Pandora sunset photos have become my absolute favorite photos to edit from Disney World. They are probably the closest you’ll get to a pure landscape photo in the parks and this lends well to my editing style. I did a 2-shot blend here along with a copious amount of dodging and burning and light painting. The light painting allows me to mold better the shape and direction of the light within the photo. This adds dimensionality you can’t obtain just by moving a few sliders around.
I rarely shoot the parks with other people. It simply doesn’t fit with my fast-moving shooting style, but on this night I made an exception to shoot with fellow IDP admins Cliff Wang and Nick Barese While this did slow me down from my typical pace, the chance to make Canon jokes at Nick’s expense more than made up for this. For this shot Cliff provided some additional external lighting on the Splash Mountain hut that really helped pop it out a bit more as it was getting lost in shadow. Enjoy!
This shot was taken with the Nikon Z7 and Nikon 24-70 F4s. For anyone looking to lighten their load but not lose out on image quality I can’t recommend this pairing enough. In fact, the images are sharper than what I was getting out of my DSLRs! Per usual I’ve color corrected Beast’s Castle so it’s not a single blue color. This is done with a curves adjustment layer where I manipulate the various color curves to change the blue of the roofs to a red color like what is seen during the day.
I believe this is my first time taking this shot with the inclusion of the side towers. This shot was again taken on the night with the fast-moving clouds. I love the movement and energy they lend to the shot. The orange cast of the lights along with the breaks of blue from the intermittent clearing makes for an interesting color combination. Enjoy.
I don’t have anything interesting to say about this photo. It’s Rivers of America. It’s Cinderella Castle with Dreamlights. Enjoy.
My alternate title for this shot was going to be Creepin’ on Cinderella Castle. I decided I’d go for the more obvious title in the end… but now since I’m telling you anyways you get the best of both worlds. I opted to shoot from here as I have tons of sunset shots from here and they are all the standard wide view from the bridge. I probably framed it with too much tree (and I didn’t like my crop options) but at least it’s something I haven’t done many times before.
Having shot so much around Walt Disney World it’s refreshing when the weather offers something new you can capitalize on. In this case, fast moving clouds always look really cool with a long exposure. To boot they were just thin enough to allow some stars to shine through.
I haven’t done a basic castle shot in a while, so I figured it was time. The castle still looks as great as ever and the dreamlights add a nice whimsical touch, but I must say I think I prefer the look of the path before the big hub re-do. This version feels a bit busy in comparison.
I originally looked at doing this shot with the Nikon 14-24 2.8 but quickly found even at 14mm it wasn’t wide enough. Enter the Rokinon 12mm 2.8 to the rescue. It was the perfect lens for this shot. I found the center of the room and put my tripod in its lowest position and pointed the camera straight up. I used the flip screen for framing, something I’d consider almost a necessity for this shot. I shot and used 2 frames, a base exposure and an under exposure for some of the particularly bright highlights on the chandeliers. I’ve found myself shooting fewer and fewer frames since switching to the Nikon Z7 and being able to see the exposure before I even press the shutter.