The Magic in Pixels. com

[timned88]

Hi to all,

Just wanted to stop in and say hi and I am fairly new to posting on the disboards. Just to let you know, I am the owner of themagicinpixels.com, a website showcasing my Disney Theme Park photography.

Please stop in and say hi. Take care and keep having fun!

PS. I will be hosting several Mousefest photo tours in early December. Check my website for the schedule. Hope to see you there.

 

[barrie]

Hey Tim - Welcome to the DIS. I've been enjoying your blog for awhile now. In fact, I'm including a feed from it in my next lens, Great Disney World Photos. I'll let you know when it's published. Congratulations on your new site. Barrie

 

[ukcatfan]

timned88,

Your website sparked something in my mind that I have been wondering for a while now. I have always seen that Disney forbids people selling photos of their icon buildings (i.e. castles, Spaceship Earth, the MGM hat). A cast member friend of mine told me that they covered that topic as part of employee orientation in case a guest ever asked them. How are you, and other people I have seen, able to sell them? Are you just small enough to stay under their radar or did you get permission from them? I have a few pretty nice ones myself, but I have been too afraid to try to sell them.

On a different note, you have some very nice photos. Thank you for sharing.

Kevin

 

[timned88]

thanks barrie. i appreciate it and look forward to seeing the lens. have a great day!

 

[SteveN73]

Hi again Tim. Just wanted to share publicly my opinion about your site in this thread. I've never seen WDW photography as good as yours and your site TheMagicInPixels is pretty much the best WDW photography site I've ever seen. I invite others to check it out.

Can you share with the board what you'll be doing at MouseFest this year?

Regards,
Steve N.

 

[tigger795]

Hi there Tim!

Great photos on your site.

First off could you share what equipment you were using for those photos? Specifically the ones with very large apertures and night shots of fireworks and parades.

I was noticing that your exposure values were all over the map. Am I correct in I assuming you were using your camera in Program mode at high ISO. At least one photo was at 1/4000 @ f4.5 outdoors in bright sunlight.

Also, if you don't mind, could you give a quick synopsis of your workflow?

Wish I could make it to one of your Mousefest Photo Tours. Not sure what our schedule will be but hope to make it there first or second week of Dec. We live in Oregon so it is no easy feat to arrange WDW vacations.

Kindest regards,
Randy

 

[timned88]

First off could you share what equipment you were using for those photos? Specifically the ones with very large apertures and night shots of fireworks and parades.

I use a Canon 20d with the following lenses....28-135mm is/usm, 75-300mm is/usm, 10-22mm usm, 28mm f1.8 usm, 50mm f1.4 usm, 85mm f1.8 usm. I also have a Velbon Ultra LuxiF tripod and a Tamrac Expedition 5 backpack to hold all of this stuff...plus a few more goodies in the bag, but I can't give up all my secrets

I was noticing that your exposure values were all over the map. Am I correct in I assuming you were using your camera in Program mode at high ISO.

Sorry, but you couldn't be wronger Outside in bright sunlight I almost always shoot in Av with the lens at between f8 - f11 to control depth of field and maximize sharpness. I am not sure which photo is set to 1/4000 at f4.5...if you can find it again I will try to explain the settings. I NEVER NEVER NEVER use any of the automatic modes, such as full-auto, Program shift, or any of the scene modes and they don't give me enough consistency from shot to shot to get what I want. For beginners they are great modes to use, but not so much for what I am trying to do. Also, I always try to keep the ISO as low as possible to get as little noise into the original file as possible, while still keeping the shutter at a manageable speed.

Also, if you don't mind, could you give a quick synopsis of your workflow?

Synopsis...
open .cr2 (raw file) into Photoshop
process for highlights and shadows and contrast
straighten and perspective correction
fix levels
noise reduce and sharpen
done!

 

[timned88]

TheMagicInPixels is pretty much the best WDW photography site I've ever seen. I invite others to check it out. Can you share with the board what you'll be doing at MouseFest this year?

Sure, here is a copy/paste of the schedule from my site...the tours are to be informative but not a comprehensive photo instructional school. they will be lighthearted and fun, and a way to learn how to get some better disney park photographs. i welcome all disboard photo forum members and would love to see as many as possible of you there. all tours are completely free of charge and should be a super fun time for all.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The official times/dates/places for The Magic in Pixels at Mousefest are as follows:

12/07/06 7:30pm Meet at Tomorrowland Noodle Terrace (Magic Kingdom) - ** NOTE THAT THIS EVENT REQUIRES ADMISSION TO MICKEY'S VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS PARTY - YOU SHOULD ALSO BRING A SMALLER SIZED TRIPOD WITH YOU IF YOU HAVE ONE (IN ORDER TO GET THE BEST POSSIBLE IMAGES). ** TOUR RUNS FOR 9O MINUTES

12/09/06 10:00am Meet at Innoventions East Breezeway (Epcot) - 60 MINUTE TOUR

12/09/06 1:00pm Mega Mouse Meet in Swan/Dolphin (To be Finalized)

12/10/06 12:30pm Meet at Tomorrowland Noodle Terrace (Magic Kingdom) - 60 MINUTE TOUR

The times and dates are subject to change. For complete information, go to MOUSEFEST.ORG. There is no charge for any of these events; AN RSVP IS REQUESTED but not required. Send RSVP's to tim@themagicinpixels.com. Also, be sure to bring your cameras with lots of memory cards and batteries and be ready to fire away. Open to photobugs of all skill levels.

 

[handicap18]

I'd also like to say that Tim that your photos are awesome. Lots of great stuff there. Thanks for sharing your equipment. Based on f/stop numbers and angles of the photos I had a feeling there had to be a 28mm and the 50mm in there. Lots of great inspiration for future Disney trips. I'm thinking of getting a 28mm f/1.8 next year. I already have a 50mm f/1.8 and that was great to have on indoor rides.

