night pictures

[simba2007]

We have a digital camera & I am not a photographer! Could someone please give me tips on how to take good (not blurred) pictures of the firework shows and more particularly "Spectro"?? Do you use flash or zoom? Thanks for the help!

 

[sleepyone]

I don't have advice but, I'm listening in with you . I just got a new digital camera.

 

[Mamu]

I have tried all the settings on my digital camera even the night setting. Without a tripod they come out blurred. I now take 2 camera's my 35mm loaded with 800 film and my digital. I use my pictures for scrapbooking and like the pictures my 35mm takes, their always crisp and sharp, where the digital camera sometimes lack the crispness. I read somewhere because these camera's are so small you have a tendency not to hold the camera steady.

I did find when I used the movie setting the pictures were not blurred. Why I don't know!

 

[Razor Roman]

The reason they come out blurred is because the camera is increasing the exposure length to compensate for the low light - if you use a tripod that problem would go away. That might not be convenient for you.

What you can do (if your camera allows it ) is increase your ISO sensitivity (like using 800 versus 100 for film) you get more "noise" in the picture (it might look grainy) but should be clearer and not as blurry. You might not be able to do it on your camera.

Definately don't use a flash. If you use it for the parade, it will outshine the lights on the floats and they might not look like they are lit. If you're more than 6 feet or so away it will not really affect the things you're photographing anyway - meaning you are basically just wasting your battery.

This is my first digital trip to Disney (I have a Digital Rebel) and I almost always use ISO 800 exclusively on my Disney trips. The pics always came out great. I am going to try usuing the Rebel's automatic mode most of the time, but if the pics come out bad I will set it to ISO 800. I have 2 gigs of memory so I have plenty of room to play! And I'll have plenty of pics when I come back next week!

 

[Kelly Grannell]

I'm with Razor Roman

 

[GoofyDisney]

I have some great pictures of Wishes. I took them with my digital camera.

I was standing behind the statue in the center part in front of the castle. I did not use the flash. Whenever you don't use the flash, you must hold the camera EXTREMELY still if you are not using a tripod. There is enough light in the fireworks to illumimate the castle for the photos. If you do use your flash, it will bounce off of the things it reaches first, like peoples heads and the statue. The fireworks will be in the background and most likely fuzzy.

It works the same with nighttime photos and the parade. In the dark, the flash will hit whatever it sees first and everything in the background will be fuzzy. If using the flash, the flash may hit the performer walking in front of you and the parade float will be blurry. But the motion of the parade and limited avaliable light may cause your pictures to be fuzzy no matter how still you hold the camera. With the parade, you may just be getting lucky. Your chances with the fireworks, being farther back, are better.

This principle of the flash at night is the same for both digital and 35mm cameras. But with a digital camera, you have to be more conscious about holding the camera still to get the picture because the pixels on the digital camera are so much smaller and susceptible to movement and there is less leeway that with the larger pixel grain on a 35 mm. (I think this is the technical reason for the difference).

I do have good photos from both events with my digital camera with no flash, so good luck!

P.S. When I took my Wishes pictures, I took off the backlight in my display so that my screen was black (as not to bother me or others around me) I held the camera up, and did not worry about looking at the display screen. I simply aimed and shot. (I practiced earlier in the day to know how high and where to stand) My camera uses a disk, so I shot the entire disk, and had another one ready to go. I did get very good pictures. One of them is my avatar.

 

[henrylovespooh]

I never did have luck with my digital and used 800 speed film in my 35 mm camera and the Spectro pictures came out nice.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Digital Point and Shoot, regardless how high-end it is, uses such a tiny sensor it will create high ISO noise to the point of unuseable.

Put it this way, a picture taken using ISO200 on a Canon G6 will yield about the same ISO noise of a 300D (Digital Rebel) at ISO1600.

Now that the price of a G6 is about the same as 300D with the kit lens, you might as well get a 300D because it will give you:

1. MUCH faster auto-focus
2. virtually NO image-capture lag
3. much less digital ISO noise

 

[elmo2wdw]

I tried many times and finally had success on our last trip! The key is ---a TRIPOD!!!!! I have a Fugi 3000 Digital Camera and I used my tripod with the camera on auto setting with the flash turned off and I got awesome pictures. If I knew how to post them I would.

 

[wkrider]

I have the Fuji S5000. At night I set it on the "night" setting and sit it on something steady. I have even set it on top of my DW's head to take low light photos. It might look goofy but it gets the job done. I noticed that the night setting bring out more of the natural light and work better sometimes then using the flash. This might not help that much but that is what I do. There are MONOPADS out there that collapse enough to fit in a back pack and they are les cumbersome then TRIpods. Good luck.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Or you can get a carbon-fiber tripod. They are as light as most sturdy monopod. Somewhat pricey, though.

 

[Stiff]

I have a setting on mine where when you snap the picture it takes 3 in a row real quickly

I always get clearer shots at night if I use that...I can always delete some that arent needed

 

[disneyworldgirl]

Great camera tips! I was wondering if these would also work on "dark rides" as well (like Peter Pan's Flight or Pirates of the Caribbean). If not, anybody have any tips for those?

 

[bytheblood]

You should get a tripod. I bought a travel tripod that collapses to 9 inches, but expands to 48 inches. It was $20. Fits nicely in our camera backpack.

 

[GoofyDisney]

We have some great pictures from inside dark rides. However, remember what I said...whatever the flash hits first is what is clear and bright, everything in the background is fuzzy. For example, be careful not to get the sail in the photo, don't let the flash hit the backside of the ship's sail in the Peter Pan ride, like I did. Then you get a clear picture of the backside of the sail and a fuzzy picture of Wendy tucking Michael in bed.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

For dark rides the rule of thumb is to use higher ISO number. Use 1600 or even 3200 if the option is available, no flash, and clean the noise later either using Noise Ninja or Noiseware.

 

[wkrider]

You should get a tripod. I bought a travel tripod that collapses to 9 inches, but expands to 48 inches. It was $20. Fits nicely in our camera backpack.

What brand is it and did you get it at a major store?

Thanks

 

[Kasmir]

This is great information. Thank you for sharing!

 

[crazee4mickey]

I used a mini tripod for Wishes and set it up on top of a trash can for stability.
I only had one finger on the shutter button and kept my hands off the rest so as not to shake the camera at all! There were a few blurry but extremely happy with most!
One of my pics is in my signature below!

 

[simba2007]

Wow! I really appreciate all the great advice and suggestions. I'll practice & try again on our next trip!