The Disneyland Photo of the Day...

[niklj]

Neat post! One little thing I might add is that this might only apply to the stores at the resorts, because I think you're not allowed to take pictures at other stores for worries of copyright infringement or some such (e.g. Starbucks.)

Keep the tips coming!

[ryanvalle]

Good stuff. May I ask what kind of tripod you use for your pictures? I've always wanted to buy one (or a monopod), but can't find something portable enough for the parks, but sturdy enough to hold my camera.

[4Apples4Disney]

Thank you very much for posting these. Truly a great thread! I hope you realize all the joy and smiles your bringing. Thanks for all your effort.

[Hot Sauce 1]

That's awesome. Makes the seemingly uninteresting objects in stores very interesting to photograph.

When I first started to really get into photography, that became my driving challenge. "Can I take pictures of very mundane things and make it an interesting picture just by use of perspective or depth of field?" I still get quite a few instant deletes, but I'm getting better and it's getting more fun.

[Hot Sauce 1]

Neat post! One little thing I might add is that this might only apply to the stores at the resorts, because I think you're not allowed to take pictures at other stores for worries of copyright infringement or some such (e.g. Starbucks.)

Keep the tips coming!

So far I haven't had any problem taking pictures in stores. I pretty much only take pictures in the Disney stores though. I do know that you will be escorted out of a casino very quickly if you try to take pictures in one. (My wedding at The Rio comes to mind)

[Hot Sauce 1]

Good stuff. May I ask what kind of tripod you use for your pictures? I've always wanted to buy one (or a monopod), but can't find something portable enough for the parks, but sturdy enough to hold my camera.

For a Tripod, I have a pretty basic Vivitar that I got on sale at Office Depot for around $30.00. I like it because it can fit on the side of my camera bag when I'm walking around Disneyland. It's pretty stable and easy to use. I also have a Manfroto Monopod with the tripod accessory for the bottom. It is AWESOME, but it is REALLY HEAVY! It's like carrying a big steel club around the park. When I bring it, I usually put it into a locker till night time.

I have some experiments I'm dying to try the next time I go, so I will have to be using the tripod during the day which is going to be a pain and look pretty strange. If they work out, it should be pretty cool though.

[Hot Sauce 1]

8-1-10
For today’s “Disneyland Photo Tip of the Day”, I decided to tackle a subject we here in Southern California know all too well called May Gray and June Gloom.

For anyone not from Southern California, those terms refer to the months when we have a very heavy Marine Layer and the sky is very gray and dull all day long, sometime for weeks on end.

From a photographic standpoint, a gray sky makes pictures very flat, colorless and lacking in contrast. It also makes any picture that has a gray sky in it, pretty boring to look at. However, after today, you won’t have to worry about that any more. In Photoshop Elements you can quickly and easily replace that bland colorless sky with one of your choosing. (This also brings up that point that a necessary item to have in your “photo catalog” is lots of pictures of the sky on nice days, sunrises and sunsets)

Here are some examples of pictures I took on one of those depressing, gray sky days at Disneyland and what they look like after replacing the sky.
















Here is a link to a video tutorial that shows how easy it is to change the sky in Photoshop Elements. This can be done on any jpeg photos, so any camera works. You can do this from a Point & Shoot or DSLR.

Alibony Videos - Lesson 12: Quick Colorless Sky Replacement

There is one important thing that she didn’t mention in the video. If that picture were really taken with a bright pretty blue sky, the subject would be brighter, have more contrast and more color. Once I replace the sky, I also use the Selection Tool to select only the non sky portion of the picture, use the Lighten Shadows slider to brighten it up, use the Contrast slider to increase the contrast, use the Saturation slider to increase the color saturation a little and then I use the Temperature slider to increase the temperature 1 point. I increase the Temperature 1 point because a bright sunny day has a warmer temperature of light than a dull day does and it makes the photo appear more like it was really taken on that beautiful day.

Here is an example of other fun things you can do if you have some really cool sunset sky photos. I like to call this one Splash Mountain Apocalypse.



Depending upon the detail or subject of the picture, it usually takes me between 10 to 15 minutes per picture. If you have a photo that you really like except for that ugly sky and want to enjoy to its fullest, it is well worth the time to make it the best it can be.

I hope you enjoyed this little foray into Photoshop Elements and Sky replacement.

Happy Snapping!
© Michael Greening 2010

[Hot Sauce 1]

8-2-10
Today’s “Disneyland Photo Tip of the Day” features a few night time photos taken without the aid of a tripod. There will be times when you are cruising the parks at night and don’t have a tripod with you. If you take a second and look around, you can usually find a way to stabilize the camera and get a crisp clean photo using things that are right around you.

This picture of the Neverland Pool at the Disneyland Hotel was taken late one night after the pool was closed. The gate was locked and I couldn’t get in to take the pictures that I wanted. I sat on the wall next to the gate, put my camera lens through the bars of the gate and held the side of the camera against the bar to stabilize it.



For this picture taken in Glow Fest, I leaned my body against a lamp post and put the side of the camera against the post to hold it steady.



This picture of Splash Mountain was taken with my Point & Shoot camera with a pretty slow shutter speed of around 2.5 seconds. I put the camera on top of a trash can and put a folded up napkin under the front edge of the camera to tilt it back a little bit. I also used the 2 second timer so pressing the shutter button wouldn’t move the camera.


