Photography Tips

[kaliepooh]

Hi every one! I'm posting for two reasons, my first reason is to let everyone know that I have 8 days left until I visit the world again!:cloud9: The second reason I'm posting is to find out if anyone has any photography tips.

For example when to use flash and when not to use flash. How should I photograph the fireworks? Should I leave my camera with the automatic flash on?

I decided on the Sony Cyber Shot camera and made that purchase. I'm not the greatest photographer and would like to take some great pictures on this vacation.

I will appreciate any tips on how I can take some great photos during my upcoming vacation.

[IloveDisney71]

I just bought a new camera for my trip in Dec! I got a Kodak Easyshare. Anyway, I love to take pictures but I'm not that great at it so I've been reading up on how to take better pictures. Your camera may have a setting for night time pictures, (mine even has one just for fireworks!). If it has a night time setting that's probably what you want to use for the fireworks. This setting will not use a flash so you HAVE TO make sure your camera is STEADY or you will have blury pics. I read somewhere that you can buy really small tripods that you can sit on the top of railings or other hard surfaces. I even read that Disney trashcans make a great hard surface for tripods when taking pic.s at night. :laughing: I sent you a private message with a website where you can get extra photo tips just for Disney. You might want to check that out. :mickey:

[peemagg]

If you are taking pictures where there is a lot of shadows or you are taking pictures at night, use your fill flash instead of your regular flash. It will give you a better picture of your subject.

[Disney Baby]

I am a Sony Cybershot fan. Which model did you buy? I have a little point and shoot Cybershot and a large one with the huge lens. If you have a point and shot, I would recommend practicing with the camera before you get to WDW. If you can figure out how much of delay there is when you are shooting with and without flash - you will be able to anticipate when to push the button. When I have taken pictures of my daughter with the Characters, I usually take at least two just in case.
You can also take pictures of the fireworks without a flash - it works beautifully. My husband is a huge fan of the WDW trash cans as tripods too!
The last advice I have is to have a big memory stick or a laptop. We download the pictures every night into a laptop. You can take a lot of pictures and just eliminate the ones that you don't need.

[kaliepooh]

Thank you guys for all of your suggestions. I have the little cyber shot. I've been testing it lately and so far so good. I'm soo excited about our upcoming trip and don't want loose any good photo chances.

[CleveRocks]

A normal flash only effectively travels about 10 feet. If you take a photo of anything much farther away than that, the flash is ineffective and unnecessary. I always laugh when people are in a stadium and use their flash to take pics of the field ....

The most important thing in photography is composition ... putting into the frame what you want to see, making sure that it is an attractive image. A lot of times just adjusting your angle (side to side, up and down) can make a huge difference, as can zooming in and out to include or eliminate things in the background.

Flash is often very important during daylight, especially bright daylight. Bright light can cause very dark shadows ... it looks normal to the naked eye but really detracts from photos. If you use a flash, it often fills in much of the shadow. Also, don't take pictures with the sun in the background, as it will cause your subjects to appear very dark. On the other end, if the bright sun is at your back, then it's directly in the eyes of your human subjects, which produces very squinty and uncomfortable faces. If you have a choice, always choose a shady spot over a very bright sunny spot when taking pics of people.

One of my favorite tips ... difficult but worth it if you can pull it off ...

If you want a cool photo of someone on a fast-moving ride, move the camera at the same speed and in the same direction as the subject, and CLICK. If you do it just right, the person is in sharp focus, but the background is completely blurred, making a very cool effect. You can practice this technique at home by having a child run by.

[kaliepooh]

Thank you for the tip. I tried the running child effect and it worked perfectly. Tonight I'll try the different night time shots.