I took my new Nikon D7500 out yesterday and its my first DSLR. I would like to get some thoughts on shooting sharp photos in low light conditions with it.
I was shooting after sunset but before nightfall in a park. Since the lighting was changing rapidly, I set the camera to Aperture mode and tried setting the aperture high since I was shooting landscape. But unless I brought it down to around 3.5-4 I couldn't get anything. When I did so, the shutter speed was coming down to 1/8 of a second or 1/3 of a second and at times even 1 second. When I tried manual again the shutter speed had to be this low to have the metering display be at 0. I didn't have a tripod. So I believe that was one reason why I couldn't get sharp photos. I had the ISO around 3200 and sometimes even 6400. Still I couldn't increase the shutter speed more than 1/8.
In such conditions, how can I shoot sharper pics? Most of the pics I took were blurry or shaken. I was using a Nikkor 18-140mm kit lens. Is this a restriction of the lens or can I do better with my settings? Any advice would be much appreciated.