Night photography tips for absolute beginners

I recently started to experimenting with night photography. I've had a Canon T3i camera, with the basic lens that I got with the camera. I had tried taking photos in manual mode before, but the over complicated settings in the manual mode just scared me away from taking photos in that mode. On my recent trip, after having read a little bit about photography, I realized that taking photos in the "av" and "Tv" modes are so much more easier than manual mode.

In tv mode, which stands for time value mode, the user can specify the shutter speed, while the camera adjusts the aperture size to correctly expose the image. Shutter speed is the time for which the shutter is open, when the camera takes the photo. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the shutter is open and more the light that the photo absorbs. Understating shutter speed is critical for taking better photos in low light or at night. For night photography, we need to have a low shutter speed or higher exposure time. This let's the camera absorb more light and makes the image brighter, even during evenings or night time.

While trying to take a photo in low light, you can try using a higher exposure time, like 1 second or more. However, here are some things to keep in your mind :

1. Use a tripod while taking the pic. While taking high exposure shots, like 1" second or more, even if the camera shakes a bit, the picture becomes blurry and distorted. Make sure to use a tripod or place the camera on a flat surface
2. Using a remote is recommended. While pressing the camera button, even when the camera is on a tripod or a flat surface, the camera might move a bit and make the photo blurry. To avoid this, you can put the camera in remote mode and use the remote to click the photos.
3. Increase ISO. I won't go into the details of ISO, but here is one thing to remember about it: As you increase the ISO, the image becomes brighter, but there is also more noise. Most modern cameras can take a nice clean photo at ISO 1600, though.
4. Increase the shutter speed if the photo is coming out to be darker.

Here is a photo I took in Brisbane, one evening.

Here are the camera settings for this photo :
Focal : f/22.0
Shutter speed: 2.5"
ISO: 800

Another cool tip is, if you see street lights, you can make them look like stars, by increasing the exposure time. Here is a photo of the bridge with street lights and a low exposure time (1/25th of a second):

Here is a similar pic with a higher exposure time ( 1 sec) :

If you notice the street lights, they look like stars

And with 2.5 seconds :

You get bigger stars with more exposure time.