Photos: Disney at Night

[Disney Daniel]

Excellent photos! Thanks for sharing!

 

[~*Belle 2003*~]

Beautiful photos Geoff - thanks for sharing!

 

[toefungus]

Amazing pictures, thanks for sharing! Please post some more!!

 

[4greatboys]

Great pics!!

 

[Geoff_M]

I'm glad you all liked the photos... I had a sneaky suspecion that you might!!!

Several people have asked me for tips on taking pictures like these at WDW So here you go...

The camera I used is a 6.1 mp digital SLR (Nikon D70), but fear not... I've also gotten very similar results with my 2.1 mp digital point-n-shoot (Nikon CoolPix 950) on past trips. That's not a knock against the D70... it rocks and is by far the best sub-$1K DSLR on the market now.

"What settings did you use? What f-stop, shutter speed, etc?"

On almost every photo I used "Aperture Priority" mode on the meter. This means that I pick the f-stop, and the meter selects the shutter speed that it thinks is appropriate. On most cameras this is marked as the "A" mode on the metering dial. Why don't I use one of the "program modes" (the ones on the dial that have little icons with a flower, a running man, a mountain, etc.)? Mainly because they are effectly worthless marketing. At best they work more or less like "A" or "S" (Shutter Priority) modes and at worst they'll mess up your image.

The only images I took using "manual" metering (where I set the f-stop and shutter speed) were the up-close castle photos. The camera meter was "blowing out" the color on the walls of the castle... meaning they just looked solid blue or orange with no detail of the brickwork (yes, I know it's really fiberglass!). So I noted that aperture and shutter speeds the meter was picking and set the shutter speed one stop faster (i.e. "twice as fast")

Flash off! Most cameras have an option to override the automatic flash and turn it off. Unless you're doing "rear curtain sync" stuff like my Monorail shot, flash ruins night time photos with a 100% artificial "deer in the headlights" look.

f-stop. For those that don't know, the f-stop is the setting that controls the size of the "iris" (aperture) on the lens. I used the "kit" lens that came with the D70: 18-70 f3.5-4.5. It's a great "walking around" lens. Since I was using "A" mode I got to pick the aperture and the camera got to pick the shutter speed. I usually stayed around f5.6. Why didn't I use the lens "wide open" for more light and a faster shutter speed? The reason is that almost every lens produces the "worst" quality images when wide open or stopped down all the way. That's the nature of optics design in cameras. My lens is no exception.

Shutter speed. The camera usually got to pick that one. The longest exposure in the bunch was 10 seconds (the start of Illuminations), the shorted is around 1.5 seconds (as I recall).

"Did you use a tripod or mini-tripod?" or "How'd you keep the fireworks from 'jagging'?" WDW prohibits the use of tripods in the parks. They obstruct traffic flow and are tripping hazards. When I used my point-n-shoot last year I took along a small folding 6 inch tall "backpacking" tripod, but all of my photos this year were "hand-held". The quotes are because I had lots of help from stationary objects. I held the bottom of the camera up against fence railing, lamp posts, trash can tops, poles, the handle of our stroller, etc. If I had to tilt the camera away from the object I was steadying the camera against, I'd place a hand between the lens barrel and the object to keep the camera from moving up and down. One tip about mini-tripods.... If you use them, use the self-timer to fire the camera if possible. The camera will vibrate a little if you're touching it and when you use the timers the delay before the camera fires gives it time to "settle down" after you let go.

What "film speed" did I use? With the exception of the Monorail photo (because I forgot to change the sensivitiy setting the last time I used the camera) all photo used ISO 200. The monorail photo is at ISO 800. You really don't need to "crank up" the camera sensitity (injecting a lot of digital "noise" from the sensor in the process) for these kind of images.

"What are those tiny blue, yellow, and red specks I get in my 4 second exposures?" That's extreme sensor noise. The longer a sensor is charged (like during an exposure) the "hotter" is gets. This heat can cause pixels to "blow out" (sometimes referred to as a "hot pixel") meaning it blazes bright with the color it represents. Some cameras have special sofware or mechanical ways of dealing with this. The D70 does something "neat", you can enable a special "Noise Reduction" routine for long exposures. After you take a long exposure, it takes a second "black" image of the same exposure length. Anything that shows up on the second image is assumed to be a "hot pixel" and is "subtracted" from your image. If your camera does not support NR, you may need to use photo editing software after the fact to remove the little red, yellow, and blue "fairies" that are flying around in your images.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

Geoff---permission to use the purple castle photo (the one taken from beside the Partners statue) as my desktop? Pretty please? With sugar and stuff on top?

TOV

 

[lulu71]

Your pictures continue to impress!! Thanks for more photography lessons, I printed them out.

I had no clue that WDW prohibited tripods. I've been looking for a travel tripod for my September trip, so I guess there's no point. Thanks for that bit of info, too!

 

[minniepumpernickel]

Very nice photos, thanks!

 

[elgerber]

Fabulous pictures!!! Thank you for all of your tips as well!!! I didn't know they didn't allow tri-pods either. We used one at MK and Epcot on our 2001 trip to photograph Illuminations, Spectro and the fireworks at MK (pre-Wishes) and no one said anything. I'll remember that for our next trip.

If you have any other pictures, please post more, I love to see them!

Erika

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

Geoff,
Beautiful photos, thanks for sharing.

 

[MicMin]

Great photos! Thanks for the tips.

 

[LUVDSNY04]

Thank you for sharing these lovely pictures.

 

[TerriP]

Just beautiful....you're making me "home"sick.

 

[Geoff_M]

TheOtherVillainess,

Sure, personal non-commercial use is OK by me.

I didn't know they didn't allow tri-pods either.

elgerber, I must confess that your comment got me thinking. I can't recall for sure if I've seen that prohibition in print... and I did find one person reporting that they had used a tripod in MK when I "googled" the subject... though I can't recall ever seeing one in use at WDW. I do know for a fact that lots of public places prohibit tripods (monopods are generally "OK") for the reasons I mentioned. Best case: you may be able to use one at WDW if the crowds are light, but you might be approached by security and asked to put it away otherwise. Think of what Main St. would looks like with an obsticle course of shutterbugs and their tripods set up all over the place!

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Just looking at these photos makes me misty eyed...especially the ones of the Castle. Thank you for sharing !!!

 

[pjlla]

GREAT PICTURES!! Thanks for sharing..............P

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

THANK YOU!

TOV

 

[luvmydogs]

WOW! Those are just beautiful shots---you're so talented! Thanks so much for posting them!

 

[Princesa]

Wow...lovely photos...but I must say I was quite taken with your adorable children! What cuties!

What a great shot in front of the castle...definately one to cherish....and share with, oh say, their aunt?

 

[MizlurksaLot]

Those are some truly beautiful photographs - made me remember why I want to go back soooo bad, wish it was sooner