Photo-centric WDW trip -- questions!

[Experiment_626]

Looooooooong day today. Up at 7:30 for rope drop at DHS. Did some shooting there, of course, and also rode Star Tours four times. Left in the afternoon to have lunch, then on to Epcot. Sat in the car for an hour waiting for rain to end. Didn't completely end until almost 11 pm. Left Epcot at 1 am. Now sleep calls loudly at 2:45 am.

Four days is not nearly enough for all I wanted to do. And Epcot tonight was filled not with guests, but with wind-up robots released by some nefarious villain, and designed to wander into every single shot! Delays, delays. Also, the camera bag gets heavy when there's no stroller in which to stash it part of the time!

More later ... sleep, a little more shooting tomorrow, then a long drive home. All this must come first.

I hope all this shooting results in good images.

Scott

 

[WillowBelle]

Sounds like you're having such a good time! I can't wait to see what you come back with.

On our last trip, this past October, I rented a single stroller to push my gear around in. Got a few funny looks, but it was more than worth it. I develop one heckuva "headache" from strain of carrying all of my gear PLUS tripod. It's not worth it.

 

[Experiment_626]

Sounds like you're having such a good time! I can't wait to see what you come back with.

I have had a lot of fun, but man, am I tired! Plus, that second day when I slept till the afternoon and had a hard time getting started? It weighs heavily on me. I had to sleep, of course, but all I can think of right now are all the shots I haven't got. I should have made a shot list and I meant to, but just never found the time once I thought of it. I didn't really get everything I wanted at Boardwalk -- it was neat to see it in the early morning, but once I was there I wanted to see it at night, but there weren't enough nights, nor hours in those I did have. I was hoping for better skies in the daytime (though I knew it was going to be iffy), and better sunsets (though I made poor use of the one spectacular example I did get, and that was on me). I have yet to visit the Polynesian or Grand Floridian, and the Polynesian was on my "absolute must" mental list (I may do that today before I start for home). I don't think my images from last night's IllumiNations are going to turn out all that well ... and so on. I'm plagued with doubt about what I have shot; as I always am upon leaving. If history is any guide, I'll get home and be pleasantly surprised by some things I thought were just average and disappointed in others I was sure were going to be great. I'm also hitting the wall of realizing that there's more here to shot than my time allowed. I haven't even visited Animal Kingdom at all this trip, to say nothing of Animal Kingdom Lodge!

All of you who wish you could do this, understand that I'm not complaining. Just my normal round of self-doubt. I wanted to go home and, and, after a few days of processing, produce such stellar images that my wife will be impressed (that used to be so much easier!) and declare that I should do a solo trip at least once a year!

But the fact that I didn't get everything I wanted just means I do need to do it again. Plus, sitting here writing this I realize it would actually bother me if I couldn't think of shots I wanted but haven't gotten. Would never want to feel I had "done it all"!

Time to pack up; have to check out in a couple of hours. More to come -- probably tomorrow.

Scott

 

[Marlton Mom]

I have had a lot of fun, but man, am I tired! Plus, that second day when I slept till the afternoon and had a hard time getting started? It weighs heavily on me. I had to sleep, of course, but all I can think of right now are all the shots I haven't got. I should have made a shot list and I meant to, but just never found the time once I thought of it. I didn't really get everything I wanted at Boardwalk -- it was neat to see it in the early morning, but once I was there I wanted to see it at night, but there weren't enough nights, nor hours in those I did have. I was hoping for better skies in the daytime (though I knew it was going to be iffy), and better sunsets (though I made poor use of the one spectacular example I did get, and that was on me). I have yet to visit the Polynesian or Grand Floridian, and the Polynesian was on my "absolute must" mental list (I may do that today before I start for home). I don't think my images from last night's IllumiNations are going to turn out all that well ... and so on. I'm plagued with doubt about what I have shot; as I always am upon leaving. If history is any guide, I'll get home and be pleasantly surprised by some things I thought were just average and disappointed in others I was sure were going to be great. I'm also hitting the wall of realizing that there's more here to shot than my time allowed. I haven't even visited Animal Kingdom at all this trip, to say nothing of Animal Kingdom Lodge!

