Enjoy taking pictures at night?I sure do. There’s something enchanting about them - certainly pictures of the moonlight, the night sky and stunning street lights present a special something that daytime photos simply can’t.

Just starting to make night photos? One major concern can be that a lot of digital cameras do not perform very well under low-light situations. To grab some real good night pictures, there are some techniques you need to keep in mind - so here are some of them.

The major element to effective night photography sits in a long exposure. Let's say, about exposures measured in seconds. When employing a long exposure, more light is entering to the camera, letting the details in your night photo to be taken in.

The problem with long exposures is that you shaking the camera results in foggish pictures. That's why the tripod is required here. It's better to use a tripod with a shutter-release cable to ensure no jolting the camera whatsoever.

To sum up, you need to keep you digital camera seriously still. Once you realize that, the quality of your night photos will certainly look better.

If you believe you can sit down and learn on how to use all of the features your camera has, and make excellent photos right off the bat, you're way off.

Most of the cameras are quite complex and take some time to completely understand, so take our suggestions and start with these 10 simple steps and you’ll be on your way for making better pictures.

1 - Master Manual Mode

Like for most folks, it's tough to see the point in this when you have your first digital camera, why shouldn't I just leave the camera on auto mode? If you learn how to properly use your camera, including the manual modes, it becomes a whole lot easier to see where you’re going wrong and it's much simpler to make corrections in your techniques.

Naturally anyone with no serious knowledge with cameras would go for auto modes, but once you know how to correctly shoot with manual, I promise you’ll find better results and better pictures.

2 - Learn Common Composition Techniques, and then Forget Them

Yes, after you’ve learned essential composition techniques such as the rule of thirds and use of lines, you start seeing everything in a different way and see how you could frame a picture, even when you don't have a camera with you. This know-how sticks with you and can help your photographs end up a whole lot better.

But why should you forget them? As a beginner photographer, this becomes too evident to be intriguing and you’ll start to get uninterested of your photos real soon so it pushes you to keep your photographs new and more appealing by "moving" the edge of photography.

3 - No Flash

Flash can really ruin a picture, and is very negative to your subject and really flattens out the picture. When the light is coming directly from the same direction as the lens, the picture loses it's natural shadows, making the picture look quite odd and abnormal. Don't use the flash unless you really have to.

4 - Clean up the Background

The background is an important part so make sure it’s not too chaotic or unpleasant. You could move your camera just a bit to the side and see a huge difference when it comes to cleaning up your picture. Look closely what's on the screen and ask yourself if it adds anything to the photo? If the answer is no, then most likely it can ruin the picture. Other people, clothes, cables and other stuff may very well mess up a perfect photo.

5 - More Practice

Practice makes you better, the more you take pictures and start to notice the little details, the better you get. It’s also lots of fun to fool around with and having just a little bit of practice, you will start seeing the success in your pictures. Use these easy tips listed above, and read other guides and articles on this site and you’ll be skilled soon.

Thank you for visiting and keep on reading more interesting photography tips-hints on Top Megapixel.