PM2013 - Magic Kingdom: Everything Else

Dennis, love the DoF check!

Justin, nice catch with the moon over Cosmic Rays.

Here's a bit of the new detail outside Pirates for the new Pirate's Adventure game:


A Pirate's Adventure by Dave Kliment | ExploringWDW, on Flickr

 

Well I have finally started to process my pictures from PM2013.....

Nannette and I got a bit of a late start that morning, especially after Ice at Gaylord Palms. We headed over to pirates to try to catch up with the gang. I had specifically rented an 85mm 1.8 lens for this trip with the hope that the added range I got from that fast prime would give me better reach on Pirates than my 24-70 2.8. As it turned out the lens was having focus hunting issues so I suspect that it may have been beat to death from all the rentals and a bit past it's prime. (Nyuck, nyuck... that was a pun!)

With all the problems I was having I pretty much put this lens in the bag for the rest of the trip because I didn't want to go to all that effort and miss so many shots compared to what I could get from my other lenses. When I finally got home and got a good look at all my pirates shots I was disappointed in all the focusing misses, but Borrow Lenses was kind enough to give me a credit so I could try again on my next trip.

I am going through all my shots so this is just a start....

Because the boat was moving and because of the way I had the focusing controls set up on my camera, I knew I would have to constantly activate the focusing system* every time I squeezed the shutter off, Still after 3 go arounds on the ride and many attempts at this scene I had only one where the lens was able to capture focus on this subject. On subsequent rides I even tried stopping down, eventually to f 3.2, to make sure the depth of field wasn't the problem. I used my DOF calculator app so I know I should have been getting usable results (But wasn't). Definitely get a Depth Of Field calculator on your smart phone! It will save your sanity in moments like this!!

* We all know that if you set the camera system to continuous auto focus, especially in low light settings, it will never focus on what you want it to and will default focus on the brightest spot.... right???

This is 1/100 f 2.0 and 8000 ISO with center weighted average metering. I was happy with this one!


Pirate, sword & seagull 12 5 13 by Joanie Eddis-Koch, on Flickr

~Joanie

 

Next up we have this guy in the same scene. I love the way the CM's put boots on him. The CM's rearrange this scene so that makes it even more cooler. This is the first scene after you pass through the mist. Again I had many out of focus misses. Again, because I am moving, it's one shot, refocus, but really what was going on was 85mm lens hunting, lens hunting, lens hunting... snap. The focusing system on my Nikon D4 is deadly accurate so I was having a heart attack thinking something happened to the camera, especially after all that condensation formed on the camera after we exited from the Gaylord Palms Ice show. The D4 is supposed to be well weather sealed, but you are talking to the woman who takes it on Splash mountain and fires away, hoping for the best and dodging the worst. No guts, no glory, no pictures....

I was pleased to see this turn out exactly as I would have liked. I especially like how you can see just how thin the depth of field was by looking at the shells on the beach.

85mm 1/100 f 2.5 8000 iso and spot metering ; ; Most of these pirate shots needed white balance adjustments in post processing.


crabby pirate 12 5 13 by Joanie Eddis-Koch, on Flickr

~Joanie

 

I love the donkey in this scene!

Of special note is the fact that this lens was an 85mm 1.8.... but lenses tend to be soft at their widest apertures so it's best to stop down somewhat... depending on the lens. I scour the web for info on the lenses that I am going to use to find out where their sweet zones are. This 85mm mother clucker wasn't sweet at all if you ask me.

85mm of aggravation 1/100, f 2.0 8000 iso center weighted metering and yes, this was white balanced to death.


Donkey band one 12 5 13 by Joanie Eddis-Koch, on Flickr

~Joanie

 

Next up we have the ever popular wenches. This was another one where the white balance needed to be adjusted. The Nikon D4 actually does a very good job at getting the white balance correct, even in challenging lighting conditions. BUT there are some scenes in Pirates where I could just hear the Camera saying "You are out of your mind woman if you think even I, the mighty Nikon D4, can correct for that crappy lighting!"

85mm f 2.0 1/100 8000 iso center weighted average metering.


