DCL Picture of the Day - Part 4

[pointandshoot]

 

[Disney Dreams]

^^^ LOVE this! ^^^

 

[Disney Dreams]

Hi,

I really like this picture, as well as others you have shared. I was hoping you might offer some photographic pointers. I have almost this same photo, but it is nowhere near as vibrant and the colors are slightly different. Could you share how you took this and if you did any special effects / editing to it after? Thank you. Trying to learn and improve my photography.

- Dreams

 

[pointandshoot]

Hi,

I really like this picture, as well as others you have shared. I was hoping you might offer some photographic pointers. I have almost this same photo, but it is nowhere near as vibrant and the colors are slightly different. Could you share how you took this and if you did any special effects / editing to it after? Thank you. Trying to learn and improve my photography.

- Dreams

Thanks for the compliment. This was my family's first Disney cruise. I love to shoot in the parks. Now I am hooked on cruising with the new opportunities and Disney subjects to explore.

The technique is called HDR or High Dynamic Range. Essentially, your eyes see a wider rangle of light than a camera can capture. Ever shoot a landscape picture and the sky is all white in the picture when your eyes could see clouds? Or the dark area of the picture is black or has little details when you could see the details in the shadows.

What you do is set-up your camera on a tripod. You then shoot a series of photos keeping the aperture the same and changing the shutter. The goal is to get a set of pictures making darker and lighter versions of the same image. Then you combined the darker and lighter versions with one shot exposed as you thought was best overall. You use a tool like Photoshop or Photmatix.

When you combined the images, you get a picture that has the details in the dark areas combined with the details from the brightest area. It also tends to really saturate the colors of the picture. Much debate is on if these images look too "processed" and not real. I try to make mine more colorful representations of the subject but everyone has different tastes.

Not knowing your experience level and avoiding doing a complete tutorial, you can google HDR to see some examples of how this is done. Also, feel free to pm me. I am glad to walk you through this and help the Disney family.

Below is a sample of the images I used to make the final picture. I shot 5 images in total and used Photomatix with some small adjustments in Photoshop.

Chuck


Normal Exposure

My Brightest Exposure

My Darkest Exposure

 

[PrincessShmoo]

 

[Evad]

 

[pointandshoot]

 

[maria-fan-22]

That is Beautiful!

 

[pointandshoot]

 

[bevtoy]

 

[pointandshoot]

 

[Evad]

Great shots Chuck!!! Well done.

 

[pointandshoot]

Great shots Chuck!!! Well done.

Thanks Dave. I admire the photos you have posted over the years. You are top notch.

Chuck

 

[PrincessShmoo]

 

[SA53]

I am just curious what time you are all taking the great pictures with no bodies in them? I am a night owl so I hope I don't have to get up at 5:00 am to get all these great shots!

In awe of you masters,

K in SA

 

[bevtoy]

snorkeling at Grand Cayman sailingDisney Magic

 

[Evad]

Thanks Dave. I admire the photos you have posted over the years. You are top notch.

Chuck

Wow thank you so much Chuck!!


One for today.....

 

[Evad]

I am just curious what time you are all taking the great pictures with no bodies in them? I am a night owl so I hope I don't have to get up at 5:00 am to get all these great shots!

In awe of you masters,

K in SA

My shot above was taken at 10:30 at night.

 

[ssanders79]

I am just curious what time you are all taking the great pictures with no bodies in them? I am a night owl so I hope I don't have to get up at 5:00 am to get all these great shots!

In awe of you masters,

K in SA

Like Evad says the night is great. However, I tend to get up early when on a cruise because I'm not used to the bed the first few nights.

The bonus about getting up at 5 AM or earlier aside from an empty ship is that you are in can continue to shoot the exterior around sunrise.

 

[Kim&Chris]

Wow thank you so much Chuck!!


One for today.....

What a beautiful picture!! They really should have put the same type of pool on the Dream!!