Camera Labs

I spent the past week on vacation, part of which was devoted to photography. And a major part of that in the heat and humidity of central Florida was Night Photography - long a favorite subject of mine. Following up on a previous 'nightscapes' post of mine taken from Disney World, I continued my night theme on this trip as well at Disney World (I visit there every few months). Using a simple set up of my Sony DSLR-A550, SAL18-250mm lens, tripod, and remote shutter release, I spent most nights touring around on my own throughout the Disney World parks shooting the wonderful architecture, landscaping, and lighting, in the cool tones and atmosphere of nighttime. Here are some favorites from the trip:

Mann's Chinese Theater, aka Great Movie Ride, at Hollywood Studios (18mm, F9, ISO200, 8 seconds):


Old Key West resort (18mm, F7.1, ISO200, 15 seconds):


Epcot's Spaceship Earth (18mm, F9, ISO200, 4 seconds):


Epcot China pavilion, Temple of Heaven (18mm, F6.3, ISO200, 8 seconds):


Epcot France pavilion, from across the river (26mm, F5.6, ISO200, 8 seconds):


Epcot Journey Into Imagination pavilion (24mm, F7.1, ISO200, 3 seconds):


Wilderness Lodge resort (22mm, F5.6, ISO200, 8 seconds):


Wilderness Lodge with the risen moon (20mm, F5, ISO200, 13 seconds):


Grand Floridian resort, taken from a moving boat - no tripod (18mm, F3.5, ISO3200, 1/30 second):


Grand Floridian resort across the water (45mm, F7.1, ISO200, 5 seconds):


Polynesian Resort (18mm, F7.1, ISO200, 15 seconds):


A little night tour all over Disney World property - a favorite place of mine for night shooting. Hope you enjoyed.

Comments, critique, questions welcome.

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Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

Beautiful shots Zackiedawg

Great shots..Love the compositions.

And now for some constructive criticism


1st Picture....Not centered and the building is tilting to the right. So basically ensure before you take the shot, you should make sure the subject is straight and centered if you're looking for a centered shot.

2nd Picture....Love it

3rd Picture...Great shot...However, would have been nice if you could have eliminated the ghosting of the people walking in the picture...It's rather distracting.

4th Picture...Great shot

5th Picture....Lights in the bottom left hand corner are really overexposed and caught my attention immediately...Great image otherwise.


6th Picture...White light...Over exposed....Try dulling it down a tad in Lightroom.

7th Picture....Great shot

8th Picture....Great shot

9th Picture....Great shot

10th Picture....Nice shot...Front lights are a bit over exposed, but still a nice shot.

11th Picture....Great shot.

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Cheers

Equipment:

Nikon D300S + MB-D10 Battery Grip
Nikon AF-S 16-85mm VR 3.5-5.6
Nikon AF-S 35mm 1.8
Sigma APO 70-200 2.8
Nikon Speedlight SB-600
MC-36 Shutter Release

Regards,

Pete Nukho

Great Set, thanks for posting the shooting info,

Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

Hi

Must agree great set of photos!

Thanks for sharing

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What you see depends on what you're looking for

http://www.flickr.com/photos/humaneugene

Thank you all...appreciate the comments, compliments, and critique suggestions!

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Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

Great set, I like #3 the most.

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Flickr

Nice set, Justin.

On the second shot it looks like the WB might be slightly off.

On the sixth shot, this is difficult to nail the exposure in the one shot. The scene is ripe for bracketing and blending, or perhaps creating several shots from the one RAW file and exposure merging in Photomatix or PS or PSE8. That way the fountain won't be so blown and the scene will be better exposed in the background.

I'm jealous of your twilight!

Thanks Evo!

Phil, thank you for the comments. That second shot was tough to nail the WB - but I think I got it basically where I wanted it - the building in the background is just about right and the sky too, but the lighthouse to the right is being heavily tinted yellow from strong sodium vapor lighting around the resort's pool area. Those sodium lights were making the whole scene yellowy-orange with auto WB, so I manually adjusted it to get it tuned about where I wanted. I'm one of those crazy nut photographers that likes to shoot in JPEG, and do no processing at all - I always strive for out-of-camera results to be what I want, even if it's a bit challenging...I know I might be able to recover something here or there if I shot RAW and did some processing work, but i just for some reason enjoy the challenge of getting it as good as I can get it in the camera, try to work out as many problems as I can in camera, and enjoy the photograph taking process...avoiding the processing process as much as possible! Even in film days, I was never one for darkrooms or self-developing, and I was always a stickler with finding a lab that would process my photos pretty much as they were shot or by default, without applying typical lab 'corrections' to the shots by pushing or pulling or correcting.

You're right on the 6th shot - massive DR beyond one shot possibilities. I considered actually shooting it with in-camera HDR, but that'll have to be for next time.

_________________
Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg

Lovely shots, 1, 4 and 6 are my favs. Incredible place and atmosphere

Justin

You're doing very well with straight out of camera JPEGs - that shows your pre digital experience!

It's a pain with different light sources in the scene at different colour temperatures though. What was the WB K on the second shot?

I'd definitely recommend looking into a trial version of photomatix - you can bracket and then rather than go for the full on HDR look you can exposure merge. I've only tried it recently on night shoots and it really helps with otherwise blown highlights, as well as bringing out even more detail.

Surprisingly, the in camera HDR does just about what I'd consider perfect HDR - as long as you don't set it too strong. Similar to the exposure merge you mentioned, the in-camera HDR shoots two frames with variance of 1 - 3 EV between them, aligns and merges in camera for shadows and highlights. It works wonders on those very challenging scenes with huge highlights right next to deep heavy shadow. I just don't always think to use it - sometimes I'm just immersed in the night shoot, and working exposures, and accept the blown highlights here or the burned shadows there as I would from film days...forgetting that I have a quick in-camera cure.

Shots #7 and #8 above were using the in-camera HDR function, with a setting of +1EV. Those were examples of almost impossible dynamic range - the hotel itself was basically in full shadow, and would probably require a 20-30 second exposure to get properly exposed. But then all the lights, and the well-lit rocks in the foreground, would be a blown out mess. Expose those rocks and lights properly, and the hotel is a silhouette. The two exposure HDR definitely saved me there, letting me get both reasonably well exposed. Anyone shooting in RAW and who doesn't mind a little post processing could likely get the same results...I don't think I'm doing much that a good processor couldn't do as well...I just love doing it in the camera and not processing it later. The less time I spend sitting at my computer with Photoshop open tweaking layers, the happier I am!

I am at work, so I don't have the WB reading...I'll check the original when I get home. I was definitely having to go cooler on that due to the sodium lights, and I'm pretty sure I was in the 3000-3200 range. Sometimes I use the Tungsten WB setting as a starting point since it defaults right in there, then tweak the Kelvin if I feel it needs it. Another reason I love 'live view' in that I can use the LCD to preview the WB setting before taking the shot! I almost always shoot night shots and tripod work in live view, for the convenience of not crouching over to the viewfinder at strange angles - just tilt the LCD up to me, compose, set WB, set exposure, and fire with the wired remote from a foot or two away.

_________________
Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

Galleries:
http://www.pbase.com/zackiedawg