February's full moon

As a child the moon always amazed me and while growing up the idea of space exploration was one of the things that inspired me to pursue science. Later in life my love for the moon grew after I began to read a lot about Astrology and learned that as a Cancerian, I was ruled by this planet. Once I purchased an EM5 one of my first goals was to photograph the moon but I did not get a chance to experiment with this venture until I was offshore last Fall. At first I had absolutely no idea what kind of settings I should use and figured because it was night I needed a slow shutter speed. Boy was I wrong. LOL. As a scientist I am a bit embarrassed to admit this, but I did not fully realize that the full moon is a very powerful light source. After bumping up my shutter speed I got some OK photos of the moon and at that point was just excited that I actually got a photo!! Turns out I was still in using "auto iso" (which I have basically abandoned and set manually now) and really, at a value of 3200, the photos I took that day were trash. After a lot of trial and error I have come up with some "optimal" settings that I usually use when trying to capture the moon using my Oly MZD 40-150mm lens @ 150mm. These are iso-as low as you can go (in my case 200); aperture- 5.6-8 (no "smaller" than 8 with m4/3 because you sacrifice sharpness from diffraction), and a shutter speed ranging 1/2*effective focal length (here, 600) to 2000. Settings for the photo I will use for this post processing example included: iso-200, aperture-f/6.7, shutter speed-1/1000. The goal of this post is to share some of the post processing tricks I have learned from my attempts at capturing the moon.

Original file

The above photo is a screen grab of the RAW file and as you can see, the moon is actually pretty small. I wish I had a longer lens, but I have found the 40-150 to be sharp enough to allow for some pretty significant cropping. 

Crop

This is actually my first step in processing and I try to get close to a 1:1 view or 400x400 to 600x600 pixels. As you can see this alters the histogram which will help later on when altering brightness etc..

100% crop of RAW (600x600 pixels)

Looking at the above photo, you can tell that the EM5's sensor actually picks up an amazing amount of data. It is just a matter of maximizing the information.

Contrast -100

Next comes what I think is the most important step and something that I have only recently found made a huge difference in the output of my moon photos. This is to adjust the contrast to -100. You would think that increasing the contrast would lead to a more sharper looking image, but the renderings with no contrast look a lot better (of course this is subjective).

Adjust highlights, shadows, whites, blacks and clarity

After I set my contrast to -100 I adjust my dynamic range parameters and clarity to maximize the moon's detail and try to ensure that all the surrounding pixels are black. I am all for a dramatic photo, but by all means adjust for a more natural look if that is what you are looking for. If you look at the histogram in the top right, you can see a fairly good distribution of tones, albeit slight overexposed.

Sharpness

Noise Reduction

Next, I adjust sharpness and noise reduction under Lightroom's "Details" module. Here it is important that you apply a mask to sharpening and to view the very fine changes that result from adjustments to noise reduction at a 2:1 or 3:1 magnification. I am a "tweak until it looks good" kind of person and there is really no right or wrong recipe here. 

Split tone

This next step is just something that I found adds a nice touch to moon photos, but is just a personal preference and again, is adjustable as you see fit. Here I go to the "Split Toning" module and warm up the highlights using a 50:25 mix (goldish color at 25% saturation) and slightly cool down the shadows using a 215:10 mix (slate/light blue at 10% saturation). The difference is subtle but I think it breathes some life into an otherwise very dull (grey) subject.

Adjustment brush

One of the final edits I made to this particular moon photo was to accentuate its large crater by increasing the clarity and contrast of that area. This helps draw the eye to what I think is a pretty interesting focal point.

Crop to taste

Before final tweaking I choose an aspect ratio and crop the photo to the dimensions I want. Due to the severe crop I do not think that this would be a very good candidate to make a large print from, but for web display (and as a background photo for my desktop-haha), I find that a relatively short telephoto (300mm) will give you pretty good results if you are willing to massage out the details in post.

Final tweaking

Finally, I go back to the "dynamic range" adjusters and use the sliders to fine tune my final image. Again, this is up to personal taste. Photographing the moon may seem daunting and it certainly took some time for me to get it right, but it is something everyone should try!! If you have yet to do so I hope this post has given you some inspiration to give it a try and some tips for post processing after. Also, even if you don't think you have a long enough lens, you may be pleasantly surprised at what you can accomplish with a 200-300mm telephoto. As per usual, thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this small post processing session =)

Sam D.

p.s. March's full moon is scheduled for the 16th =)

If you spent a couple days in a row at EPCOT you would likely think that you experienced most of what the park has to offer and "did everything there is to do there". But, when you went back a couple of months or a year later, you would soon realize you missed something. I think this is part of the magic EPCOT has to offer. The first time me and my partner went, we spent the entire day there and only got to "Mexico", the first country in the World Showcase before the park closed. It was only after during our second trip that we visited each of the eleven countries represented. The Imagineers at Disney did a wonderful job emulating each nation and the attention to detail is amazing. You could spend ALL DAY shooting here and still have the feeling that you overlooked something. And of course there is one of the most recognizable icons out there, Spaceship Earth, commonly referred to as the "giant golf ball at Disney" to photograph. Doing a google search would show you that the most common photo of Spaceship Earth is taken from the front at the entrance of EPCOT, but it is visible from a lot of different places in the park. Also, at night it lights up and becomes a very attractive subject.

But beware! Spaceship earth can easily become the only thing you focus on while in EPCOT because of its size and unique surface. Plus, you can see it from almost anywhere in the park so if you are like me you will want to photograph it this way and that. However, dont become so entranced by it that you begin to blindly fill your memory card. I am guilty of this, but after escaping it's grasp I realized the park has so much more to offer your camera's sensor.

Mexico

Italy

Japan

Japan

France

 Morocco

China (see here for post processing tutorial)

France

IllumiNations

The photos above were taken at different parts of the World Showcase, and do not even begin to scratch the surface of what there is to do and see there. Also the IllumiNations show is great. I did not bring a tripod or remote shutter release but it is my goal to get some really good firework photos at Disney one day. People/street photography is also golden here, but really it is at all the parks. One of my favorite tricks is to photograph the people my partner and I have conversations with... usually a cast member. We will engage them in conversation whether it be asking about where something is or for pin trading and then I will slip away and photograph them or just photograph them with my camera pointed upwards without them noticing. This works especially well with the Olympus body cap lens as it is inconspicuous and basically always in focus.

If you plan on visiting EPCOT for the first time, my advice is to try and dedicate at least a day and a half to the park. Also save a couple hundered dollars (more if you have kids) so that you can buy merchandise while at the World Showcase. Theres all sorts of cool stuff that comes directly from each of the countries for purchase including food, alcohol, souveneirs, and clothing =) I have heard of a challenge for adults where you consume an alcoholic beverage at each of the 11 countries and try to come out of it alive. Sounds fun, but I also saw a story on the news where a man got so white girl wasted at their annual food and wine fesitval that he punched out two cast members and ended up injured and in jail. So dont be that guy/gal. The rides at EPCOT are also fun, but more geared towards education and kids. Hope you enjoyed some of these photos! Thanks for dropping by!

Sam D.

Walt Disney World Series:

Part I: Introduction
Part II: Animal Kingdom
Part III: EPCOT
Part IV: Post Processing in China
Part V: Hollywood Studios

One of my favorite parts of the movie Jurassic Park is when everything starts to fail and they talk about having all the problems of a major theme park and a zoo combined. This is how the builders of Animal Kingdom must have felt. The eclectic nature of this park makes it a lot of fun and it is a "photographically rich" environment. Not only do you get to use a wide perspective to take photos of the great scenery/architecture, you also get to utilize longer focal lengths to capture some "easy wildlife". Below, the two bird photos (parrots and Roseate spoonbill) were taken with the MZD 45mm portrait lens at enclosures near the entrance of the park. The two after were taken with my 40-150mm "kit zoom" while on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. I bet the MZD 75mm f/1.8 would yeild some extraordinary photos of Animal Kingdom's wildlife... and it may be reason enough to purchase the beast.

Of course all the parks are filled with people so you have plenty of subject matter to hone in on your street and environmental portrait photography skills. I usually try to get some candid shots and of course photograph my partner when he consents ;)  There are also many "street performers" and getting shots of the parades are a blast as long as you get a good spot.

Another thing I found fun to photograph is the "park landscape" in addition to the "wait in line" areas that you frequent in order to ride attractions. When a ride is busy, you can spend up to 45-1 hr waiting so theres plenty of time observe your surroundings and find something interesting to photograph. Disney has done a really good job of making sure that you are at least mildly entertained while waiting and taking photos is a good way to pass the time.

Finally, I wanted to share some photos of one of my favorite attractions at Animal Kingom. The first time my partner and I saw it we were AMAZED and we have even seen people in tears after the show. If it all possible, try not to miss... "Finding Nemo - The Musical". When you consider the talent of the actors, their use of acrobatics, and the crazy amount of work put into the stage production and costuming, it is just so good on multiple levels. Also, try to get there 30-45 minutes before the show starts. Even with a fast past to one of the times, getting there 10 minutes before the show did not cut it and we were not sat "center stage". Olympus' 45mm f1.8 proved very useful here as it allowed a bunch of light in wide open and I was able to use a fast shutter speed to freeze the action. Also from the height and distance I was sitting it was a perfect focal length allowing me to photograph most of what was happening onstage.

Really the photos I presented here are maybe 10% of the visually awesome things you can encounter in this park. One disclaimer is that I do not to Disney with the sole purpose of photography. It is also important to me to have fun and I try not ignore my partner by having my face glued to the viewfinder. Its hard though because at all the parks there is so much to photograph. Luckily we went three times in 2013 so I had plenty of chances for photography. Next up is EPCOT, which is like travelling to space and 11 different countries in one day. Hope you enjoyed at lest a few of these photos, happy shooting =)

Sam D.

Walt Disney World Series:

Part I: Introduction
Part II: Animal Kingdom
Part III: EPCOT
Part IV: Post Processing in China
Part V: Hollywood Studios