how do you take pics of spectromagic,

disney funseeker

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Oct 1, 2002
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712
the EWP and Osborne lights?

Should my flash be turned off?

I have a 35mm zoom camera. The night setting is fine if I want to take pics of people in the dark only, otherwise there are streaks of light all over the place.
 
I know for Spectro you can use the flash on your camera, but you can't use the external light on video cameras. It can be distracting to the characters.
 
I used my flash for Spectomagic in June, but I had to wait until the floats were directly in front of me, if I took a picture of a float not in front of me it got blurry.
 

Depending on what TYPE of 35mm zoom and what features it has, you might have other options. If you have an SLR type camera with a zoom lens, you could try setting the camera to shutter priority mode and choosing a shutter speed that is approx 1/125 or so if you have steady hands.

However...the MOST IMPORTANT factor in good night parade pictures is FILM SPEED....buy a couple (or more if you're like me!) rolls of film that is a MINIMUM of ISO 800...but Fuji makes a 1600 speed film that should work nicely for this.

The key to getting really good color out of all the lights on the floats is to NOT use flash, but the negative to no flash is that the characters faces and other details that are not "lights" will be dark.

Good luck with it and take a BUNCH of pictures...then you'll almost always get a few nice keepers!
 
What I did with my Digital is I put it on the low light setting and set it up on my pocketsize tripod and placed it ontop of a garbage can and as the floats went by. Click. It worked ok. sometimes you will get a blur line.
 
disney funseeker said:
where can I buy a pocket size tripod? camera specialty store? Wal mart?

i have yet to see one at any walmart here in louisville but have seen them at best buy and circuit city. they may have them at your area walmart so be on the look out
 
I will check out Best Buy this week for the tripod and look for a disposable camera with a high film speed. I think the disposable underwater camera is 800 speed.
 
disney funseeker said:
where can I buy a pocket size tripod? camera specialty store? Wal mart?

I got mine at Big Lots for a grand total of $3. It works wonderfully with my digital camera. I had to set my digital on the "action" setting to get clear pictures but it managed to work.

Picture210.jpg
 
I would not use a disposable camera for Spectro. You can buy 800 speed film at Walmart or pretty much any other store that sells film. I used a 800 speed disposable and my pictures were not that good, but the 800 speed pictures I put in my Canon camera came out great.

Another word of caution: If you are flying, 800 speed film and higher can be affected by x-ray machines.
 
You can buy bags at any camera store that will protect your film agains the X-ray at the airports. I got my tripod at Walmart for $5. Linda
 
Also, I wouldn't denounce myself as a horrible photographer if the photos didn't come out looking as realistic as being there. Some subjects are just hard to capture on film realistically, Last time that I was at WDW, I videotaped the entire Illuminations show, and I thought it was so-so, but later I watched a professional souvenir video of the show that my grandmother had, and it was about the same quality as my little video (I actually liked my video slightly more because it stayed in the same spot the whole time, the professional one cut around like a music video and it was kindof distracting.)
 
Tinkerbellz, my picture would never have turned out like yours. I have an action setting but have never used it for night time.

Henrylovespooh, I once had a roll of partially fogged film, 800 speed, from the airport x-ray machine. I knew it would fog but the airport guy insisted it wouldn't no matter how much I argued and he put it through. Would 800 speed film be good for indoor/outdoor, day and night?

Goof's girl, I will try Wal mart first since it is just down the road from me.
 
disney funseeker said:
Tinkerbellz, my picture would never have turned out like yours. I have an action setting but have never used it for nigh

Thank you. I will fess up...This is what my pics looked like before I figured out the "action" setting.
Picture191.jpg
 
What the 'action' setting does on your digital camera is to do everything it can to get a fast shutter speed (higher ISO equivalent, shallower depth-of-field, etc.) This setting will expose for the lights and make it where the shutter speed is fast enough to not see 'squigglies' from the lights. The flash will light up the foreground of the picture, too. Your way is a lot simpler than trying to do it manually when you're not sure.....great idea.






Tinkerbellz said:
Thank you. I will fess up...This is what my pics looked like before I figured out the "action" setting.
Picture191.jpg
 
how do you take pics of spectromagic?

Well, generally, I prefer to use a camera. Although, I suppose, if you're an artistic type, you could try to draw it, but I think that the camera option would come out looking more realistic.

All joking aside, when I take photos of night stuff, I usually turn the flash off, and set my camera to shutter prority mode, shutter speed 1/125 second, or slower (1/50, or even 1/20 for some fireworks) ... tripods help a lot to eliminate squigglies, because the squigglies are the camera picking up vibrations ... even the best photographers can't hold a camera perfectly still. (I've gotten reasonably good, but still nowhere near perfect)
 
Eric, I'd prefer to use my eyes; every time I blink the image should be stored in my brain, then at home I should be able to instantly recall the images and transfer the images again with the blink of my eyes, onto the computer.

I can't set my shutter speed. My camera is too simple for that.

Went to Wal Mart and bought a mini tripod.

Lets see if I've got this right.

Use action setting (not night setting), put 800 speed film in camera, use tripod, ?turn flash off.
 
With a camera. :rotfl:


I use a digital, I switch off and on between flash, leave it on auto for some, also action on others (no flash) and I get great pictures everytime.
 




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