Taking D40 on it's first cruise, need help w/ settings

[scottie]

We are headed out next week on a Disney Cruise then finish up with a couple of days at WDW. I have a D40 with an 18-135mm lens, and this will be the first time we take it on a vacation. Any suggestions on D40 camera settings if I want to take pictures of the evening shows in the theater, which I don’t believe allow flash? I also want to likely snap some other nighttime pictures outside on the decks. Also, we will not have a tripod with us.

 

[Jalva22]

You're going to have to crank your ISO up pretty high. My advice would be to set ISO at 3200, go with aperture priority and set your aperture as wide open as possible. Unfortunately, the 28-135 is only going to give you a max aperture of 3.5 and if you're zooming much it drops to 5.6. Not very good for what you're wanting to shoot. I'm afraid you're going to have problems handholding it at those apertures without blurring the shot.

For $100, you could pick up the Canon 50mm 1.8 II. You lose zoom capabilities, so it would depend on your seats as to whether it's a good option in a theater. But it would be much better for night shots on deck than the lens you have.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/12142-USA/Canon_2514A002BA_Normal_EF_50mm_f_1_8.html

 

[Frantasmic]

I get decent shots inside with spotlights on performers with my Rebel XSi and the 55-250 zoom. The key is a shutter of 1/125 and shooting in RAW and brightening up the picture in post-editing.


Otherwise, the above post is good advice if you don't want to go RAW.

Outside on deck at night is likely to have decent lights for pictures of people. Make sure your WB settings match the lighting.

Getting a low light lens would work too.

 

[MICKEY88]

if you shoot raw, you don't have to worry about your white balance, you adjust that in post processing..

 

[scottie]

At this point, I dont think we will be shooting in RAW.

 

[MICKEY88]

I fought the idea of shooting raw for at least 2 years, since I was quite content with the results I was getting shooting jpeg,

then I shot a sweet 16 party, the lighting conditions were extreme, so I shot raw/jpeg,,my jpegs were horrible and I was getting frustrated trying to post process them, so I opened up my raw folder and started processing raw files for the first time, the results were astounding, and it was much easier to process the raw.., from that night on I've shot nothing but raw, I now wish I had started shooting raw much sooner, because some of my photos that were OK as jpeg, could have been great if I had the raw file to work with..

the beauty of it is, I shoot raw, then batch process letting the factory software convert to jpeg, 90-95 % of pics are fine as is, but for the ones I didn't get right I have more to work with since I have the raw file,
plus if I want to do creative or fun processing I also have more info in the file

 

[GoofyontheHiSeas]

I can share my experience on board the ship this last August. First in August I did not really know much about photography compared to what I know now. Second I had a super zoom Olympus SP560z which has a 18x zoom or about 450mm 35mm equivalent reach. I knew enough to set the ISO to 800 which was the upper limit of acceptable pictures for this camera. Suprisingly the stage lights are very bright so I was able to get better pictures than anticipated, not great but acceptable. I would always sit on one of the side sections in the lower level (about 8-10 rows back). If you get there early you should be able to get some decent shots. I am hoping to go back some day to take pictures with my Nikon. For outside shots without a tripod I would suggest using one of the many trash cans around the ship and be creative. Here are some examples of pictures from Twice Charmed. Sorry they are large but I want you to see what I got with a P&S.

f/4.5 ISO 800 1/500 84.2mm (which would be about 450mm)

f/6.3 ISO 800 1/250 38.8mm

f/4.3 ISO 800 1/200 78.1mm

Have a great time.

 

[YesDear]

It is at least noting that the Canon 50mm 1.8 will not fit on your Nikon D40. Nikon also has a 50mm 1.8 that is about the same price! It is a great lens!

 

[Hoan & Poopie]

The 50mm 1.8 would be a huge help however it will not autofocus on the D40. Not a problem if you don't mind manually focusing. The new 35mm 1.8 will autofocus on the D40 but I think it's quite a bit more expensive.

Otherwise try and let the ISO go as high as it needs (Auto ISO) and try to stay on the wide end (F3.5) when possible.

 

[Nicole721]

The 50mm 1.8 would be a huge help however it will not autofocus on the D40. Not a problem if you don't mind manually focusing. The new 35mm 1.8 will autofocus on the D40 but I think it's quite a bit more expensive.

Otherwise try and let the ISO go as high as it needs (Auto ISO) and try to stay on the wide end (F3.5) when possible.

There is a 50mm 1.8 for the D40/D60, but it runs around $500.

The new 35mm runs around $199 (or it did last time I checked, but it's backordered everywhere and is nearly impossible to find).

I've been trying to find the 35mm 1.8 lens for our upcoming cruise but it's backordered everywhere and I can't seem to find it in stores!

 

[YesDear]

I thought I would show some shots you can get of the shows. These were taken last September on the Magic. They were shot with a D300 and the 70-200 2.8. You cannot get the reach with a 50 mm 1.8 but sit closer and you can get some really good shots.