Excellent work.

Wish I could make your photo tour of Disney. Sounds like it would be a great event.

Keep up the great work.

 

[Groucho]

The exif data appears to have been stripped from the JPGs (understandable for bandwidth reasons) so we can't read the focal length, which might be nice for some of the pics.

A 50mm 1.4 is the main lens that I won't have by my next trip that I kind of wish I did have... oh well! Next time. Hopefully there'll be a rebate on it again.

 

[timned88]

The exif data appears to have been stripped from the JPGs (understandable for bandwidth reasons) so we can't read the focal length, which might be nice for some of the pics.

i purposely withheld some of the exif data for formatting and relevance purposes. i am working on implementing a new galley skin which would include more information but for now i provide the information in a way that fits the page dimensions.

 

[tinkspark]

timned88 does it matter what type of camera we have for your tour? I have two 35mm Minolta SLRs and a Mamiya medium format. So I never really switched over to digital... I have a kodak easy share with some manual settings. I bought this one mostly to make graphic design work easier. I am waiting until I can afford something nicer in digital. Will the easyshare be good enough to take your tour? Or are there specific cameras you suggest having?

 

[timned88]

it really doesnt matter what type or format camera you bring, just as long as you have some knowledge on how to use it.

 

[tigger795]

I use a Canon 20d with the following lenses....28-135mm is/usm, 75-300mm is/usm, 10-22mm usm, 28mm f1.8 usm, 50mm f1.4 usm, 85mm f1.8 usm. I also have a Velbon Ultra LuxiF tripod and a Tamrac Expedition 5 backpack to hold all of this stuff...plus a few more goodies in the bag, but I can't give up all my secrets



Sorry, but you couldn't be wronger Outside in bright sunlight I almost always shoot in Av with the lens at between f8 - f11 to control depth of field and maximize sharpness. I am not sure which photo is set to 1/4000 at f4.5...if you can find it again I will try to explain the settings. I NEVER NEVER NEVER use any of the automatic modes, such as full-auto, Program shift, or any of the scene modes and they don't give me enough consistency from shot to shot to get what I want. For beginners they are great modes to use, but not so much for what I am trying to do. Also, I always try to keep the ISO as low as possible to get as little noise into the original file as possible, while still keeping the shutter at a manageable speed.




Synopsis...
open .cr2 (raw file) into Photoshop
process for highlights and shadows and contrast
straighten and perspective correction
fix levels
noise reduce and sharpen
done!

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Sometime's it's hard to keep track of all one's conversations here.

Anywho...I can't seem to locate that particular 1/4000 (maybe it was 1/400 but read it wrong...I'll keep looking) photo at the moment but there are a few wierd ones in Magic Kingdom/Main Street/Area Photos. The first three photos have very nonsensical data(1/842018868s ??? your shutter must have a turbo mode ) . The fifth one of the outside of the train station shows 1/1600 @ f8.0. Seems kinda fast for a stationary subject, even in bright sunlight but maybe it was necessary. Hopefully you could clear that one up for me.

I don't know about you but I find myself forgetting to set my ISO back down to a reasonable setting after coming out from inside buildings and attractions or from the night before. I REALLY wish Canon would have put a constant ISO display in the 30D. The only indication I usually get is a shutter speed much higher than I expected.


BTW, It looks like we will be there in early December for Mickey's Christmas Party so hopefully I will be able to attend one of your tours. Probably 12/7.

--
Randy

 

[timned88]

The first three photos have very nonsensical data(1/842018868s ??? your shutter must have a turbo mode )

that was due to a postprocessing technique that i no longer use. it really messed up the data and i wasn't too crazy about the final result. maybe some year i'll go back to the .cr2 and re-do it.

The fifth one of the outside of the train station shows 1/1600 @ f8.0. Seems kinda fast for a stationary subject, even in bright sunlight but maybe it was necessary. Hopefully you could clear that one up for me.

bright sunshine + iso 400 = 1/1600. that seems to be correct. i dont usually keep the iso at 400 outside in bright light.

I REALLY wish Canon would have put a constant ISO display in the 30D.

A lot of other folks share that opinion. Maybe they will listen SOMETIME in the future.

BTW, It looks like we will be there in early December for Mickey's Christmas Party so hopefully I will be able to attend one of your tours. Probably 12/7.

if you don't mind, send me an email so i can keep you informed if anything was to change regarding the tours. looking forward to meeting you there!


BTW, score one Rebel Xti for me this week. Needed a backup camera in case my 20d went down (which it did) and the price was right. Quick one sentence review....LOVE IT!

 

[Olaf]

Nice pictures. I'm hoping to make one of your talks/walks during Mousefest.

How do you get such good pictures in low light? Especially the ones on the rides (Pirates, Movie ride, etc.). I have terrible problems with camera shake.

 

[timned88]

hi olaf,

the on-ride images are a three way combination of very high ISO, super fast wide open SLR lenses, and a small touch of photoshop to get the final result. i am glad you enjoy the photos and am looking forward to meeting you at mousefest. pls. send me an email regarding whatever mousefest meets you are planning to attend so i can keep you informed if anything changes.

 

[timned88]

just wanted to let you know that i have added some new content and did some housekeeping and the site is looking nice and neat right now. thanks for your visits and i hope you keep coming by and enjoying my photos. see you at mousefest.

 

[alfredromero1975]

I like your new forums, Tim. http://www.themagicinpixels.com/forum/ I'll definitely stop by after I get my next camera!

 

[timned88]

thanks alfred. i look forward to seeing you there.