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f I just want to put the camera at night at the corner of a street to get long exposure effect of the cars that are moving for their car lights, What is the focus settings I should use? Should I also focus on something?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Be careful how you say that, esp. in certain US cities. The answer to the other interpretation would be "on the driver". \$\endgroup\$
    – paul
    Commented Jan 22, 2015 at 2:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ ^^^^^ Took me a while to get that :-D \$\endgroup\$
    – Digital Lightcraft
    Commented Jan 22, 2015 at 10:49

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In general, you'd want to focus on a spot midway, to slightly closer than midway, between near and far objects of interest. So, if your shot includes cars 1-4 blocks away, focus on a car ~2 blocks away.

You'll also want to increase your aperture so that more of your pictures are in focus. How much you can increase it depends on the amount of ambient light and how much noise your camera generates. Start with an aperture of ~f8 and go from there.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ took unusable shots last night :( because I increased the ISO to 3200, apparently I should have lowered done the ISO to 100 or something. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brandon
    Commented Jan 22, 2015 at 13:54
  • \$\begingroup\$ What makes the photos unusable? If one wanted to capture headlights in a long exposure, focus isn't the first set of variables to pay attention to, exposure is. \$\endgroup\$
    – TroyR
    Commented Jan 22, 2015 at 21:11

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