which gives you greater scope for enhancing your shots. RAW is especially beneficial when taking night shots as it gives more flexibility when you want to change things such as colour temperature (or White Balance) or accurately increase (brighten) or decrease (darken) your exposures. 

What are our tools in night photography?

1. A tripod will give you the greatest flexibility to get the angles you need while keeping your camera steady for those long exposures.
2. Wide-angle lenses. This is a personal preference, but I love the way they work in night photography.
3. A lens hood. To minimize lens flares from light entering at angles outside of your frame.
4. A flashlight. Sometimes you’ll want to draw attention to or simply lighten up an important part of the foreground which is too dark.
5. Our imagination. Tools lie all around us in everyday objects to help us make our work better.

Shooting at night obviously means there will be less light and therefore slow shutter speeds, anywhere from 1-30 seconds - that's way too slow to shoot hand-held. Make sure your tripod is set up correctly and rock solid - it's easy to end up with soft images because you haven't double-checked. Hang your camera bag off the hook on the bottom of the centre column if you can. And don't hold onto your tripod as you're shooting with slow shutter speeds because any slight movement can mean blurred photos.

When taking long exposures at night, even touching your camera to press the shutter button can create enough movement to leave you with blurred results. Use your digital camera's built-in self-timer to trigger the shutter after you've pressed the button to avoid any problems. For shots that rely on accurate timing, use a remote release instead.

Have Fun and share your experience with us!