There are a few other tips for shooting at night without a tripod. Put your camera into Continuous Shooting Mode and take at least 3 pictures in a row. The first picture will usually be blurry but the second or third will be better. If you are using a Point & Shoot camera, use the viewfinder (if your camera has one) instead of the LCD screen. If you don’t have a viewfinder, hold the camera as close to your body as you can. The farther you hold the camera from your body, the more movement you hands have and the blurrier your pictures will be.

I hope these tips help you achieve shaper night time images without having to lug a tripod around everywhere like I do.

Happy Snapping!
© Michael Greening 2010

[desertgroomer]

Hello, Mike,

After lurking for a while in this forum, you made me come out from the shadows because I needed to add my "Thank You" for all you are doing for us, wannabe digital photographers. I learned more in a month than since I bought my Canon!

Should you care to explain, in your Apocalypse picture you didn't have the advantage of a gradient to white on the bottom part of the sky, to disguise the boundary when erasing the foreground (using the brush tool). I'm wondering if you still used a small brush to remove the red sky from the narrow branches of the small dead tree (just left of the the final drop opening) or you have a secret weapon?

Again, congratulations and thanks for sharing!!!!

Rico

[Hot Sauce 1]

Hello, Mike,

After lurking for a while in this forum, you made me come out from the shadows because I needed to add my "Thank You" for all you are doing for us, wannabe digital photographers. I learned more in a month than since I bought my Canon!

Should you care to explain, in your Apocalypse picture you didn't have the advantage of a gradient to white on the bottom part of the sky, to disguise the boundary when erasing the foreground (using the brush tool). I'm wondering if you still used a small brush to remove the red sky from the narrow branches of the small dead tree (just left of the the final drop opening) or you have a secret weapon?

Again, congratulations and thanks for sharing!!!!

Rico

Hi Rico,

First, thank you very much for the kind words. I really do appreciate it.

For the Apocolypse picture, I zoomed way in on it so I could see every little detail and used a really small brush, sometimes down to 2 pixels, to remove the overlapping sky on the branches. That one took about 30 minutes to do. As you can see, I also changed the hue on it to be a bit more red so it looked more like the color of light that would come from that sky.

The little flowers on the Partners Statue were also a pain in the butt to do. A lot of them are still shaded by the sky and I just left them alone because it was hard to tell the difference.

Hope that helps.

Mike

[desertgroomer]

Oh, well... I was hoping for the secret keystroke to that magical hidden tool that does it all for you, but I guess until Photoshop Elements 47 (with AI) comes out we will have to keep relaying in the single pixel brush!!!

Thanks for the great explanation, I didn't notice the problem with the little flowers until you pointed it out. Wicked! They make things in tutorials look so straightforward....

Rico

[vccharisma]

What an absolutely wonderful thread. You take such amazing pictures, and it gives hope to us "point & shooters" that we can take good pictures too! I wish my point & shoot had an aperture setting though. Le sigh.

[Tuki]

Hello! I'm new here, but just wanted to add my 2 cents...these photos are AMAZING! This is by far my favorite thread! I hope to see more!

[Hot Sauce 1]

8-3-10
For today’s “Disneyland Photo Tip of the Day” I decided to talk about Angles and Motion a bit. When Andy Castro was kind enough to flatter me by using some of my pictures in yesterday’s edition of Dateline Disneyland, I looked at the picture of the Taste Pilots Grill and it got me thinking about the day I took that picture.

It was a beautiful day in April and the wife and I were walking through Condor Flats first thing in the morning taking pictures. I took one of the Glamorous Glennis (the plane above the entrance to Taste Pilots Grill) A brief history: The Glamorous Glennis is named after Chuck Yeager’s wife Glennis and is the Bell X-1 Rocket that Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in on October 14, 1947.

The first time we took a picture of the Glennis, the sky was completely clear and we were instantly reminded of the scene in The Aviator where Howard Hughes (played by Leo DiCaprio) said that his planes looked like they were standing still and that he needed clouds behind them to give a sense of movement. We could see clouds in the distance so we decided to wait a little while and come back when we had the proper sky to give the background we wanted. Within an hour, the sky was right and we gave it another go. I wanted to give the feeling that the plane was moving so I took it straight on like in the photo below.


I wasn’t happy with that one, so I tried at a bit of an angle.


Still not happy, I went almost sideways with it.


I like each shot, but none of them really give the sense of movement that I was looking for. Luckily my wife Diane was there using our old Point & Shoot and she has a really good eye for composition so she took some too. She is also 7 inches shorter than I am so her point of view is a bit lower than mine. As you can see in her picture, she filled more of the frame with the plane, put it at a diagonal and has the tip of it leaving the frame. This composition gives a much stronger sense of movement and action to the photo.


I hope you enjoyed this little plane ride of a discussion about Angles and Motion in photography and that it inspires you to look at things from a different point of view.

Happy Snapping!
© Michael Greening 2010

[SoCalFan]

Absolutely brilliant post today. I absolutely love the pictures and being from up here where aerospace grew up and Yeager broke the sound barrier, I'm quite familiar with this plane and always kind of appreciated having this little piece in DCA. I love the dedication of waiting an hour just to have the clouds to get that perfect shot. It payed off. I need to go scrolling through your Flickr to see all the other pictures outside this thread.