DCL Picture of the Day - Part 3

[Disneyfalcon]

Just got back from a gorgeous week to Tortola on the Magic. Got a ton of pics to sort through and process. Ugh.

Here's one of the atrium to start things off.

Stunning!

 

[Cheryl726]

That is a great pic!!

 

[mmmears]

Gorgeous photo!!!

 

[JOCAmom]

That is an absolutely gorgeous picture!

 

[KayR]

Just got back from a gorgeous week to Tortola on the Magic. Got a ton of pics to sort through and process. Ugh.

Here's one of the atrium to start things off.

Woj,

Awesome photo. What program do you use to process your pictures? Do you take them in RAW?

-Kay

 

[dolphingirl47]

Just got back from a gorgeous week to Tortola on the Magic. Got a ton of pics to sort through and process. Ugh.

Here's one of the atrium to start things off.

That is an absolutely gorgeous photo. What makes me even happier is that in less than 2 weeks I can see this again in person.

Corinna

 

[woj68]

Thanks everyone.

Woj,

Awesome photo. What program do you use to process your pictures? Do you take them in RAW?

-Kay

Thanks Kay. This is a 3-shot exposure shot in RAW then processed using Photomatix. I then open them in Photoshop CS4 to clean them up a bit.

If you happened to be walking the ship around 6:00am on sea days I was the dork walking around the ship with his tripod taking pictures.

 

[woj68]

 

[dbenlee]

Goodnight...

 

[dolphingirl47]

Goodnight...

Those photos are absolutely amazing.

Corinna

 

[momof2minnies]

WOW beautiful pictures!

 

[hgon76]

These pics are amazing!!! DCL marketing & advertising seriously needs to get in touch with the people who take these! What awesome pics to include on their website, brochures, etc.......... Those responsible should be on DCL payroll......Or at the very least maybe a cruise discount

 

[KayR]

Thanks everyone.



Thanks Kay. This is a 3-shot exposure shot in RAW then processed using Photomatix. I then open them in Photoshop CS4 to clean them up a bit.

If you happened to be walking the ship around 6:00am on sea days I was the dork walking around the ship with his tripod taking pictures.

If I had realized you were onboard last week I would have sought you out and picked your brains! I have just got a used dSLR and am starting to play with it. Would have loved the opportunity to learn from you!

Would you recommend Photmatix for processing, or what's that other one I heard mentioned, Topaz something?

-Kay

 

[mmmears]

Thanks everyone.



Thanks Kay. This is a 3-shot exposure shot in RAW then processed using Photomatix. I then open them in Photoshop CS4 to clean them up a bit.

If you happened to be walking the ship around 6:00am on sea days I was the dork walking around the ship with his tripod taking pictures.

I wish I understood what you mean... It's like a foreign language... I love your photos and am hoping to get my first DSLR before our first cruise next April and I can only hope to take one photo that is 1/10 as good as the ones you take!

 

[woj68]

If I had realized you were onboard last week I would have sought you out and picked your brains! I have just got a used dSLR and am starting to play with it. Would have loved the opportunity to learn from you!

Would you recommend Photmatix for processing, or what's that other one I heard mentioned, Topaz something?

-Kay

I have both. But if you plan on doing HDR photography I would go with Photomatix. If you just want to spice up an individual photo I would go with Topaz.

I wish I understood what you mean... It's like a foreign language... I love your photos and am hoping to get my first DSLR before our first cruise next April and I can only hope to take one photo that is 1/10 as good as the ones you take!

Sorry...here's a better explanation.

 

[mmmears]

Sorry...here's a better explanation.

Thanks! I really enjoyed reading about it! It's also helpful since I've been looking for a Nikon (I think the D90).

 

[tjbaggott]

WOJ68, the photo above taken ON DECK, can you give the specifications used. I'm also a new SLR camera owner. Picked myself up a Canon Rebel XSI last June. Gearing up for our Disney Land and Sea vacation in just 5 more weeks! I've pretty much mastered indoor shots but only when using a flash.
Regarding the above photo, were set in manual, A-DEP, AV, TV or P. Did you use a flash? I'm assuming no, what was your metering set at, ISO, Shutter speed ect.... I notice how nothing in the foreground, background or at the sides, is blurry, so would that be because your aperture was set perfect, or because you had the camera set to not focus on one thing in particular?
I realize you won't have time to give this detail for every photo you end up posting here, but if you have time to help me with this particular one. I will focus on that for the next couple of days to master some great outdoors photos. Knowing what the settings were for this one in particular will really help me out. Thanks for whatever you can tell me.
Beautiful by the way, and can't wait to see more from you!

