Yes, a lot of suggestions! Don't shoot at night, when the sky is dark...unless it's in the summer and the sky is clear. (see below) The sky at night is black, and black means no light means no exposure means no photo. If your flash is strong enough, you could shoot interesting scenes at night, but what you want to shoot can not be done at night. (unless you live in a place like Las Vegas, where there's more lights than dark sky). The trick is to shoot just before it get's dark, and so to create the illusion of a night photo. (You know, the moment during dusk when the sky is already blue, but there's still a lot of light far away in the horizon). Long exposure times will make the sky turn lighter, and all lights glow more....and at the same time it will not over expose your photos. Now, during winter dusk only lasts half an hour, or even less...making the perfect time to shoot very, very limited. During the summer the sun is often still able to light up clouds that are high enough all through the night.....with a full moon and a clear, non-foggy/humid night you could make wonderful photos ALL night long!! Try it sometime next summer...especially during those warm nights it's a great thing to do! Also, all shots you do with long exposure times should be done with a tripod.....there's no way to keep your camera steady for a long time. Don't even think about it. On the other hand, try smaller exposure times, like 1/50 to a few seconds first, so you can practice by hand....they just might be long enough for the sort of photos you want to shoot. Another thing I can add is that the type of light you are shooting will also change your photo a lot. Street lights, car lights and neon usually glows a lot with exposure times of 1 second and more, while normal bulb lights won't....not even after 30 seconds. About the ap. it's best to go for the small number. You're exposure times are going to be higher, but that doesn't matter cause you'll use a tripod anyway. The best thing is that your depth of field will be very wide/open, so when shooting with still a bit of light you'll capture the maximum amount of detail (from the front to the back of your photo). But if your photo isn't very deep, you can also go for f/16, f/11 or even open it up a bit more. Last thing to say is to use the automatic shutter option, that you usually use when you want to be in one of your own photos. If you'd press the shutter, even on a tripod, you might press the whole camera down a bit...so put it on auto, wait a couple of seconds...don't touch the camera or tripod and 'click', there's a perfectly sharp photo! Have fun :)