All of you who wish you could do this, understand that I'm not complaining. Just my normal round of self-doubt. I wanted to go home and, and, after a few days of processing, produce such stellar images that my wife will be impressed (that used to be so much easier!) and declare that I should do a solo trip at least once a year!

But the fact that I didn't get everything I wanted just means I do need to do it again. Plus, sitting here writing this I realize it would actually bother me if I couldn't think of shots I wanted but haven't gotten. Would never want to feel I had "done it all"!

Time to pack up; have to check out in a couple of hours. More to come -- probably tomorrow.

Scott

It's fun getting older eh? "The ol' gray mare just ain't what she used to be" is what I kept thinking to myself as I had to set aside pictures I wanted to get for the 'next' trip. I was so tired from all that tramping around, and I had even been working out since February in preparation for my June 10th trip!

Much like a family trip to the park, we have this agenda in our minds of things that we think we can accomplish. Then reality sets in and you have to make compromises, even for an "all to yourself picture trip".

I think you will be pleasantly surprised when you get home and can really see what you have managed to capture. Yes, there will be the ones you were sure you got, that somehow managed to get away despite your best efforts. Then there will be the ones that will take your breath away.

That's why we keep going back!

I didn't make a shot list either. I realized that I would have to see what I could manage as I went along... and for the most part it did not disappoint.

Fear not my friend! Sleep well knowing that the dishes are clean and the pictures are on the memory card!

Have a productive evening and a safe trip home.

Marlton Mom

 

[Experiment_626]

It's fun getting older eh? "The ol' gray mare just ain't what she used to be" is what I kept thinking to myself as I had to set aside pictures I wanted to get for the 'next' trip.

It wasn't so much being tired at the end of the day -- I've always been a night owl and been able to stay up for a long time, and that has changed little over the years. I still have to force myself to go to bed. But I can't get up early after going to bed really late more than a couple of days in a row now, and I used to be able to do that.

Also, my close-up vision just isn't what it used to be. I have been able to use the diopter correction on my camera to compensate, so I can see through the viewfinder just fine. But when the camera is on the tripod, especially at night, I have a terrible time reading the LCD on the top because it is difficult to get it far enough away from my eyes. I'm used to the controls I use often to the point I can usually figure out what it must be telling me, for the most part. But I can't tell the difference between the symbols used for some of the white balance settings, for example, or numbers in the display if they are too similar (such as 8 or 0). I carry a small flashlight in my bag that helps (makes your iris close down like the aperture it is, so it improves your focus/depth-of-field!), but even that isn't perfect. And I can wear glasses to read, but so far it drives me crazy to try to shoot with them and just carrying them around is a hassle. I can't wear them except when I need to see close up. And I sweat a lot, especially when I'm thinking (no joke) so they'd slide off and drive me even crazier if I tried to shoot with them on.

Much like a family trip to the park, we have this agenda in our minds of things that we think we can accomplish. Then reality sets in and you have to make compromises, even for an "all to yourself picture trip".

I think you will be pleasantly surprised when you get home and can really see what you have managed to capture. Yes, there will be the ones you were sure you got, that somehow managed to get away despite your best efforts. Then there will be the ones that will take your breath away.

I figure that's true -- it is usually what happens. I've only been really disappointed once when I came back from a trip, and even then, I went back to the images later and discovered they weren't as bad as I had initially believed.

I knew I had more ideas for shots I wanted than I had time to shoot them all, and I guess that's good. At least I'm not running out of ideas, nor Disney out of subjects!

Made it home safely, by the way, driving through rain most of the way. Got some shots at the Polynesian and Grand Floridian today, but the rain and the lateness of the hour convinced me to pass by the Magic Kingdom, to my mild regret. If I had gotten off the monorail at that stop, I might just be leaving now (it has happened before)!

Scott

 

[Experiment_626]

Sorting the images into lots of subfolders by subject and date (it's a slow time here at work). So many interesting subjects I'm having a hard time deciding what to attack first! And I'm going on four hours of sleep ...

Scott

 

[Experiment_626]

So, finally, here's the first "finished" image from my trip.