Pirate Wench line up 1 full 12 5 13 by Joanie Eddis-Koch, on Flickr

~Joanie

 

"Cat Man" here was poorly lit (Shocker!!) but I did manage to capture him corrupting these felines with tempting offers of Rum and a bad case of 'tuna breath'.

85mm f2.0, 1/100, 8000 ISO and center weighted average metering.


Pirates kitty city 12 5 13 by Joanie Eddis-Koch, on Flickr

~Joanie

 

So I went around on this ride 3 times. I thought it was five but, for the record, Nannette abandoned me after the second time around.

While waiting in line for the next ride I was reviewing my pix and realizing that all that focus hunting meant trouble. So for this trip around I stopped down to f 2.5 to see if that would help me get more in focus shots. It didn't...

Over all, after this ride and a trip on the Haunted Mansion I realized that this lens was just going to KILL ME with all of the conniptions it was having and the misses it was making.... so I put it in the bag for the rest of the trip.

Here though is this fellow. I call him Mr. Clean and not just because I ; finally had a shot of him that came out clean.

85mm f2.5 1/250 of a second, Spot metering. The ISO was 2500 because he was so brightly lit with that yellow econo lighting that Pirates seem to prefer. I had the camera set to Auto ISO with the upper limit set to 8000. ; I love being able to set the auto ISO range. Despite all efforts at white balance correction this dude was born to be yellow. I'm sure some Photoshop genius can find a way to layer him back into blue but I've got a life and a family to spend my time stalking and yelling at so something had to go.

I think I had the camera on manual so I could adjust the shutter speed and F stop on the fly. The other thing I did was turn OFF image review, which slows down the camera's focus point selector. You have to get it out of review mode to change the focus point on the D4 and that takes to much time when you are banging away like we do on these rides. I'm sure if I did something brilliant like use the rear focus button I wouldn't have to take it out of image review but who wants to get their eyeballs fried on a dark ride by image review, apparently seen only by your nostrils, because you are not moving the camera off of your face, anyway?


Pirates Mr Clean 12 5 13 by Joanie Eddis-Koch, on Flickr

~Joanie

 

I call this next one Captain Kinky Feathers. My file naming "system" (She laughs that she is actually typing that she has a system to name her files...) is descending into a "location/ crappy description/date" format. This is only a problem when you have to load your pictures onto Flickr and realize that A) other people have to see these file names AND B) you will never be able to keep track of them unless you have some sort of chronological indicator on them. (I am chronologically/spatially 'brained') Yeah sure, I could change the name on Flickr but then when I post another picture of the same guy from a future trip how will I know which Capt. Kinky Feathers he is??

Feeling sorry for my viewing audience, I decided to spice things up a bit but giving this randy, whip toting fellow a moniker worthy of his sparkling persona. The fact that it is late at night and I am working on my pictures, devoid of all common sense, may also have something to do with it...

85 mm, 1/100, f2.0, 4000 ISO, center weighted average metering


Pirates Capt Kinky Feathers 12 5 13 by Joanie Eddis-Koch, on Flickr

~Joanie

 

Who knew Disney's Pirates were blinkers? None of my other shots, where you could actually enjoy his eyeballs, came out in focus..

85mm of hell, f2.0, 8000 ISO, center weighted average metering and yes.... it's white balanced to within an inch of it's life.


Pirates Barrel dog 12 5 13 by Joanie Eddis-Koch, on Flickr

~Joanie

 

This brings me to one of my favorite shots from this ride. I love this freaking dog with the keys. I will bang away at this shot endlessly. I don't know what possessed me to turn all the way around in my sopping wet pirate seat and get Fluffy the dirty stinkin Pirate Dog from this angle BUT I DID!!!! And damn if the lens didn't cooperate! I can remember trying to get through the latest round of lens hunting thinking "This is a cool shot, this is a cool shot! This G-D camera shutter better go off before I pitch this thing in the river."

When I got off the ride after this shot it felt like I had been doing yoga because I held that position for so long. My back was telling me a cup of green tea with a shot of wheat grass and a chaser of Advil was just the thing for a new found yoga practitioner. To this day, because of this shot, I list slightly to the left whenever I walk, but it was TOTALLY WORTH IT!

85mm, f3.2, 8000 ISO, spot metering, and the white balance correction on this was so tough I actually considered turning this one into black and white, which I don't really like to do... so tough noggies, it's "yaronge".


