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Best camera settings to use in dark rides
- Thread starter JoeyOhhhh
- Start date
Pepper's Ghost
Well-Known Member
If you figure out what settings take the best pictures in dark rides, you're going to make lots and lots of money.
The truth is that most cameras are incapable of taking good pictures in the dark, especially while moving.Unfortunately, taking pictures in the dark while moving (like on a dark ride) has different forces that work against your camera. You need to use a higher ISO or shutter speed setting to be able to capture the picture in low light conditions without a flash. The problem is that the higher ISO, the more noise the pictures have. They might look good on your tiny camera display, but the noise will be very visible when enlarged. If you use a lower ISO, the shutter speed slows down enough to let lots of light in, but when moving on a ride, the shutter speed is too slow and causes bad blurring.
Simply, there is no surefire way to get good shots in low light while moving. If the subject and the camera (on a tripod) are not moving in low light, you can get stunning pictures of stationary objects like SSE with a very low ISO like the night pics you see here on the board. But if the camera and subject are both moving, using a low ISO will come out horribly blurred, and using a high ISO will come out dark, noisy, and likely unrecognizable. Unfortunately it's just the way it is until they come out with new technology. :shrug:
Sorry for the bad news, but have a GREAT time!
preludevtec01
Well-Known Member
High ISO and fast shutter speeds. If your using a point and shoot camera, you are really out of luck. Just don't use flash!! 
Have a great trip!!
Have a great trip!!
CP_alum08
Well-Known Member
High ISO and fast shutter speeds. If your using a point and shoot camera, you are really out of luck. Just don't use flash!!
Have a great trip!!
I'll second that. If you're using a dSLR get yourself a 50mm f/1.4 those seem to produce the best dark ride shots I've seen, you can also rent them from various places online. Combine the 50mm with a high ISO and thats your best bet, that and a VERY steady hand!
Good luck!
janoimagine
Well-Known Member
Exactly what he said ... Although they have 24mm 1.4's, 35mm 1.4's, I even own and 85mm 1.2, the combination of the wide open aperture and Higher ISO (2400 to 12000) will give you a fast enough shutter speed to capture some great shots. The drawback of being so wide open is a very shallow Depth of Field, so your focus needs to be tack on. (For instance, with my 85mm 1.2 I can have a person's nose in focus, but their eyes are out of focus, due to the DOF the 1.2 creates.)
Good luck.
Good luck.
LoveTheLand
New Member
Here's a shot that I took on Buzz with a Canon G11. You can click on the picture to go to the Flickr page...
Some of the settings that I used:
Exposure 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length 6.1 mm
ISO Speed 1000
Exposure Bias -2 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue by CenterLine 717, on Flickr
Hope this helps.
Some of the settings that I used:
Exposure 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length 6.1 mm
ISO Speed 1000
Exposure Bias -2 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue by CenterLine 717, on Flickr
Hope this helps.
DebS
New Member
I've been trying to plan a trip to WDW to try my new (old) AI-S 50mm 1.2. I think I can do a dark ride completely manual
You're going to have such a good time! I brought my Nikkor 50mm AI 1.2 with me on my May and August trips this year and had so much fun. The only problem I had was that it was too tight on some dark rides.
Have fun:ROFLOL: