Slideshows From my Early December Trip

[MarkBarbieri]

I use ProShow Gold for similar shows and have a question about Pictures2Exe. ProShow does ok with basic quick fades but
when I use a long, slow pan or zoom with ProShow the exe often takes more than the PC can handle and the audio starts to skip or go out of sync. Does this happen with Pictures2Exe?

Pictures2Exe doesn't have a pan and zoom feature in its released version. That's only in the beta version. I'd like to do occasional pans (especially across panoramic shots) but have not really played with them much.

On my first bold above, did you take a wide view and then crop to the subject? Because, again TT good example, you are in the car, obviously, sitting next to your sons, and pictures (and expressions) are flawless

Yes, many of the ride shots were cropped. You can tell on a particular shot by comparing the resolution to an uncropped shot. I think the slideshow lets you save off a picture by clicking on the print icon in the navigation bar in the lower right corner. I definitely recommend using a hand strap if you are going to dangle a heavy DSLR around on a fast ride; dropping one at 45mph into the face of the person behind you would be a very, very bad thing in so many ways.

And on my second bold, I so noticed that depth of field preference you like, it is so effective.

I really think that the key to good candid portraits is controlling depth of field. After a while, you get used to what f-stop and focal length combinations work for different types of shots. It also helps if you can get close to your subject and not have anything too close behind them.

I'm waiting for the actual pics rather than looking at the slideshow... I'm not sure if I want to look at them or not, I'll either be inspired to do better on my upcoming trip

I posted a link to the actual pictures in the thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1301653.

Obviously, people are being kind with their compliments. The pictures, while nice, are no better than many that are posted here on a regular basis. I think people really like the slideshow format, which helps a lot with the presentation of the pictures. I'm afraid that the smugmug galleries are packed with a lot of mediocre photos that didn't make the slideshow. I generally use it to dump everything that I think I might want to keep and filter to the best for the slideshows.

I plan to use a lot of photos for an upcoming WDW photo quiz, similar to the who/what/where thread.

I glad that so many people enjoyed the slideshows. They are fun to make and we use them ask keepsakes. We put together about a 5 minute show each year as a recap of the things we done over the year. It makes for a fun way to review things in the past and it's a great way to share our experiences with family and friends.

Like others already have, feel free to browse through some of the other slideshows if any of the topics interest you. I especially love the one showing Erik's first four years. It's a series of pictures from about an hour after he was born right up to a week before he turned four. It was a big hit at his birthday party.

As I stated in the other thread, if you want to copy and use any of my photos for non-commercial use, feel free. I think it would be cool if you e-mailed me at pics@barbierifamily.org to let me know which ones you are using and how you are using them. If for some reason someone wants to use some pics commercially, just ask.

 

[Groucho]

Mark, thanks for the link to the other thread with the actual pics - I thought you hadn't put them up yet.

I haven't look at SmugMug yet but I looked at the first minute or so of the "summary" slideshow (I'm at work, can't spend too long looking at a full-screen video!) - the gauntlet truly has been thrown down!

I won't be able to even think about competing on the long-zoom stuff but I'll see what I can do about some of the others. I'm hoping that the Zenitar will be my ace in the hole on outdoor rides... for indoor ones, well, the 50mm 1.4 will have to do, manually focused (probably ahead of time), and I'll just have to take several and hope that a couple will luckily turn out and I'll pretend the others never existed.

I'm also hoping that the "Groucho stick" idea I have will produce some interesting and unusual photos at worst - ideally, they'll be interesting AND turn out well.

Seriously, though, I'm looking forward to going through the collection. It does look like you were very successful on your photo hunt and came back with some real treasures!

 

[Groucho]

Just looking at a few on SmugMug... Mark, just out of curiosity, is there a reason that the outdoor photos at DTD are ISO 800? It doesn't look like it's dark enough to need that and there's a little bit of noise as a result - my guess would be that you had it lower inside Rainforest and forgot to switch it back?

It's happened to me a few times already in different situations...

I see the couple MK photos I've looked at so far are at 200 so I assume that it's not normal procedure for you.

 

[garris3404]

Very nice indeed! What did you use over your camera for the water rides for protection?

 

[jann1033]

nice job mark, i'm copying some of your pointers down

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I won't be able to even think about competing on the long-zoom stuff

I really didn't have much of a zoom. I used the 1.4x extender on the 70-200mm a few times but not often. With a 1.3x body, my normal telephoto didn't go beyond a 260mm equivalent. I did do some significant cropping (I think they call that "digital zoom") on a few of those. What really helped with the telephoto shots at the Festival of the Lion King and Fantasmic was the f/2.8 aperture. It took that and ISO 1600 to get decent shots.

Mark, just out of curiosity, is there a reason that the outdoor photos at DTD are ISO 800?

Just carelessness. That was our travel day, it was hot, we still hadn't checked in so I was dressed too warm, I was tired, and I was getting numerous calls/e-mails from work. It was not a good day for photos.

Even though the rest of the week was better, you'll probably notice a lot of other odd settings throughout the pictures. Sometimes I just got lazy. Sometimes I was careless. Occasionally it was deliberate (like boosting the ISO for very high shutter speeds on the fast/bouncy rides). We were too busy having fun to remember all of our photography fundamentals.

 

[handicap18]

We were too busy having fun to remember all of our photography fundamentals.

As much as we all LOVE taking photos especially at Disney, in the end its all about having fun. Especially, like yourself, if you go with your family.

That being said, I still say your photo's are awesome and some of the best work here at the photo board. Seems as though it was a very successfull trip, you got great photos and you had fun with the family. Well done.

 

[jfap]

Durn.........I have a MAC

 

[Groucho]

I really didn't have much of a zoom. I used the 1.4x extender on the 70-200mm a few times but not often.

I'm specifically thinking of the shot of the driver in the side-mounted seat at LMA - that turned out really well, and is a pretty good distance from the audience (at least it was where we sat!)

Just carelessness. That was our travel day, it was hot, we still hadn't checked in so I was dressed too warm, I was tired, and I was getting numerous calls/e-mails from work. It was not a good day for photos.

Even though the rest of the week was better, you'll probably notice a lot of other odd settings throughout the pictures. Sometimes I just got lazy. Sometimes I was careless. Occasionally it was deliberate (like boosting the ISO for very high shutter speeds on the fast/bouncy rides). We were too busy having fun to remember all of our photography fundamentals.

That's kind of what I figured, certainly understandable. It's not like WDW is a calming environment especially with kids in tow!

I had just noticed that ISO setting as a saw a couple odd things at 100% zoom... I need to reform my pixel peeping ways, it'll be the death of me. I will usually save the photos that interest me in the highest size possible then view with Irfanview, makes it much faster/easier to view at high resolution with quality resampling to my desktop size versus looking at them inside the web browser. With smugmug, that means seeing it at 100% while it downloads.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I'm specifically thinking of the shot of the driver in the side-mounted seat at LMA - that turned out really well, and is a pretty good distance from the audience (at least it was where we sat!)

Actually we had terrible seats for the show. That shot was taken from the Backlot Tour ride. We passed right by him.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Durn.........I have a MAC

Sorry about that.

I created a new Smugmug gallery with just the photos from the summary slideshow. They're out of order and there is no music, but the photos are all there. If you go to http://barbieri.smugmug.com/gallery/2254148 and switch the style to slideshow, you can see all the photos.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

What did you use over your camera for the water rides for protection?

Nothing. The body and lenses that I used are weather sealed. They can take a lot of splashing. I did try to point the lens down and cover it with my hand to keep from getting water on it.

 

[0bli0]

if you have a filter on the end, you don't have to cover the lens. i took my 1dmk2 & 24-70 through Iguazu falls (as in they drove the rafts into the falls themselves 3 times) with no ill effect. i'd never take it through a watefall again intentionally, but i don't worry about rain, water sprays, or rides.