Oh, I just checked out the link you gave up above, GREAT INFO! Thanks! I think I might actually invest in Photomatix. Do photos have to be taken RAW in order to use photomatix?

 

[woj68]

WOJ68, the photo above taken ON DECK, can you give the specifications used. I'm also a new SLR camera owner. Picked myself up a Canon Rebel XSI last June. Gearing up for our Disney Land and Sea vacation in just 5 more weeks! I've pretty much mastered indoor shots but only when using a flash.
Regarding the above photo, were set in manual, A-DEP, AV, TV or P. Did you use a flash? I'm assuming no, what was your metering set at, ISO, Shutter speed ect.... I notice how nothing in the foreground, background or at the sides, is blurry, so would that be because your aperture was set perfect, or because you had the camera set to not focus on one thing in particular?
I realize you won't have time to give this detail for every photo you end up posting here, but if you have time to help me with this particular one. I will focus on that for the next couple of days to master some great outdoors photos. Knowing what the settings were for this one in particular will really help me out. Thanks for whatever you can tell me.
Beautiful by the way, and can't wait to see more from you!

Thanks for the compliment. OK, here goes.

First of all, this didn't come out of the camera looking this way. It's an HDR photo . If you're not sure what I mean by this you can learn more here. I wouldn't have been able to achieve this look without it. For example, if I exposed for the deck then the sky would've been blown out. If I were to expose for the sky then the deck would've been too dark. So I use HDR instead to get the proper exposure across the whole scene.

My settings:
- auto-bracketed three shots (-2, 0, +2 EV) set on a tripod (use the camera's timer or a wired/wireless remote to trigger the shutter to avoid any camera shake.
- f/10 at 100 ISO
- center-weighted metering
- HDR software to process the three bracketed shots. I prefer to use Photomatix
- The photo will come out looking a little flat and lifeless after running it through Photomatix so I use Photoshop brighten it up a bit with a little color saturation, contrast and sharpening.

Hope this helps more than confuses.

 

[CrystalS]

At Castaway Cay on Sept 12th 2009

**I was very disipointed in the new camera I bought for this trip! I got a small 10mp waterproof camera so I wouldn't have to tote my large Canon DSLR, but I wish I had just brought it, our photos didn't get much better quality than the photo above

 

[tjbaggott]

Thanks for the compliment. OK, here goes.

First of all, this didn't come out of the camera looking this way. It's an HDR photo . If you're not sure what I mean by this you can learn more here. I wouldn't have been able to achieve this look without it. For example, if I exposed for the deck then the sky would've been blown out. If I were to expose for the sky then the deck would've been too dark. So I use HDR instead to get the proper exposure across the whole scene.

My settings:
- auto-bracketed three shots (-2, 0, +2 EV) set on a tripod (use the camera's timer or a wired/wireless remote to trigger the shutter to avoid any camera shake.
- f/10 at 100 ISO
- center-weighted metering
- HDR software to process the three bracketed shots. I prefer to use Photomatix
- The photo will come out looking a little flat and lifeless after running it through Photomatix so I use Photoshop brighten it up a bit with a little color saturation, contrast and sharpening.

Hope this helps more than confuses.

That definately helps. Thank you. I did check out that site, and it explains a lot. I checked my camera and YES it does have the Bracketing so I did some test shots to see the 3 different exposures. WOW, identical photos but the lighting in each just slightly different from each other. I talked to my teen daughter who took photography at school last year, and she did try out photomatix at school. She says she prefers photo shop as it's not as complicated. I think she just didn't understand what photomatix really does. I found a great tutorial for it on line and based on that, it sounds simple enough to me. So I think I will buy it. Do all pictures have to be in RAW format in order to use photomatix?