A few tips for night photography:
1. Turn on the Noise Reduction. Exposures will be twice as long, but nice and clean. Not much different than when we all shot film and had to adjust to two- to-three times the exposure to correct for reciprocity, but without the annoying color shifting problems.
2. Use a rock-steady tripod.
3. Use a cable release. I use the electronic Nikon MC-20 which has a built-in timer so that I don't have to count out loud...
4. Park where you are going to shoot so that you can grab a cold one while you are shooting the stars.
5. Shoot in RAW so you can still adjust the colors/density after you shoot. I really like the colorful effect of mixed lighting and am sometimes pleasantly surprised by the results.
6. Enjoy the evening without the crowds! Most people are eating or in bed when I shoot at night and *not* in your way.
7. Have your ID handy, in case the police think you look out of place. Then enthusiastically show them a few of your photos on your display.
8. If needed, pump up the film speed to iso 400 or even 800, if needed, to catch the fleeting light show of the aurora. I typically use those speeds at 30 seconds to several minutes, usually f/2.8 or 4.
9. Turn off the auto focus. Preset the lens at infinity, unless using a telephoto, then either "guesstimate" the distance, use a flashlight to shine on your subject, or substitute another object at the same distance that may have enough light on it to focus.
10. If you are painting with flashlights, make sure the batteries are fresh. Flashlights are tungsten in color balance and add a nice warm glow especially during twilight.
11. When using flash, use fresh batteries and put the flash on "A". Walk around and flash away.
12. Too much brightness from neon? Use your tripod and two exposures: short for the highlights, long for the ambient or twilight and combine in Photoshop.
13. Use "available" lighting. For me that has included flash, flashlights, moonlight, neon, sodium and mercury lighting, even a my little key ring LED flashlight works well.
14. Avoid shining your light into your eyes to preserve your night vision. Red light preserves your "purple eyes". A red gel over your light or red LED will help you see things without affecting your ability to see.
15. Go out, experiment, and have fun!
