All New Picture of the Day Thread - 01/25/2008

[STEAMBOAT209]

 

[tinkerbell87512]

Good morning everyone! Almost Friday!

Continuing on with my BBB theme....

Very cool scrapbookersdis that you saw a picture of your son. Sounds like hes had a great year doing the cp.

 

[tx2tn]

POTD

 

[EeyoreFan1]

Amazing pictures all!

Here's another one from my "crappy camera" collection. Only 65 days until I go back to the world to some good ones!

 

[senecabeach]

Morning...Thanks for all the compliments everyone.
missing this parade already..

 

[ortholablady]

 

[marypops!]

 

[declansdad]

I have heard about it but never seen it. Thanks for the picture, we will have to look for it next trip.

No problem. When you enter the building, it is on the right, underneath the mat in front of the closed box office.

here is more muppets

 

[Berni'sDH]

Jammitors Jason, Paul and Dale at Epcot:

 

[°O°Joe]

SC Mouse Fan, cool Lights, Motors, Action shot!

wdwensel, very nice castle at night shot...

alliesmommy, very nice Donald parade picture - great colors and clarity!

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Cool Main Street shot, Joe. It looks like it was made with a film camera back in the 60s or 70s. Nice creative processing! ~Ed

Thanks Ed... the last couple days I've been trying to recreate that look without making it too obvious. Some pictures it doesn't really look good on, but I thought this one looked pretty good...

Joe, your photo inside the Haunted Mansion is so great, it's unbelievable.

What is the "secret" to getting those good photo's in the dark rides?

Usually I get lots of blurry dark pictures. It seems if I keep the camera shutter open longer than I have movement and blur, and if the camera shutter is quick than it's too dark. I even have problems getting the settings right for the night time parades.
So far my only successful method is to take lots and lots of photo's in hopes that I get a couple of good ones.

Thank you Robert TG! Overall I was not very happy with the turn out of some of the darker ride photos I took. Namely Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan's Flight and Pirates of the Caribbean... Jeff (Gdad) and Joseph (We-Luv-Disney) have shown some fantastic shots from those rides and would probably be better ones to ask. I'll give you what I know though... First of all, since you can't use flash on these rides, you have to make use of what little light is available, which is the biggest problem - there's hardly any. A fast lens (like the 30mm f1.4) really helps for this. Open up the aperature all the way to 1.4 and use aperature priority mode to keep it there. Next, hike your ISO up almost to the point where there is more noise than detail. This is the part I don't like because I like to see lots of detail, but for the most part it's just not gonna happen on these shots. Although I have seen some low noise high detail shots that are amazing - I haven't figured out how they do it. On a dSLR this is normally ISO1600 or even ISO3200. You'll be lucky to get a decent shot out of ISO800 on most P&S's. This last tip I figured out towards the end of the trip. Most of these dark rides, especially the ones I mentioned above, are hard to get a good focus lock because of the low light contrast available. I constantly found myself with my camera focus seeking, which can be frusterating when everything looks good through the viewfinder and the camera won't take the picture... I found a focus mode on my camera that is bracket weighted, but will go elsewhere if need be. I think it is intended for action shots. The downside to this is sometimes it will focus on something different then what you want, but at least you get the shot... hope this helps, I'm learning though, and for the most part the Haunted Mansion pic was a lucky shot. (Sorry this is so long everyone, probably should have PM'd...)

Jeez, can't you be more creative with your location!?!? JUST KIDDING!! I always love your shots. You have amazing talent with this, along with soooo many others on this board!

I love the effects you used on this one and the frame is very nice too.

Thanks guys!

Thanks Joe! That is a great place to take pictures from. Now if they could only get rid of that flag pole.

Actually, if they got rid of the flag pole, I might not ever leave the train station.

Yeah, I hear ya. Actually, though, if you stand in just the right spot and zoom in a little you can get some pretty decent shots sans flag pole...

 

[°O°Joe]

 

[Berni'sDH]

Beautiful pic Joe
Here is mine for today...snapped this one on my way to the Fort Wilderness campgrounds....

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL capture on your 40D! Were you using a 70-200mm IS lens, or a prime? You have a real eye for composition.

-Alan

 

[racheljessicasara]

 

[porknbeans]

Joe, I'm glad you posted the information on the low level lights. Being a below average amateur picture taker, I've often wondered how to do it. Thank you for sharing this information.

 

[We-Luv-Disney]

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL capture on your 40D! Were you using a 70-200mm IS lens, or a prime? You have a real eye for composition.

-Alan

Thanks Alan!! This was shot with the 70-200 f4 IS...I love this lens for low light!!

 

[quiltymom]

 

[Anne's Family]

Well... just little 'ole me and my point n shoot Panasonic DMC-TZ3. I have fun anyway! No plans to get a new one.

The Pet Cemetary on the way out of Haunted Mansion. They've got Mr. Toad's grave with a statue of him as a headstone! I thought this was the coolest thing ever. He really is dead and never coming back (unless, by chance, he's on a soap opera).

 

[scrapbookersdis]

That's a great explanation, Joe. A fast lens with image stabilization is a plus, too. (Though you can do pretty darn well with an inexpensive prime lens.) An additional step that a lot of low light photographers take is the use of Noise Ninja software to eliminate a lot of the "speckles" in post processing.

And often the key to the perfect low light photo is ride stoppage in the right place. If you see someone on a scooter arrive at a queue as you are boarding, thank your lucky stars!

A fast lens (like the 30mm f1.4) really helps for this. Open up the aperature all the way to 1.4 and use aperature priority mode to keep it there. Next, hike your ISO up almost to the point where there is more noise than detail. [/B]

Sharla

 

[Alacrity]

 

[alliesmommy]

alliesmommy, very nice Donald parade picture - great colors and clarity!

Thanks Joe! I took it with my new toy, my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI......I have no idea how to use it! LOL.