Help us get these shots...please

[scuba]

So here they are in order of importance

1.) MNSSHP headless horseman.

2.) Tinkerbell on that darn wishes cable at night

Here is what we have to work with

1.) Nikon D600 with a tripod

2.) Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 full frame.

3.) obviously willing to buy anything extra (not a D3x or 4) to get the shots

Thanks

 

[Pea-n-Me]

What is your experience level?

 

[scuba]

What is your experience level?

advanced recreational, prior camera was a Nikon D70S with a small sensor and it just didn't have the ability to make the shot. f/2.8 on the lens and the D600 can dial up the ISO to 6500+. Any pointers on location and position, timing and the such would be helpful, maybe shooting the picture in raw?....thanks again

 

[Pixel Dust]

My D70S just would not die. It's still a great camera, just not in low light.

I stood at the end of Main Street, by the flag pole, looking up towards the Castle. I have a D600 and used a tripod. My tripod has a ball head and that seemed to work quite nicely. It was stable, but easy to move around as the floats go by. I used the Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR, but looking back most of them were at 70mm and less. When I did zoom in all the way, the shots were of characters on the floats. The shot below was at ISO 800, 1/15 sec, f/4. But throughout the parade I bumped it to ISO 3200 and 1/60 sec, to reduce motion blur. Since you are at f/2.8, you could reduce your ISO by one stop to 1600 or shutter speed to 1/120.

I always shoot RAW. If you want, the D600 can record RAW and JPG at the same time, and write them to separate cards.

Looks like you are good to go on gear. No need to buy more stuff. Well, maybe that ball head.

The Headless Horseman did not ride through for this parade so, we'll have to settle for this shot.

(Click on the photo above, to see more photos on our trip report)

 

[nbaresejr]

I didnt have much luck with the Halloween party when i was there. I only had my DSLR for 3 months at the time and really didnt know the camera well enough. From the info you have given us I would say you should have no issues in terms of gear or knowledge.

As for the parade. I would say raise the ISO as high (as noise allows, i would guess 6k maybe more on the d600) as you need to for prevention of motion blur (unless this is the look you are going for). Getting the shutter speed to 1/250 or 1/320 (or more) would be a good start. The faster the better with this.

For the horseman I have seen some awesome pics using the panning technique. I would google that and see if you can practice it. With 2 parades you will get 2 shots at the horseman. Best of luck!

 

[Pixel Dust]

As for the parade. I would say raise the ISO as high (as noise allows, i would guess 6k maybe more on the d600) as you need to for prevention of motion blur (unless this is the look you are going for). Getting the shutter speed to 1/250 or 1/320 (or more) would be a good start. The faster the better with this.

If you got that route, you won't need the tripod.

That was my first time shooting the parade from that spot. I wasn't sure what the lighting conditions were going to be like. So, I just set up for the worst case, with the tripod. That, and I only had an f/4 to work with.

 

[ronfin]

advanced recreational, prior camera was a Nikon D70S with a small sensor and it just didn't have the ability to make the shot. f/2.8 on the lens and the D600 can dial up the ISO to 6500+. Any pointers on location and position, timing and the such would be helpful, maybe shooting the picture in raw?....thanks again

Maybe? ALWAYS shoot in RAW. You can fix many issues later on an underexposed shot easier in post if the shot was taken in RAW. Overexposed not as much, but a lot better than if it's a jpeg.

 

[ronfin]

My D70S just would not die. It's still a great camera, just not in low light.

I stood at the end of Main Street, by the flag pole, looking up towards the Castle. I have a D600 and used a tripod. My tripod has a ball head and that seemed to work quite nicely. It was stable, but easy to move around as the floats go by. I used the Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR, but looking back most of them were at 70mm and less. When I did zoom in all the way, the shots were of characters on the floats. The shot below was at ISO 800, 1/15 sec, f/4. But throughout the parade I bumped it to ISO 3200 and 1/60 sec, to reduce motion blur. Since you are at f/2.8, you could reduce your ISO by one stop to 1600 or shutter speed to 1/120.

