Shooting Osbourne Lights??

[brack]

From last year but I'll have some more in a couple of weeks

A tripod is very helpful but you can lean on the benches or trash cans if you don't take a tripod.

 

[polkadotladybug]

Just curious - what exactly are the Osborne Lights? I know that's that family from Texas with all the lights on their house - but what is it at Disney? I'm assuming all the buildings are lit up - but can someone tell me what it is exactly? Is it a show and if so - what kind of show?

Thanks!

 

[DueyDooDah]

Just curious - what exactly are the Osborne Lights? I know that's that family from Texas with all the lights on their house - but what is it at Disney? I'm assuming all the buildings are lit up - but can someone tell me what it is exactly? Is it a show and if so - what kind of show?

Thanks!

The history is posted here:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/holidays/osbornelights.htm

 

[Jeanne B]

Just curious - what exactly are the Osborne Lights? I know that's that family from Texas with all the lights on their house - but what is it at Disney? I'm assuming all the buildings are lit up - but can someone tell me what it is exactly? Is it a show and if so - what kind of show?

Thanks!

Here's a video from youtube but it really doesn't do it justice compared to being there in person.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoY687Df-bE

 

[jpeka65844]

Good tips everyone! I'm glad some advice is starting to roll in! I didn't know it's a SHOW though. Do I have to be there at a specific time??? I thought it was just a "stroll-through" kind of exhibit.......

 

[DizneyNutz]

They make the lights "Dance" periodically throughout the evening. When the lights aren't dancing, they are left on (not blinking) and Christmas music is playing in the background and snow falling. That is the time to stroll and look. They will periodically announce when the lights will "dance" next and you can manuever into position where you want to be standing for the next dance. so there is no particular show time.

 

[manning]

Just curious - what exactly are the Osborne Lights? I know that's that family from Texas with all the lights on their house - but what is it at Disney? I'm assuming all the buildings are lit up - but can someone tell me what it is exactly? Is it a show and if so - what kind of show?

Thanks!

The road to holiday light excess began modestly enough in 1986, when Osborne's 6-year-old daughter, Breezy, asked her dad to put some Christmas lights on their Little Rock, Arkansas, home. Each year thereafter, though, Osborne added to the original 1,000 lights, until by 1993 the Osborne home was sporting approximately 3 million lights.

 

[handicap18]

Good tips everyone! I'm glad some advice is starting to roll in! I didn't know it's a SHOW though. Do I have to be there at a specific time??? I thought it was just a "stroll-through" kind of exhibit.......

Its not a "show". Like someone else said, there are times that the lights will do a "dance" to music. But in general think of them as a Holiday Light Display. Picture the outdoor decorations you and/or your neighbors put up or what your local town/city might do in the town/city park or center, but 10,000 times bigger.

It started out as a 1,000 light outdoor house decoration in the mid 80's. Less than 10 years later it grew to more than 3,000,000 lights spread across 3 houses and since Disney has gotten it (11 or 12 years now I believe) it has approx 5,000,000 lights. The buildings in the Streets of America section of MGM all get decorated.

They turn the lights on at 6pm and they stay on till after the park closes. They also stay on for EMH.

Its very cool. They play holiday music and there is 1 maybe 2 "snow" making machines to add to the atmosphere. I also have a video clip. Video certainly does not do it justice.

 

[Nicsmom]

Hmm, I'm wondering, what would work out better for this, a 50mm 1.8 fixed, or the 10-22 3.5-4.5?

I'd probably take a monopod and use a higher ISO setting.

Any thoughts on white balance? Automatic or incandescent?

Thanks,

Boris

I'm going with the 50 1.8 for this, the parades, and the castle fireworks. It should work out fine. I'm hoping auto WB works because this is one setting I seem to have difficulty with constantly, I just can't get it perfect. Only other lens I'm bringing will be the 24-105 and that's definately no good for night shots at f4.

 

[BorisMD]

Thanks Nicsmom.

Here are two examples of the same scene shot with different white balance (mostly due to the fact that I forgot to check it when I started shooting).

The scene is a sunrise out my front door.

The first shot is with the camera set to incandescent, and the second is on auto wb.

Interesting effect.

