How to take pictures at night?

I have a Nikon D3100 and i was wondering what settings i should have it to take pictures at night without having to use flash.

Added (1). Do i have to change anything with white balance or ISO or anything like that?

I forgot the name but i think it might be night vision.

An absolute must for any decent night shots is a tripod. A good hefty, sturdy tripod.

After that play with your ISO (lower it) and try longer exposures. It all depends on how much light you have.

You have a couple of choices.

1) Buy the Nikon AF-S 50mm f1.8G lens and use a high ISO - 1600 or 3200. This is about your only option if you're trying to include people.

2) Buy a tripod and use this site to compute your exposures:
http://www.calculator.org/...osure.aspx

I used the Scene 'Distant view of city skyline or floodlit buildings' and ISO 200 for these:

100mm @ f11, exposure of 30 seconds.

200mm @ f11, exposure of 30 seconds.

That would be very difficult to do unless you're using a very good lens or a tripod. Assuming you are using a stock lens, a tripod would be a better option.

the least liked option you do have is to raise the ISO to like 800 and above, but I think your shutter speed will still be too slow ( 1/20 or 1/10) for handheld shots. You have to use a combination of ISO, shutter speed, and apeture to make a good picture. Using flash will save you a bit. I would use flash at like parties and stuff, just get a gary fong diffuser if you don't like the harsh impact

Taking pictures at night means increasing the length of exposure or increasing the sensitivity of the camera sensor, this is done by increasing the iso setting, there's a free video lesson here on the subject http://www.mccordall.com/photography/

In low light condition, you may try any of the following:

1. Increase ISO
2. If you are using flash, increase/decrease Flash output depending on situation and make sure to change the white balance settings to "flash"
3. Open up to the largest aperture.
4. Use a fast lens. Try using wide aperture lenses like, 50mm f/1.4 or 35mm f/1.8
5. Use a tripod and try a slower shutter speed