>>39304What kinda camera are you shooting with?
I'm at about 10:1 ... for every 10 shots I take, I get one good one. Some days more, some days less.
Autofocus isn't bad, if you know how to use it. At night, I generally manual-focus to ∞ and lock it there. If there's something closer that I'm trying to get, switch to spot-focus rather than area... On both my Nikon and Sony, there's a little [ ] area that's highlighted on the screen/viewfinder that tells you where the camera's trying to focus. Use a flashlight to light up something with contrast, half-press the shutter or toggle to manual to lock focus, turn off your flashlight, recompose the shot if necessary, then press the shutter all the way.
With long exposures, it's helpful to use either a wireless release or the self-timer on a tripod.
