Boo to You Photography Nikon D3100

[abidale]

Hi all! I have a Nikon D3100 and was hoping to get some decent pictures of the Boo to You parade. I know with the kit lens they won't be too great, but do any of you have suggestions for the best settings to have it on for the best pictures possible with what I have? Thanks!!!

 

[SureAsLiz]

(preface to say my technical knowledge is minimal. I'm still new to DSLR photography)

I have a Nikon D5200 and the kit lens and pretty much just opened everything up.

ISO was at 6400. Aperture was as large as it would go. Shutter speed was 40-80 depending on the unit.

The actual floats are all well lit, the ground performers are not. On Friday I got some great shots. I was outside the Hall of Presidents and the area was really well lit. On Sunday outside Country Bears the lighting was terrible and most of my photos were terrible.

 

[Quellman]

I agree with @SureAsLiz . The location choice for the parade viewing is just as important as the settings. Is there enough light that you won't be seeing tons of other people's flash in the photos? Is there an interesting background or can you easily get it out of focus if there are too many people in it? Are you only going to be able to get photos perpendicular to the parade or shots as it is coming towards you? Will you be at ground level or standing? Don't be afraid to not take a picture. We did both parades from 2 different locations and ended up with quite different experiences. One was in Fronteirland at ground level. This was more for dancing characters. (I didn't pay attention to my own advice as the lighting was pretty bad there!) The second time was more for the floats and characters on the floats as we shot from one of the Fast Pass viewing areas in the Hub so we were higher up. Sorry I don't have any photos to share as of yet since we just got back. But based on my rough glance, I am really excited about the Hitchhiking Ghosts.

Also, don't be afraid to not take a picture of something. It's ok to just enjoy the show!

 

[katt789]

As someone who was new to dslr photography this time last year and did as well as I could, (though I use Canon, here are my tips/tricks) (and this is probably WAY too late, but hey, there's always next year or other nighttime stuff!)

-WHERE you shoot is going to be the most important, pretty much everywhere in Frontierland is completely darkened, if you must shoot there, find a spot with a spotlight. Main St is better, but tricky because of all the mood lighting on the buildings, my personal favorite to shoot in is under the train station, or across the street from there, best spot was standing under the train station off to the right hand side near that garbage can, facing the parade as it came.

-Don't use flash, it'll wash the photos out and make them not look as nice.

-Bump up that ISO, but personally I find it adds way too much noise if you go above 3200
-Widen the aperture as wide as possible (lowest number) this is where the kit lens gets tricky, mine was okay, but once I got the 2.8 lens it was a million times better, it was a knockoff brand so I'm super excited to try with my actual canon lens that opens to 1.8!!
-Shoot in aperture priority can help too, this way you have less to worry about as the camera will do the shutter speed for you
-Aim for the WHITE light, and shoot, and shoot a LOT
-Dancing performers and floats will need potentially different settings, usually the floats are pretty well lit while the dancers need more light.
-The waltzers, and the cowboys are so hard to shoot thanks to them moving so fast and so much, ie, higher shutter speed there.
-We also found that the fur characters came out a lot clearer in shots than any of the face characters/dancers

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr f 2.0, shutter 1/100, 35mm lens, 3200 ISO

Settings the same on this one, but the ISO was only 1600
Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

I also use the adobe photoshop express app to edit my photos before I instagram them (they are NOT edited with it on this post/flickr) it is AMAZING, my pictures, especially nighttime ones are WAY better after using it. I did try to find some pictures with my kit lens but I appear to have not liked them enough to put them on flickr. Lol. Happy haunting.