External flashes

[Master Mason]

I use no flash, the floats were designed to be seen in the dark, when you flash them you make things your not supposed to be seeing visible...

Open your apeture as wide as possible, raise the ISO as high as possible, and see what your shutter speed is, you'll need at least 1/125, 1/250 is better to freeze the action, if you can't get that, find a spot on the route where the floats stop....

 

[Groucho]

I agree... most stuff at Disney that's in the dark is designed to be seen in the dark. Harsh flash will make it look worse, with things like the poles that the characters are often chained to being painfully obvious. Things in the foreground will also be unnaturally bright while things in the background will be unnaturally dark. Unfortunately, point-n-shoots by and large struggle to capture a shot of the parades without the flash (and with it, often), so use the tips that Gregg posted, fire away, and hope for some good ones in the bunch.

That being said, I think 1/90th is plenty fast enough for a shutter speed, maybe even 1/60th if you're lucky, but then again, I haven't seen the MVMCP parade myself so I'm not sure how animated it is.

 

[SharonLowe]

The parade is relatively dark for a nighttime one. Best to try to find a location where there are some external light sources. If you are willing to wait for a long time, near the castle on the outer ring of the circle is a good place to sit but you need to be on the outer ring, not the inner ring. The spot is near the walkway to Tomorrowland. I am sure there are others but I know that one because we were on the inner ring in front of it and it made phototaking a real challenge.

 

[boBQuincy]

I like a little fill flash for some of these parades. As noted, you don't want to use so much flash that some of the intentionally hidden things are brightly lit. As with photo editing, if it is done right it should not be obvious that anything was even done.

On many cameras the flash power is adjustable, mine can go to -2 stops (even less with some trickery). At that point the flash only fills in some of the shadows caused by the main lights being up high, but doesn't overpower the main lighting. When done right it is not noticeable that a flash was used.

 

[orchjoe]

So I got my canon remote on Friday and I went out and took some shots last night:

f/9 ISO 200 18mm 8/1

f/9 ISO 200 55mm 4/1

f/9 ISO 200 55mm 4/1

f/3.5 ISO 200 18mm 4/10

f/5.6 ISO 200 55mm 4/10
(I had to increase the exposure time when I processed this one)


I shot the building (local courthouse) using shutter priority and the streaks with the cars in manual with bulb mode.

My question

1. My pictures turned out really warm (WB was set to auto) and I took some of it out when I proccessed I adjusted it to Tungsten. When shooting low light (like the courthouse or other buildings) what should I go with for white balance to?

 

[MICKEY88]

shooting low light isn't what effects the color balance, it is the color temperature of the lights, in most situations tungsten works, however some scenes have different lights, such as there can be tungsten and mercury vapor, so there really isn't a one setting cure all,

the best thing to do is shoot raw, then color correct/adjust white balance to your liking,

I shoot a lot of pics of The Pennsylvania Capitol Building, I shoot raw/jpeg,

what I like to do is shoot a few of each shot, with different WB and exposure, just to see what different looks i can get.. as has been stated in other threads recently, sometimes the perfect exposure and white balance don't yield the most interesting picture...

you can check out this folder of capitol shots to get an idea of how I like to play with the lighting and WB.

http://www.starrrshots.com/p18678179/

you will also notice that different parts of the Capitol are lit by different types of lights, so no matter what WB I use the building is 2 different colors

 

[orchjoe]

I have only been shooting RAW a couple of months now and I love the versatility of it. I used to shoot just .jpg but that is out the window now. I am learning more by processing my pictures also.

When you are shooting low light like the capital building in your area does the histogram on your pictures center well? It seemed like the lighting was enough on the courthouse above but then the histogram image everything is riding to the left.

 

[SharonLowe]

When I shoot at night in a city with sodium vapor lights (those lovely orange glowing ones that I hate so much), I either set my WB to Tungsten or I use my ExpoDisk to set a custom white balance. I also try to get as many during the magic hour too - 30 minutes before and after sunset/sunrise. Then, before sunrise and after sunset, you get those pretty blue skies you see in many night city images. Also, you get a bit more separation for your subject.

The last one might look really nice in B&W.

 

[Groucho]

If you're shooting raw, you can also try a few different white balance settings and decide which works the best for any given photo. Lightroom makes this really easy as you can drag a slider back and forth and see the results in real time, but you can do it with most any raw converter, just process with a few different WB settings.

