Need help taking indoor ride pics

[Twinklee]

I have a new Panasonic Lumix Intelligent zoom camera. We're leaving for WDW next week and I need some tips on which scene modes to use for different situations.


Keep in mind that I know very little about photography and am nearly as lost after reading most of the instruction manual as I was before. Basically all I need to know is which scene mode to use and maybe a few easy, useful tips. I already have tons of pics of all the parks, but want to capture inside of some of the rides( I DO know enough not to use the flash. lol), pics of the fireworks and maybe Illuminations, nighttime pics of the castle, Main St., Spaceship Earth, etc.

I have already taken some fireworks pictures and I was surprised at how well they turned out. I used the fireworks mode for those, but am not sure of the best mode for the others....especially for the ride scenes.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[GrillMouster]

If you just want a scene mode, the portrait mode might work well. It should force use of the widest aperture, which, in turn, will give the fastest shutter speed possible for that exposure. However, the shutter speed may still be slow enough for there to be blur if you're not perfectly still or perfectly tracking the subject. Increasing the ISO will help get a faster shutter speed to avoid blur, but it will also increase the noise in the image.

 

[seashoreCM]

Use as little zoom as possible. More zoom slows down the lens making it more difficult to get a shutter speed fast enough to minimize blur.

Also more zoom makes blur more obtrusive from slow shutter speed and less than steady holding the camera.

When in a "no flash pictures" area, put your finger over the flash window on the camera when shooting. This will make for fewer dirty looks from other guests even when the flash is turned off.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Or better yet, just turn off the flash for indoor rides. There should be a flash option with a line through the flash to turn it off.

 

[traylorc]

Or better yet, just turn off the flash for indoor rides. There should be a flash option with a line through the flash to turn it off.

Exactly...nothing worse than someone selfishly using their flash on rides and ruining the experience for others.

Plus...IMHO using flash on the dark rides ruins the picture in most instances.

 

[krb2g]

Depending on the ride, if you can brace the camera against the ride vehicle, you can use the vehicle as a tripod-equivalent (especially if the ride has temporarily stopped). Also, see if you can set your ISO manually. For a dark ride you'll want it as high as possible (but don't forget to set it back down when you get back to the sunlight!).

 

[photo_chick]

Which model number Panasonic is it? Some are better equipped for this job than others.

 

[thomas998]

Exactly...nothing worse than someone selfishly using their flash on rides and ruining the experience for others.

Plus...IMHO using flash on the dark rides ruins the picture in most instances.

The flash usually takes away the magic by showing you the mechanics of how a puppet moves... but putting your finger of the flash does work well on some cameras where you can't control the flash... we used to have an older point and shoot camera and if turned the flash off you got blurred pictures because the camera would use too slow a shutter speed... but if you used the flash with your finger on it the camera would use a faster shutter speed... you still had to do a bit of photoshopping to get a good picture but it gave better results than turning off the flash.

 

[pgowder]

Here's a great resource for you:
http://www.disneyphotographyblog.com/2010/07/shooting-the-disney-dark-rides-part-one/

 

[pgowder]

Exactly...nothing worse than someone selfishly using their flash on rides and ruining the experience for others.

Plus...IMHO using flash on the dark rides ruins the picture in most instances.

Huge discussion about this here:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2793490

 

[Twinklee]

Which model number Panasonic is it? Some are better equipped for this job than others.

Its a Z28 with an "intelligent auto" setting, which is the setting I'll probably use most of the time.

 

[photo_chick]

Its a Z28 with an "intelligent auto" setting, which is the setting I'll probably use most of the time.

General auto mode, no matter how intelligent, will most likely struggle with really low light simply because it's an environment when a good portion of the shot will be intentionally underexposed according to the light meter. And low light on rides is some of the toughest low light shooting because you're moving, which adds to the challenge. Your camera's lens goes to f/2.8 and your ISO goes to 6400 so you can get shots in some of the darker rides with that camera. You probably need to consider a night scene mode, or set things yourself.