I find, some of the tricky things about shooting at night are: what camera we’re using, the speed and whether or not we have ‘steady hands’

For these shots, we used DSLR, manually set.

If you’re using a compact camera, you should go for ‘night mode’ setting, with flash. The pic will turn out slightly yellowish most likely, and if you’re shooting kids who find it hard to stay still hehe … errr … that’s a tough one Unless you want to experiment and try what I did here:
http://www.oureverydaythings.com/2008/01/photography-light-trails/ (ie. use flash, night mode setting, shoot while focusing on the object throughout)

If you use the normal setting with flash, as you said, the object will be brightly lit, but the background will sure be black.

Oh btw, photos on my blog also go through some colour-enhancement process to achieve the kind of look and feel I wish to have …

Thanks for dropping by and sharing the link!

Gimana caranya foto di mlm hari spy bisa sebagus ini tanpa pakai camera DSLR? Krn kalau pakai flash biasa pasti orgnya aja yg terang & backgroundnya cuma gelap saja (tdk bisa dpt purple lighting spt itu). Kalau pakai yg night snapshot hrs pakai tripod yah? Dan susah juga krn kalau objectnya ada yg gerak juga langsung kelihatan deh goyangannya, apalagi fotoin anak2 kan susah utk ask them to stay still..

So, please share with me how you get such a good picture?