You’re in a big, dreamy city at night. Mesmerized by the bright lights contrasting with the beautiful, deep blackness of the night sky, you want to take pictures and capture the stunning gorgeousness before you. However, if you don’t have a Full-Frame DSLR like a Canon 5D MK II or Nikon D700, then chances are that you will have a harder time capturing cleaner images as the smaller sensors don’t have the pixel density or algorithms programmed in to them to deliver the shots that you want. Here’s a couple of things to remember when you go out shooting at night and to get the image almost perfect the first time around with little post-process development.

The following article has been written after many trials with a Canon XSi and Olympus E-510. The former has an APS-C sized sensor while the latter is a 4/3rds camera. Each has their own limitations and differences that can be overcome while traveling with a small kit. I never shoot on Auto: it’s either Manual, Aperture, or Program for me. [Read more…]