I always shoot RAW. If you want, the D600 can record RAW and JPG at the same time, and write them to separate cards.

Looks like you are good to go on gear. No need to buy more stuff. Well, maybe that ball head.

The Headless Horseman did not ride through for this parade so, we'll have to settle for this shot.

(Click on the photo above, to see more photos on our trip report)

Great shot.

Reference to the bold portion: That can be a problem, and it will slow down his camera drastically. Write speeds vary greatly from CF cards to even the best SD cards. This is why CF cards are still prefered. I wont use two cards in my 5D because of this. Takes time away from the buffer, and viewing. Now, if the shooter isn't gonna be chimping a lot and just wait till he gets home to post process the shots, and it shouldn't be a big deal if he loses a little speed on his camera, but I wouldn't recommend RAW+JPEG.

 

[rex008]

Horseman is tough. He moves FAST!

I totally fluked this one, standing opposite Country Bears. Could pretty much see the parade entrance, but him coming out still surprised me somewhat. Panned with him, and held the shutter button down:

Technically it's an awful shot, I know! But high up on the "spooky" meter, and I like it .

Possibly useful EXIF:
Model Canon EOS 7D
ISO 6400
Exposure 1/6 sec
Aperture 2.8
Focal Length 25mm

 

[wiigirl]

Maybe? ALWAYS shoot in RAW. You can fix many issues later on an underexposed shot easier in post if the shot was taken in RAW. Overexposed not as much, but a lot better than if it's a jpeg.

 

[hakepb]

Horseman is tough. He moves FAST!

I totally fluked this one, standing opposite Country Bears. Could pretty much see the parade entrance, but him coming out still surprised me somewhat. Panned with him, and held the shutter button down:


Technically it's an awful shot, I know! But high up on the "spooky" meter, and I like it .

Possibly useful EXIF:
Model Canon EOS 7D
ISO 6400
Exposure 1/6 sec
Aperture 2.8
Focal Length 25mm

So does that mean the OP would have to set the D600 at ISO 25600 and would only be able to get a 1/30 shutter speed at most on an f/2.8 aperature?

 

[Pixel Dust]

Great shot.

Reference to the bold portion: That can be a problem, and it will slow down his camera drastically. Write speeds vary greatly from CF cards to even the best SD cards. This is why CF cards are still prefered. I wont use two cards in my 5D because of this. Takes time away from the buffer, and viewing. Now, if the shooter isn't gonna be chimping a lot and just wait till he gets home to post process the shots, and it shouldn't be a big deal if he loses a little speed on his camera, but I wouldn't recommend RAW+JPEG.

Thanks for the compliment!

You are correct, as that pertains to the 5D Mark 3. When you use 2 cards in that camera, it will default to the slowest one, usually the SD card. No matter which one you were writing to. (Was there a firmware fix for it?)

The D600 uses 2 SD cards. No CF cards. (unfortunate, since I had a few CF cards left)

While there is a difference buffer speed, it's not as significant on the D600. At full speed with just RAW it's 15 frames until the buffer fills up. RAW+JPG is 13. I usually don't shoot at max frame rate, or snap off more the 5 frames consecutively.

I do see where you are concerned with the 5D3. Just RAW, you get 17 frames until the buffer fills up. But RAW+JPG is only 7 frames. And that's with only a CF card.

I do agree with you, that RAW is the best way to go. However, the OP may not be familiar with it, yet. RAW+JPG may be a temporary bridge, until the OP is comfortable using only RAW.

 

[traylorc]

As for the parade. I would say raise the ISO as high (as noise allows, i would guess 6k maybe more on the d600) as you need to for prevention of motion blur (unless this is the look you are going for). Getting the shutter speed to 1/250 or 1/320 (or more) would be a good start. The faster the better with this.

I wholeheartedly agree...I would increase the ISO as high as possible to reduce the motion blur.

I feel fortunate my Nikon is a low light beast...last year I was taking some dark ride shots where I had my ISO as high as 10,000. The shots were still very usable, and I only had to tweak them a bit with noise reduction software.

