Happy Blue Monday! This one is dedicated to my good flickr buddy Nathan for the nice testimonial he sent me yesterday! Thanks man! What: A few boats and lights reflecting in the water at the Armdale Yacht Club Where: Armdale, Nova Scotia, Canada When: Just after sunset. Starting to get dark but the sky still has color in it. AKA: "The Blue Hour" About the shot: I was heading home to get ready to go meet up with some friends for dinner and drove past the yacht club (as usual) and noticed that once again the water was very calm. I was running a bit late (also as usual) but has to stop to take another shot. My 50mm was mounted on the camera already and I decided to give that lens a try as I haven't taken a night shot with it. I started with my standard settings (30s@f/11, iso200) and figured I could adjust from there. Well this is exactly what I got! With many lenses you often need a very small aperture (f/22 or so) so that the light will bleed through the aperture blades and create the starbust effect. I was very pleasantly surprised with this to say the least, as you may know from recent night shots I love starburst effect on night lights. BTW, I'm only really bringing this up because a number of people mentioned it on my last photo. A couple people wanted to know how to do it or if I used a special filter or whatever. What I learned: So anyway, in case you want to learn from my trial & error, here goes: -Try to shoot at dusk (thanks Jones) as there will still be color in the sky and you will still be able to make out background items like trees, mountains, etc... -Be prepared to experiment with settings in manual mode. Forget about "shooting modes & auto" settings! -Start with middle apertures f/8-f/13 as this is the sharpest point of any lens. If you want those starburst light effects you may need a smaller aperture like f/22. -Use low ISO setting (try 100 first and go from there) or so to avoid noise. -I also like motion blur in clouds (not so much in rocking boats like here:-) so you will want a longer exposure time. This is why I try to go for 30s as well. Don't worry about the shot looking good on the camera's LCD screen, it is better to have it brighter than you think it should be and then bring it back during post processing. You will also capture more detail and have less low light noise in the shadows. You: If you have any questions or any tips to add just fire away, I'm always looking to learn new techniques! BTW, I certainly am not trying to come across as some kind of expert or anything but I have had a lot of people message me or ask questions in the comment field so I figured I would just try to pass along a little of what I have learned from some of you great Flickr friends! View Large ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nikon D90 : Nikkor 50mm 1.8D lens : 30seconds @ f/11 : ISO 200