Pirates dog rear w keys 12 5 13 by Joanie Eddis-Koch, on Flickr

~Joanie

 

For all the trouble you had with the lens Joanie, you still managed some great shots. ; I love that second one of the pirate lying on the beach. ; And great framing with the Yaronge shot of the dog and keys!

 

I
love them ; all....and am totally enjoying he commentary too....
Thanks so much for posting.....and your persistence.


Peg

 

Joanie, if that's what you can get when you're struggling, I shutter (ouch) to think what you'll capture when things are going well! My favorite is the dog from the rear too.

Did you ever try the lens again under good lighting conditions before returning it? What kinds of AF settings did you use? I ask because as good as the D4 autofocus is, under certain low light and low contrast conditions it's behavior seems to change from what you expect. In my case ISO 12,800, 1/320 to 1/400 sec, and wide open at f/2.8. Depending on the contrast of the subject the release mode makes a huge difference in my keeper rate.

Erich

 

Hi Erich,

Thanks for the lovin!

Yes, I did try the lens under better lighting conditions and it did perform a little better, but it still was focus hunting more than it should have been. I rented that lens so I could push it under the dark ride conditions, so I needed something that was way more reliable. The reason I got the keepers that I did was because I was extremely aggressive in trying over and over again during 3 trips around. The number of shots that I have that were OUT of focus, even under the more brightly lit scenes, were telling.

I had the camera set to AF-S. I prefer that setting because I can select the exact focus point I want and take the picture immediately. I am constantly activating the focusing system as we move along so that the camera is closer in it's lens adjustment. I know on these dark rides that any automatic focus settings the camera selects tend to default to selecting the brighter areas of a scene and that is probably not what I want. ; I also have a depth of field calculator on my phone so I know exactly what I should expect to get at a particular setting. Sometimes too shallow of a depth of field can sink your shot, especially if the focus point is not exactly where you need it when using large apertures. This is yet another reason to maintain total control over the focus point selection on a dark ride.

To sum it up, in my experience, I know that when the camera is doing the focus point selecting on these dark rides it probably will not select the area that I need in focus.

I also have the camera set to focus lock, which means the shutter will not fire until the camera is in focus. This cuts down on a lot of the misfires on the part of the camera. If it's not in sharp focus I don't want it. In some other photography circumstances it might be necessary just to get any kind/quality of shot but that's not what I am going for here. These dark ride conditions are at the extreme end of ANY camera's abilities but I have always loved how the D4 performs on these rides.


I know exactly what you mean when you say "the D4 autofocus is, under certain low light and low contrast conditions it's behavior seems to change from what you expect." I have enough experience with the camera to know that it had the capabilities to perform better under the extreme lighting conditions in Pirates, especially when using an 85mm f1.8 prime lens when compared to a zoom f2.8 24-70. That D4 is deadly with it's focus on dark rides when using the 24 to 70 mm so I know the 85mm should have been close (or even better) to the performance of the 24-70.

One of the other things I do is study a lenses specifications so I know in advance where the sweet spot is with regard to aperture and sharp focus. If it's going to have corner fall off I go into a shooting situation aware of that and It try to strike a balance between lens settings and sharpness and the demands of the lighting conditions. I'll put note on my phone that reminds me when I pull out this lens what it's best at at a certain aperture per this MM of zoom. Primes are pretty easy to keep track of but zooms can be all over the place with sharpness/ distortion depending on the mm settings.

So this is just a scarey look at what is going on in my mind when I plan my shooting on a Disney trip. Usually before I go on a trip I set a goal or an area that I want to concentrate on with my shooting and I supplement my equipment with a rental. I have a trip coming up in the beginning of March but it's a family trip so I will have to see what I can manage while "Herding the Cats" around Disney. I rented a 70-200mm lens, just because I would like to get more experience with this lens and my husband purchased a 24-120 f4 to use on my old D90. I plan on concentrating on Animal Kingdom at night if I get the chance to break away from the family. Wish me luck and we shall see!

~Joanie

 

Joanie, thanks for the further explanation. That's some serious preparation. It paid off. You'll love the 70-200 on the D4, it just sings.


Erich