Taking photos of parades at night

[123SA]

Equipment: Pentax *istDL, Sigma lenses 18-125mm and 70-300mm, and pentax lens 1:1.4 50mm

I'd like to take decent photos of SpectroMagic and MNSSHP parade. Last year I used the 18-125mm lens -- I tried in auto mode with the flash and without the flash -- most of the time it just would not take a photo. I switched the camera to manual mode and I did get photos, but not very good ones -- I really don't know how to use the manual settings. Some of the photos were acceptable and some were just not crisp, or just plain blurry.

Any tips on what to try this time around?


Actually -- I had the same problem taking photos of DD with characters in front of the castle after the villians show -- auto mode would just not work. I had to switch to manual and most of the photos were really not that good.

 

[handicap18]

For Spectromagic I would use the 50mm f/1.4 lens. Use ISO1600 and aperture priority at f/1.4. You should get shutter speeds in the 1/50th to 1/100th range depending on the amount of light coming off the floats. A shutter speed of less than 1/50th and you'll get motion blurr from the moving characters.

 

[123SA]

A few more questions:


flash on or off?

Any ideas where I can practice?

Thanks for your help.

 

[AndrewWG]

I would certainly go with flash OFF. There should be enough sensitivity with the wide open aperture and high ISO to get planty of light. Also, you will probably find that most people around you will be using flash so it will light up your pics a bit too.

The one thing I would say is that the 50mm is your only choice given the two lenses you mention. If you have the opportunity to purchase another lens, the Sigma 30mm f1.4 (around $400???) would be a great choice. When I photographed Spectro last November, I used my 50mm and found that in many circumstances, I wished it was wider angle than that, especially being so up close as I was on the sidewalk. However, I still got quite a few really nice shots so I don't want you to think that it can't be done. It certainly can be done with the 50mm. The 30mm would just be that much better. Here are some of my 50mm shots from last year. Note that I was also about 2 people deep away from the actual edge of Main Street.

wider angle would have been MUCH better on this shot although I do like the way it came out:

 

[123SA]

This part I understand. I think the reason I didn't use this lens last time was because of this -- however, that was a mistake as the photos I did get weren't really any good. Maybe if I can get up on the porch in Frontierland? Problem is I am short, I guess my view would be obstructed.

 

[handicap18]

Frontierland would be a good area to get some nice shots. Its not as crowded as Main St and you do have a small step around the Country Bear's and Peso's Bill. There is also the steps going up to the Diamond Horseshoe

Here are some with the 30mm f/1.4 to give you another idea. The 50mm f/1.8 does work well too though:

 

[Groucho]

The 50mm is definitely the one to use! Make sure that you either manually select ISO 1600 or have "Auto" set to go from 200-1600. You may even want to play with ISO 3200.

Focusing worked poorly with the Sigmas because they don't let much light in - the 50mm lets in much, much more light so it's easier for the camera to focus.

You should also consider shooting in Raw mode. This will give you a little more flexibility later, especially if you want to adjust white balance (most cameras tend to get WB a little off during these kind of night photos, you end up with brown skies.)

Here's a few taken with that exact combination... Pentax *ist DL and 50mm F1.4. One thing I did was use exposure compensation, about +1.5, in order to brighten up the overall scene. I varied between a few different shooting modes - in retrospect, shutter priority may be the way to go. Set it to fast enough that you're consistently getting non-blurry shots.

The first photo is just before Spectro, with a CM warming up the crowd. It was 9pm in January - it was dark! That shows you just what the lens can do.