Tomorrowland Avenue of the Planets June 26 2011 for Flickr by Scott S. Baxter, on Flickr

A while back I posted a method to use Photoshop Extended to remove people from a shot, using multiple exposures where the people move from shot to shot. I used it here. You can still see what looks like shadows at the end of the street. It is for that reason that I say this one is "finished." I plan to go back and examine each image I shot; it may be that I can more effectively remove even the "shadows" from the image by carefully choosing which images to use and not use. This version was made using everything I shot at the time.

I have several more images nearly done, but it might be Tuesday before I get any of them beyond that point.

Scott

 

[Marlton Mom]

Oooh, ahhh, very nice! That software sounds interesting..... how many exposures melded into 1 picture are we talking about?

~Marlton Mom, who still has yet to finish all of her pictures from day 1 of a 10 day trip... so I am feeling your time crunch!

 

[rileysmommy]

Great shot!! I would love to do a trip like you did. Sounds like it was amazing. Can't wait to see the rest of your shots. Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[Experiment_626]

Oooh, ahhh, very nice! That software sounds interesting..... how many exposures melded into 1 picture are we talking about?

I don't have the external drive connected to this computer at the moment, but from memory I'd guess I took eight to 10 nine-exposure bracketed sequences. I used the "Photoshop trick" on the base, -4, -2, +2, and +4 exposures, and then those five composite images were put through Photomatix Pro to generate a tonemapped HDR. I then took that one tonemapped image back through Adobe Camera Raw for some final adjustments -- and finally, in Photoshop, I composited in part of the "Laugh Floor" sign and Stitch from one of the underexposed original images.

Sounds like a lot of work when you write it out that way, and I suppose it is. But to me, it's like playing a computer game -- I never get tired of seeing what I can do!

The main purposes of this exercise were to produce a fairly "natural-looking" HDR, to shoot with a longish lens (98 mm, I think -- I was standing in the street circling the hub) to compress the objects, and to try using the automated "people remover." In order to be able to shoot so many images, I took a deep breath and decided to shoot JPEGs in this case (and a few others you'll probably see later) to keep from filling the image buffer too often. I still tried to choose my moments to shoot when fewer people were in the frame, and to avoid shooting when guests stopped in one place (and shooting with long lens meant that guests stayed in the frame longer). Took a while to shoot them all; I'd estimate about 40 minutes. It was a bit after 2 am when I started; I waited until the flow of guests started to ebb and the Astro-Orbiter had stopped running for the night.

Scott

 

[Experiment_626]

Still don't quite have anything ready to post -- wasn't feeling well yesterday so I've had a bit of a delay. Plus I have so much to work on that I work on one image for a while, then switch to another. And, today work kept getting in the way!

But I wanted to give this thread a bump to keep it from getting lost … hopefully, I'll have something to post tomorrow!

Scott

 

[Marlton Mom]

It's so hard to find the time needed to work on pictures isn't it!! I only just finished my Star Wars Weekends pictures and that wasn't even 2 whole days worth!!

Don't worry about us. We'll still be here waiting, so take the time you need and don't drive yourself batty.

Have fun!

Marlton Mom

 

[Experiment_626]

don't drive yourself batty.

Why stop now? Far too late anyway ...

Believe me, I am having fun! These images are call plaintively to me all day long ...

Scott

 

[dbaker375]

Scott, I'm really enjoying reading about your trip and look forward to seeing the images! Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[Nature Mom]

I'm very much enjoying this thread...My first WDW trip was last year, and I think because I was in such awe of everything, I took less pictures than I normally would have (stumbling around with my mouth hung open, lol ) although I did get a good many. We are going back in October and you are giving me great things to look at and get ideas for my own shots. Hopefully the magic won't leave me a awestruck tourist again, and I actually remember to pick up the D90 hangin round my neck.

Can't wait to see the rest of your shots.

 

[Experiment_626]

Okay, I'm going to post a few images, finally.

Some of these are finished. Some are nearly finished, but the full-res versions still need a little something here and there. I was correct about the Tomorrowland image I had posted earlier, as you'll see -- being selective about the images I chose for Photoshop's "people remover" technique allowed me to get a final image with virtually no sign of a guest or cast member.

