First Trip - Photo help

[cinderellagirl2280]

Hey guys! I’m heading to Disneyland for the first time in July. Want to take as many photos as I can. Daytime photos are never an issue for me but what are your suggestions for getting great nighttime shots besides a tripod?


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[mSummers]

Tripod is the best way to get night photos because it provides a steady support for long exposures. But, if you want to go without a full size tripod there are other options.

1) Crank the ISO up so you have a high enough shutter speed to hand hold. Advantage - no additional gear, flexibility in composition. Disadvantage - high noise from the high ISO.
2) Use available support. Find trash cans, tables and railings (if wide enough) to use as a tripod. Advantage - no additional gear, long exposures are possible if you add a cable release or are very careful pressing the shutter release. Disadvantage - limited composition based on location of solid object you're setting the camera on & no ability to tilt the camera up and down.
3) Available support with tabletop tripod and cable release. Advantage - long exposures are possible. Slight advantage in composition with tabletop tripod because you have the ability to tilt the camera up and down easier. Disadvantage - composition is still limited by the location of the solid object you're sitting the tabletop tripod on.

So, using a tripod gives the most flexibility, but other options can be used. Tokyo Disney bans tripods altogether, so all of the nighttime shots you've seen from Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo Disney Sea were taken using available support.

 

[gary]

what body and lens combo?, a job gorilla pod is great for smaller setups and can be wrapped around railings and some lampposts for support

 

[ddindy]

Whether you're at Disneyland or Disney World, taking night photos is pretty much the same. The big difference is that Disneyland is much busier on evenings and weekend than during the weekday/afternoon time frame due to the influx of locals.

Camera, tripod, cable release. VR off, auto ISO off, manual exposure. Shoot RAW. Play with your exposure until it looks right. Take plenty of memory cards so you don't worry about running out of space while playing with your exposure. And don't delete anything because what doesn't look perfect on the back of the camera may look a whole lot better once you get it in Photoshop.

I always feel that the hub at Disneyland has more trees than WDW's Magic Kingdom. You basically have to find a spot on the castle side of the hub, and do it as early as you can. (But that advice is from someone who has not tried to shoot fireworks at Disneyland because they were canceled due to high winds whenever I tried.) The current show is projection heavy like the new one at WDW. One difference at Disneyland is that they also do some projections on It's A Small World.

Look around at the photos on this site. In many cases, you can click on the photo and be sent to Flickr where you can see the equipment and exposure settings. Just bear in mind that most photos are heavily processed before they get posted.