Night Photography in New York

[Chris102]

Tomorrow, I leave here for 5 days in New York. I want to do some night shooting, but I need some help. Is it best to use a low ISO? How slow should the shutter speed be?

Also, where are some good spots in Midtown Manhattan to get great night shots, other than Times Square?

[adam613]

Depends on what kind of shots you want. Most of the night shots in New York I've found interesting are skyline shots. You need to leave Manhattan for those, but a bunch of spots are easily reachable by public transit.

In any case, use a tripod and ISO 100. Then you can you use whatever shutter speed you want. For my skyline shots, I usually use something like ISO 100, f/8, and a shutter speed between 4 and 10 seconds, depending on what my camera's light meter says and what kind of look I'm going for.

[Matt Molnar]

Also, where are some good spots in Midtown Manhattan to get great night shots, other than Times Square?
-Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center gives great views of the whole city, lines are probably a lot more reasonable than those at the Empire State Building, plus you get to shoot the ESB, which you obviously can't do if you're on it. I think it's $12.
-Columbus Circle is really pretty at night with the fountains are all lit up.
-Grand Central Terminal, which is indoors, but the giant windows mean different lighting depending on time of day.

[adam613]

Matt's suggestions gave me an idea...Central Park!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3280/2593880109_65ae4e5dce.jpg

ISO 100, f/8, 60 sec (although I increased the exposure by a little over one stop in ACR...proper exposure probably would have been a little over two minutes)