The final versions of all these in this batch are a bit more obviously HDR than the earlier image. I just played with them until I was happy -- more or less. For me, photos are like movies -- they are not released, they simply escape.

I'll try to say more about them later ... hope someone other than myself likes these! And there will eventually be more to come.


Carousel of Progress June 2011 Flickr by Scott S. Baxter, on Flickr


Crystal Palace Fisheye Flickr by Scott S. Baxter, on Flickr


Adventureland Entrance Bridge June 2011 Flickr by Scott S. Baxter, on Flickr


Epcot Japan Torii Gate June 2011 Final Flickr by Scott S. Baxter, on Flickr


Epcot Fiber Optic Pavement Flickr by Scott S. Baxter, on Flickr


Tomorrowland Avenue of the Planets June 26 2011 revised for Flickr by Scott S. Baxter, on Flickr

Scott

 

[Nature Mom]

Back to having my mouth hanging open... WOW...gorgeous. I would like one of each please. Very nice.

 

[Experiment_626]

Obviously (by the way), the fiber-optic pavement image was inspired by one or two I saw on this board recently. It would have been on my list of things to shoot regardless, but what I saw here did inspire me to pursue a really low angle. I had the camera sitting on top of my Slingshot bag, which was lying on its side (as was I). There were several times I might have feared being stepped on as I was shooting!

Scott

 

[DPK400]

Nice shots! At what point in your workflow did you use PS stats?

 

[Experiment_626]

Nice shots! At what point in your workflow did you use PS stats?

Thanks!

The only one of the above photos that I used Stats on was the Tomorrowland image. For that one -- in the revised image at least -- I first sorted the Base, -4, -2, +2 and +4 exposures into separate groups just for my convenience. I then used Bridge and ACR to examine the photos in each group in turn. For the underexposed images, I opened them all in Camera Raw and applied additional exposure and fill light so that I could see whether there were any people in the photos and where they were, and made a note of those exposures that featured only a few guests in different areas. For the stats trick to work, you need at least three images with no guests in a given spot in at least two of those images. Then I canceled any adjustments I made and went to Photoshop and ran the stats trick on the photos I had noted. I think I chose four shots from most of the groups, but I remember that one only needed three. I ran the trick on each group, and confirmed that it had worked as desired in each case. I did that the same way I examined the original images -- in Camera Raw, applying temporary exposure boosts to the underexposed images. I saved each guest-scrubbed resulting image as a TIFF and then turned them over to Photomatix to make an HDR, just as if I had started with RAW images.

Of course, after I completed working in Photomatix, I took the result back into ACR to apply more corrections there, and finally tweaked it further in Photoshop to create the final image.

I shot the image of the Torii Gate with the idea that I would have to use the same trick on it -- I probably shot eight to ten bracketed sets of that one over the course of almost an hour because guests kept walking through the shot, especially during the long overexposures. I expected that -- I was standing well back from the gate so I could zoom in on it (to make Spaceship Earth look as large as possible), which meant there was a large expanse through which guests could stroll, and it's a high-traffic area. That last was offset by it being after IllumiNations, but I knew it would still be a problem for my purposes.

A couple of years ago, I shot essentially the same image during the day, and that was even harder because there were lots more guests around. I used manual Photoshop work to fix that one. I used Photomatix on several bracketed sequences and applied the same settings to each one, then combined the results in a layered Photoshop document and used layer masks -- and eventually, a little bit of cloning -- to remove the guests. That was much more difficult than using Stats.

After all that, however, I discovered that my third bracketed set of the Torii Gate -- shot about five minutes into the hour I spent there -- was completely free of guests from beginning to end. Somehow, I missed that when I was shooting it! So I didn't need to use Stats after all.

I do wish I had zoomed in just a bit more. I wanted SSE to fill the opening in the gate as much as possible. But it was dark, obviously, so it was a little difficult to see how close I had it. I think I was zoomed to about 60 mm. Still, it's acceptably large.

I may have some other images yet to process that will need it -- not sure yet.

Scott