Street Lamp Photography exposure? Higher ISO & Lower Shutter Speed or Lower ISO & Higher Shutter Speed?

I'm struggling to get the correct amount of exposure. Street Lamp lit area has enough light. But in shadow ares i'm having a hard time recovering detail. I do not want to go really high in ISO as I have a crop sensor. Lens is wide open at f2.8. When I try to get more detail with a higher shutter speed 1/10 I get too much flaring around the lamp? What is the best way to go about it?

ISO 800 , 1/30 and f8 woudl that be a better way to get aroudn it? My nikon d5300 shows too much noise after 800 ISO

There's a limit upon the dynamic range any camera can capture. Also upon the human eye but the brain does some clever processing on-the-fly to get around that.

You need to do a similar trick to the brain, by taking at least two photos from exactly the same viewpoint: one exposes for the lamp, the other for the shadows. Many photographers will also take a third image which exposes just for the mid-tones. Combine them afterwards in software to form a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image.

Some cameras will do that for you "in body" but you have far less creative control over how it works compared to doing it yourself.

The answer by Rosteriark covers things of which I have no experience but I'm sure it is a good answer that will give you the shadow detail you want.

I doubt whether your lens flare is related to the longer exposure. It is more likely to be related to the aperture, to the angle between you and the light source and to the characteristics of the lens you are using. A polarising filter could help reduce flare from the light source provided you compensate in the exposure.

If an exposure for 1/10 second at f2.8 is not giving you acceptable shadow detail, then 1/30 second at f8 certainly won't unless you greatly increase the ISO which, as you note, will introduce noise. (Did you mean 1/100 second at f2.8?).

I answered this when you asked it in the Photography category. You are going to need to do HDR style photos to do what you want.

First off, realize that street lights are going to be blown out as they should. They're light sources, so the light area within the lamp should not show detail. However, this is not to say that the lens falre should completely obscure the light fixture itself. Also, the lower/slower shutter speeds means longer times. So using a higher ISO with longer times will result in overexposure. Lower ISO with higher shutter speeds will result in underexposure. If you increase your ISO and keep your f/stop the same, then your shutter speed must increase in order to prevent over exposure. Conversely if you decrease your ISO and keep the f/stop the same while increasing the shutter speed, this will result in underexposure.

You have a few options to achieve the desired results:

1) Using a tripod set your ISO to 100 because at ISO 100 you will have more dynamic range, less noise and much better contrast than shooting at a higher ISO let alone ISO 800. Expose for the highlights, let your shadows fall where they will and then open up the shadows in post. You must shoot RAW and not JPEG in order to get the amount of adjustment that you need in order to open up the shadows without getting too much noise and artifacts. RAW files have all of the data that you'll need in order to open up the shadows. JPEG delete all of that data which is one reason why they're so much smaller files. In fact converting from 12-bit RAW file to a JPEG requires that you throw out 94% of the data!

2) Shoot using the high-dynamic range (HDR) method with the camera set to ISO 100 - This must be done on a tripod regardless of the exposure as each image needs have the same framing for the best results. Take one shot at normal indicated exposure, one at 1 stop over and another 2 stops over indicated exposure. Then take two more shots at -1 and -2 stops under indicated exposure. Of course you first need to ensure that your "indicated" exposure is correct, meaning that middle gray tones such as green foliage/grass is being properly exposed. Then use software to combine the various images into one image with details in the highlights and shadow areas.

You can make the above process even easier by using your camera's exposure bracketing function. If you do, then use aperture priority because the depth of field must the same with all of the images. If you use auto or shutter priority, the aperture won't be the same with all of the images and you'll have problems later on in post.

Both options require that you must use a tripod. No tripod? Then set the camera somewhere where it'll be 100% still during each shot and not move between shots.

If you want that starburst effect in the streetlamp, then shoot it at a high f/stop such as f/22. Of course, f/22 is going to be less sharp than shooting at, say, f/8. So shoot the scene at equivalent exposure with the lens set to, say for example, f/8. Then just blend the starburst from the f/22 shot into the other image taken with a larger f/stop.