 

[HPS3]

I wholeheartedly agree...I would increase the ISO as high as possible to reduce the motion blur.

I feel fortunate my Nikon is a low light beast...last year I was taking some dark ride shots where I had my ISO as high as 10,000. The shots were still very usable, and I only had to tweak them a bit with noise reduction software.

Traylorc, don't keep bringing up that D4! Do you see much difference in noise between your D800 and D4. I think the D600 handles it pretty good until 6400.

 

[ronfin]

Thanks for the compliment!

You are correct, as that pertains to the 5D Mark 3. When you use 2 cards in that camera, it will default to the slowest one, usually the SD card. No matter which one you were writing to. (Was there a firmware fix for it?)

The D600 uses 2 SD cards. No CF cards. (unfortunate, since I had a few CF cards left)

While there is a difference buffer speed, it's not as significant on the D600. At full speed with just RAW it's 15 frames until the buffer fills up. RAW+JPG is 13. I usually don't shoot at max frame rate, or snap off more the 5 frames consecutively.

I do see where you are concerned with the 5D3. Just RAW, you get 17 frames until the buffer fills up. But RAW+JPG is only 7 frames. And that's with only a CF card.

I do agree with you, that RAW is the best way to go. However, the OP may not be familiar with it, yet. RAW+JPG may be a temporary bridge, until the OP is comfortable using only RAW.

Very true. If they're not familiar with how to PP a RAW, then they should stick with JPEG for now, and maybe shoot a series of bracketed shots so they have a better chance at nailing the exposure. Takes up more space, but if they're just trying to grab those particular shots that shouldn't be an issue. WB will be another problem to deal with, since AUTO never seems to get it 100% right. Hopefully they use a gray card before shooting and can correct it later.

For me, I don't care about noise or the "grainy" look when shooting high ISO's. I'm more concerned about getting the shot exposed as best as I can, and then later if it's too noisy, just use Lightroom to take it down a little. I'll lose a little clarity, but there's always a happy medium when judging how much to take it down.

Can't wait to see the final shots after [he] shoots them. I've never been to Disney during October. One thing I'll try to change when and if I ever retire. lol

 

[rex008]

So does that mean the OP would have to set the D600 at ISO 25600 and would only be able to get a 1/30 shutter speed at most on an f/2.8 aperature?

Only if he stands exactly where I was. There are many places on the parade route with more ambient light I suspect. And this was completely side on with most of the ambient light behind the horse, rather than behind me. If you want a better defined shot, do it from further away, and straight on, in a place with more light, where the horse isn't moving as much. However, if you want a dramatic panning shot, the space was good.

I picked the location by finding a ropeside spot with 10 minutes to go at a sold out party, rather than for any particular photographic requirement. If you want a decent shot of the horseman, I'd say invest your time in picking a good spot early on, rather than in new equipment.

 

[boBQuincy]

The Headless Horseman rides slowly across the bridge from Liberty Square and stops at the castle side of the bridge awaiting clearance to continue to Main Street. This location will not give the most dynamic photos but it may be best for the most clear photos. If the nearby spots are not all taken a kind word to a CM may be rewarded with a front row spot.

I was using a rented Canon 35 f/1.4 L just for the occasion, figuring low light would be my biggest problem.

 

[traylorc]

Traylorc, don't keep bringing up that D4! Do you see much difference in noise between your D800 and D4. I think the D600 handles it pretty good until 6400.

IMHO for low light performance I think the D4 performs about one stop better than the D800. The D800 is no slouch, but if I really need to push ISO I rather use the D4. At 6400 the D800 is not too shabby...I don't routinely push the ISO that high on the D800. I make exceptions for situations like dark ride shots. But I have to admit...the D800 is alot of fun. During my next trip, my plan is to take plenty of castle shots using the D800 and my wide angle lens.

I have heard a number of good things about the D600 as well.

 

[scuba]

thanks for all the suggestions, still in the art of photography, it's all trial and error.....sometimes more error.