How to do night time photography?

To be more specific, I'm using a Nikon D7000 and I'm trying to capture, christmas lights. So if anyone can help me settings, etc. It would be greatly appreciated.

You need a tripod. Put the camera in manual mode. Shoot in raw mode. If you can use the shutter release cable to minimize the camera shake. You can fix the white balance with the program.

Ryan is giving you good advice. UNless you are shooting people in the shot or something that moves, there's no need to rais your ISO, just lower your shutter speed way down and use a tripod. If you do have people in the shot, use a tripod, flash and a shutter speed of around 1/15 sec

Manual Mode, tripod and for indoor such as this
I used 4 sec shutter speed at f/5.6 at ISO 200 a lot people tend to want to use a higher ISO because it will brighten up the picture, indeed it does but then you will start to lose quality, so if you want better looking pictures use a lower ISO like 200-400 and just use a longer shutter speed. If you have a wireless shutter release defiantly use that, if not then just use the timer mode so as to not move the camera because the shutter will be open for a while. The higher f-stop you have (smaller aperture) the more clear the lights will be, the lower the f-stop (bigger aperture) will make a "starburst" effect. Like everyone else is saying shoot in RAW and I would use the auto setting for the white balance, if you don't like it change in in post process.

TRIPOD! Set camera to manuel focus. You can also try bokeh photography its fun and makes the lights interesting… Make sure you use a large aperature, iso should be at 800 to 1600. Also shoot in raw for better quality and editing later on… Have fun!

http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-take-beautiful-bokeh-christmas-images-with-31-stunning-examples

Your camera will always try to over-expose night shots. You wind up with an orange scene with white lights.
Spot meter on a bright area then under expose from that by 1-2 stops
WHite balance needs to be on tungsten
This type of shot can involve a lot of trial and error to get it right. Take several shots at different exposures till you get it right.

I do night photography with my Nikon D700 and follow the undernoted procedures; note however that the end result is a matter of trial and error but the under-noted should help.

(1) Use a tripod

(2) Take images as RAW. Night time lighting creates a cast which can be adjusted by changing the White Balance. I normally use "Auto" because RAW processing allows the change of White Balance after the image has been taken.

(3) Set ISO / ASA at 200 to minimise grain.

(4) If using VR lens switch the VR facility to <OFF>.

(5) Set the maximum aperture at least 2 stops above camera maximum; if lens is F4 then use f-stops from F8 (i.e 2 stops) onwards.

(6) Use self-timer set at least to 5 seconds to overcome internal camera shake. When the shutter is depressed the internal workings of the camera create movement that the slow speed required for night photography will pick up hence the use of the self-timer to allow that movement to finish before shutter is released.

Be patient and take as many options as you can so that you have the widest selection of images. I would also suggest the use of a zoom les so that you can move perspective without having to move position and reset the camewra.