The Disneyland Photo of the Day...

[MistrWebmastr]

I have a few of those "Green Honey" pictures from my Point & Shoot. Too bad I can't adjust the White Balance on those. Luckilly, I just took a bunch of new ones with my DSLR and the Nifty Fifty.

Yea, in Lightroom it's quite nice having Temp. # rather than Temp. +/- Huge ability to adjust pictures.

Continuing to enjoy all of these great shots, Hot Sauce, and guest contributors. Hot Sauce....those flower shots were amazing. Keep up the good work!

I try, though I'm going to have a tough time trying to find more stuff to talk about. With me it's more instincts than actually thinking about it. Michael does a wonderful job of actually turning what I don't even think about to guides.

[beckix.o.x]

LOVE! the mickey shots, i think they're some of my favourites.
would you mind if i used one as my background?

[Kangel]

9-21-10
Today’s “Disneyland Photo Tip of the Day” is about the use of Props.



I really wanted to see what Minnie would do with Mickey, so I just had to keep eating and eating the outstanding Carrot Bread waiting for her to come by our table. It was worth the wait, not only because of the Carrot Bread but the picture too. (To get Minnie's attention, Diane waved Mickey's hands at her and she immediately came running over.)


(On a side note; the lighting in the Plaza Inn is very difficult lighting and completely fools the Auto White Balance on your camera. If you do partake in a Character Breakfast or any meal in Plaza Inn and want to take pictures, set your White Balance to TUNGSTEN. It is the closest color temperature to the lights in that restaurant.) We will discuss White Balance in greater detail in another post.

Oh the Pooh Bear picture holding Mickey is sooooooooooooo precious!!!!! And the Minnie and Mickey pictures is just great! Love it!! And what a great way to get special pictures of photo shy people! Great tip! Thanks!

Your flower tut is awesome! One question, how do you get the flowers in "front" of the castle to not blur, or the castle to blur?

[DisneyFan86]

Long time lurker on this thread. I love all the photos on here and I'm really glad you posted a topic on white balance. This was something that frustrated me when shooting in some areas in the park. Plus, I never knew you could adjust the picture long after shooting it in RAW format on the computer (I'm a rookie when it comes to using a DSLR and all its features). I just want to thank you, MistrWebmastr, and RegionsBeyond for taking the time to post these beautiful shots and giving tips on how to accomplish them. It's greatly appreciated!

[Hot Sauce 1]

LOVE! the mickey shots, i think they're some of my favourites.
would you mind if i used one as my background?

Thank you, I'm very flattered.
Please feel free to use any of them you like. They are also available full size on my flickr page.
P.S. If you like those, there's more to come.......... I have a whole other post coming up just for Mickey Pictures.

[Hot Sauce 1]

Oh the Pooh Bear picture holding Mickey is sooooooooooooo precious!!!!! And the Minnie and Mickey pictures is just great! Love it!! And what a great way to get special pictures of photo shy people! Great tip! Thanks!

Your flower tut is awesome! One question, how do you get the flowers in "front" of the castle to not blur, or the castle to blur?

I'm glad you liked them. They were a lot of fun to take. The characters really got into having fun with Plush Mickey.

For the flower pictures in front of the castle, I used a really small aperture like a F/18 and put the focal point on the flower. The smaller the aperture, the more the objects in the background will be in focus. When I'm shooting just a close up of a single flower or tight group of flowers, I use a large aperture, somewhere around 3.5 and this will blur the background to make the flowers stand out more.

[Hot Sauce 1]

Long time lurker on this thread. I love all the photos on here and I'm really glad you posted a topic on white balance. This was something that frustrated me when shooting in some areas in the park. Plus, I never knew you could adjust the picture long after shooting it in RAW format on the computer (I'm a rookie when it comes to using a DSLR and all its features). I just want to thank you, MistrWebmastr, and RegionsBeyond for taking the time to post these beautiful shots and giving tips on how to accomplish them. It's greatly appreciated!

I'm also just figuring out how much of a difference it can make by adjusting the white balance in certain (mostly indoor) shots and how quick and easy it is to do in the RAW software.

I know I can safely speak for Mistr Webmastr & RegionsBeyond when I say that we are glad to help and glad that we can help.

[leslie_537]

I have been playing with shooting in the raw. On our next trip I am going to shoot in RAW + JPG format. Just for back-up. It is absolutely amazing the changes you can make with RAW as opposed to jpg. You can pretty much change it 2 full stops with out messing up the photo. There is no way you could do that with a jpg.

Thanks for all the information.

[Hot Sauce 1]

I have been playing with shooting in the raw. On our next trip I am going to shoot in RAW + JPG format. Just for back-up. It is absolutely amazing the changes you can make with RAW as opposed to jpg. You can pretty much change it 2 full stops with out messing up the photo. There is no way you could do that with a jpg.

Thanks for all the information.

Wonderful. Just remember that when shooting in RAW +jpg, you burn up a lot more space on memory cards and it takes almost twice as long for the camera to process the image to the memory card so you will have to wait a little longer between pictures.

If a situation arises where you need to be in Continuous Shooting mode and shoot several shots very quickly, switch it to just RAW to allow faster shooting speeds.

Have fun!!!!

[Hot Sauce 1]

9-27-10
Today’s “Disneyland Photo Tip of the Day” is going to discus the use of what I like to call Photo Anchors.

I know this is a term that none of you have ever heard of, and that’s because it’s the name that my wife just gave it as I was trying to figure out what to call today’s post.

I will define it like this; A Photo Anchor is an object in a photograph that provides a visual anchor for the viewer to get a sense of distance, location or atmosphere and better understand or appreciate the photograph.

Some people would say that I am talking about Foreground Interest but I believe this is a bit different because a Photo Anchor doesn’t have to be anything large or interesting or attractive. It is only there to serve the purpose of defining the image.

Here are some examples that will visualize what I mean.

In this photo taken from the loading dock for the Mark Twain, we look down the Rivers of America. The picture is nice, but pretty boring and doesn’t give a very good sense of where you are.


Here we have the same picture with the tops of a couple barrels in the bottom corner. The barrels aren’t anything of significance but they do create a visual anchor that tells the viewer they are on a dock and helps give an understanding of the length of the river.


Here’s another one of the Rivers of America, and again, it’s pretty boring.


Now we add a bit of the railing to the picture and it instantly becomes more understandable. (ok, it's still a boring picture but you understand)


In this shot of the River, the lantern and the posts of the dock provide an anchor that gives weight to the photo and a calm, serene mood to it.


This pathway in the Grand California Hotel is a lovely picture with the lights and rain but the trees in the foreground tell you that you are in a wooded area, give some visual weight to it and even though you only see the trunks, you know they are pine trees which add to the woodsy feel.


This HDR Merge of the entrance to the Grand California Hotel is anchored by the sign and light on the right edge. They don’t really do anything to add interest to the picture but they do the job of telling you where you are and lead your eye up the road to the entrance.


Usually a picture of Mickey’s Fun Wheel taken from this angle and this far away would be uninteresting and difficult to get a sense of what it is about. By having the little bit of beach in the foreground, it gives the visual clues that it is a beach and it fits the theme of Paradise Pier.


Here in Toontown, the Mickey statue ties together the house behind it, the mountain and Toontown sign in the background.


I hope this little chat about Anchors gives you a greater understanding of composition and how an object can anchor a photo and give the viewer a better sense of place.

Happy Snapping
© Michael Greening 2010

[niklj]

I've never seen that view of Paradise Pier before! Now I actually get what they were thinking when they built that place and it actually does look sort of real now.

[Hot Sauce 1]

I've never seen that view of Paradise Pier before! Now I actually get what they were thinking when they built that place and it actually does look sort of real now.

I know exactly what you mean. There is only one little spot with a beach on it, over by the Zephyr. If they had put other little areas of sand and plants closer to the Fun Wheel, I think it would have a much better sense of that old oceanfront boardwalk amusement park feel that they were after. I have a feeling it was planned to be that way but just wasn't executed very well due to budget concerns.

[Hot Sauce 1]

Today’s “Disneyland Photo Tip of the Day” is going to focus on our friend Plush Mickey.

If any of you have children in elementary school, you have probably heard of Flat Stanley. If not, Flat Stanley is "an international literacy and community building project for children of all ages, teachers and families." It is a drawing of a person that kids color in and then cut out. They take pictures of Flat Stanley in different places, send him to relatives for them to take pictures of him and do a report on it for their class. The children in each class compete for the best Flat Stanley presentation with the competition going all the way up to the national level. You can check it out at www.flatstanley.com

A few years ago a friend of ours asked us to take his daughter's Flat Stanley to Disneyland and take pictures of him around the park. Much to our surprise, we really enjoyed it.

Now, instead of Flat Stanley we have Plush Mickey and he’s a much more photogenic model. The reason Plush Mickey is a “Photo Tip of the Day” is by having a subject such as Plush Mickey, you put more thought into things like composition and aperture as well as creative post processing techniques which will help improve your skills as a photographer.

Here’s a bunch of pictures I took of Plush Mickey as if telling the story of his adventures in the parks.

Plush Mickey starts out his day at Grizzly Peak and enjoys the waterfalls.


Plush Mickey and Diane watch the show.


Plush Mickey ponders Splash Mountain.


Plush Mickey takes aim.


Plush Mickey enjoys Fantasyland.




Plush Mickey says Bite Me!


Plush Mickey can't wait to visit Toontown.


Plush Mickey awaits the mailman.


Plush Mickey takes a break.


Plush Mickey, Do Not Look Into the Eyes of the Idol!!!


Plush Mickey ponders a ride on the Finding Nemo Submarines.


Plush Mickey tries not to hurl...


Plush Mickey likes the pretty horses on the Carousel.


Plush Mickey waits his turn on Dumbo.


Back at Paradise Pier, Plush Mickey watches some cartoons before bed time.


I also did some playing around with different post processing techniques like these Antique looking photos. (this will be the subject of another post)


I love the way this one turned out.


So the next time you visit the parks, give yourself a photo subject and make a fun day of it. I really was surprised at how much fun we had taking these pictures and at how many people wanted to take pictures of him too.

Happy Snapping
© Michael Greening 2010

[Chanfan]

Nice, I'm always a sucker for those sorts of themed shots. And the sepiatone pics look nice!

[ArtemisP]

What a great thread! We're new here and the kids have loved this..we'll be back.