Originally Posted by
rayray086
Hey James, what camera do you have? I've found that manual is very fiddly to use and usually opt for Aperture Priority (Av) or Shutter Speed Priority (Tv) mode. They're kinda semi-manual as you can either control your aperture or shutter speed and the camera will determine the other value to ensure pics with good exposure.
When taking night photos, you really need a tripod to get decent pics if you don't have a good flash set-up. You would use Av mode and opt for a high aperture to turn bright lights into nice little stars. For normal hand-held use, go for Tv mode, and select shutter speeds > 1/30" so you won't get bad motion blur. Play around with ISO values - remember, a low number gives low light sensitivity but better quality. Always use the lowest ISO value unless you need to compensate for bad lighting.
Best thing to do is test out your camera in all kinds of light!