 

[MICKEY88]

I think the pics in this folder will show you the pretty blue skies Sharon was talking about

http://www.starrrshots.com/p1053022151/

 

[°O°Joe]

I hadn't realized that the Nikon D40 cannot utilize an auto focus fast lens... I've discovered the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 at BeachCamera - but it won't auto focus with the D40. I'm looking for something that's quick enough (without using the 3200ISO) to capture some of the dark rides / shows. I don't know, being a beginner in the DSLR realm, if the manual focusing lens will be too much for me to handle...

Any suggestions?

TIA...

 

[webshark3]

you may find that on a dark ride, manual focus is required. AF will try to hunt too much....

 

[YEKCIM]

Joe, I believe the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 will AF on the D40; it goes for around $400 online, though, so it's kinda' pricey. I have a 50/1.8 Nikkor that I've used on the "dark" rides at WDW with some success but some of the rides are *so* dark that even at f/1.8, it's a challenge to get a keeper. I guess it's a matter of how important it is to get shots on those rides that would determine how much one would be willing to spend for a lens fast enough to get the shot.

~Ed

 

[°O°Joe]

you may find that on a dark ride, manual focus is required. AF will try to hunt too much....

So if I used a this lens and had to manual focus it on say, a Pirate on PotC, how quickly can it be done? I've never used this type of lens before... I didn't know if it was just a single ring on the outside that you turn until the subject appears focused??

 

[Gdad]

Here is a list of compatible lenses:

http://www.nikonians.org/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?az=read_count&om=16715&forum=DCForumID201

 

[Gdad]

A faster lens (lower f-number) will auto focus better in low light situations. Also try to lock in the focus point on a bright spot or high contrast area.

 

[°O°Joe]

Thanks Jeff - I like the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC but it's also a $400 lens, which is a lot more than I was looking to spend. The Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 had me excited at $100 until I found out that it won't auto focus with the D40... Those are good focusing tips for auto focus... but I'd still like to know how difficult manual focusing would be with the Nikkor 50mm on a dark ride...

 

[handicap18]

A few of the rides move pretty quick. There are a few where they slow down or stop like on TGMR at MGM and you might be able to get some shots with manual focus.

Other rides are way to dark like HM. Even PotC is real tough. I have the 30mm f/1.4 lens and only got a few decent shots on Pirates and only 1 good shot on HM. Even at ISO1600 at f/1.4 many times my shutter speed was 1/30th or slower and I got blurry shots from the boat moving.

IASM should be bright enough. Pooh is iffy. Peter Pan is near impossible. Grand Fiesta in Mexico might be doable. Don't know about Snow White.

With Spectromagic you should do ok so long as you try to keep the subject about the same distance away from you. Once you get a focus, then the other floats that come by at that point should be a quick focus. Though even that parade I was surprised at how fast it moves.

 

[°O°Joe]

A few of the rides move pretty quick. There are a few where they slow down or stop like on TGMR at MGM and you might be able to get some shots with manual focus.

Other rides are way to dark like HM. Even PotC is real tough. I have the 30mm f/1.4 lens and only got a few decent shots on Pirates and only 1 good shot on HM. Even at ISO1600 at f/1.4 many times my shutter speed was 1/30th or slower and I got blurry shots from the boat moving.

IASM should be bright enough. Pooh is iffy. Peter Pan is near impossible. Grand Fiesta in Mexico might be doable. Don't know about Snow White.

With Spectromagic you should do ok so long as you try to keep the subject about the same distance away from you. Once you get a focus, then the other floats that come by at that point should be a quick focus. Though even that parade I was surprised at how fast it moves.

Thanks for your help Kyle... I think I'm going to save the $100 and just skip pictures on dark rides... as much as I hate to say it. I just don't know if it's worth the extra cost, and then if they don't turn out anyway I don't really have any other uses for a lens like that.

 

[YEKCIM]

I think I'm going to save the $100 and just skip pictures on dark rides...

Joe,

I was going to suggest that very thing. I used my D50-50mm f/1.8 combo on the dark rides in July and my overall impression was that I mostly wasted my time and would have been better off to have just sat back and enjoyed the ride with my family than to have seen the whole thing thru the viewfinder. The pix I got, even with ISO 1600 and the above equipment were NOT worth the effort.

~Ed