taking pic at night

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i took some pic of london uk, the problem was that all the pic came out
dark,

this is due to the fact that it was night time, i have seen some pic of
london at night but obviously it came out better, i am just wondering to
whether there a setting that i should of put before i took them, i am not
worried bout experimenting, because it is a digital camera, but i dont want
to waste time fiddling with all the settings then forget what settings came
out best