Regards,

Boris

 

[AndrewWG]

I'm going with the 50 1.8 for this, the parades, and the castle fireworks. It should work out fine. I'm hoping auto WB works because this is one setting I seem to have difficulty with constantly, I just can't get it perfect. Only other lens I'm bringing will be the 24-105 and that's definately no good for night shots at f4.

I went tonight! I would not recommend using the 50mm too much. I think it isn't wide enough to really take it all in. I would bring more than one lens, but be careful to change them where the "snow" isn't falling as it is actually soap bubbles. This would be nasty on a sensor I would imagine.

I got "decent" shots just using my 17-85 f4-5.6. I generally used f5.6 and ISO 1600 in Av mode. This made for some slow shutter speeds, down to 1/10 sec, but even handheld, it wasn't too bad. I'll be posting some when I return home next week. Right now, my computer is so slow that uploading photos would take hours.

So in short, bring an extra lens other than just your 50mm, but the 50mm should work nicely if you don't want to get the whole picture so to speak. A little too narrow for getting the whole street and some individual pieces like the large tree.

Andy

 

[Nicsmom]

I went tonight! I would not recommend using the 50mm too much. I think it isn't wide enough to really take it all in. I would bring more than one lens, but be careful to change them where the "snow" isn't falling as it is actually soap bubbles. This would be nasty on a sensor I would imagine.

I got "decent" shots just using my 17-85 f4-5.6. I generally used f5.6 and ISO 1600 in Av mode. This made for some slow shutter speeds, down to 1/10 sec, but even handheld, it wasn't too bad. I'll be posting some when I return home next week. Right now, my computer is so slow that uploading photos would take hours.

So in short, bring an extra lens other than just your 50mm, but the 50mm should work nicely if you don't want to get the whole picture so to speak. A little too narrow for getting the whole street and some individual pieces like the large tree.

Andy

Thanks for the advice. Any noise in your pics at ISO 1600?

 

[AndrewWG]

Here are a few from last night. They take too long to upload so I only got these three uploaded so far. I don't think they look too noisy. Of course, this computer screen is horrible. They aren't as sharp as I would have liked. I would certainly suggest a tripod or monopod if you think you can get one set up in there. There were alot of people in there but I did see a couple people using tripods and they weren't having too tough of a time with them. I think the biggest problem would be people walking in front of the camera as people are just wandering around all over the place.

 

[handicap18]

Great colors Andy. At this resolution they don't look noisy at all. Nice job.

 

[Nicsmom]

I agree, nice shots and not very noisy at all. Thanks for sharing them.

 

[jpeka65844]

Hey folks! Just got back! My OL pics dont' look too bad! I need to pull them off the laptop! Colors look good and brilliant but I sacrificed a little bit of focus. I couldn't get rid of the blur. That's probably why you suggest a tripod? I had a gorillapod w/me but didn't wind up using it for anything!

I'll post some soon!

 

[jpeka65844]

Okay! Here they go! No brand new POV's or anything....just the same pics you can find on any website, really! I was shooting with a Canon PowerShot S5 IS in Shutter Priority mode and fiddled w/shutter speeds until I got a satisfactory brightness!

Apologies to any Dis-ers I may have snapped in my pics!

 

[AndrewWG]

Hey folks! Just got back! My OL pics dont' look too bad! I need to pull them off the laptop! Colors look good and brilliant but I sacrificed a little bit of focus. I couldn't get rid of the blur. That's probably why you suggest a tripod? I had a gorillapod w/me but didn't wind up using it for anything!

I'll post some soon!

Denice,

Exactly. Although the lights aren't a moving subject, I think that a tripod would be best in that situation. Even the slightest movement on the photographers part can lead to blurry lights. I didn't use a tripod either and got some acceptable shots, but I'm certain they would have been better with a tripod. It is just too hard to get a shutter speed that is real fast in that situation. You did a great job with it though. Probably because you are using a Canon!

 

[LittleFlounder]

I shot *many* pictures of the Osbourne Lights on Nov 14. I used my Canon Powershot SD 110 which is quite a bit older than cameras everyone else seem to use, yet I am always surprised at the pictures I get from it. I used a tripod, set my camera to manual mode, turned the flash off and set the shutter speed/exposure to -2/3 or -1. I didn't use any type of "nighttime" mode.

Here are some of my pictures: (sorry they're so big)

 

[10dedfish]

Those are really great pics.