Night parade Pictures.

[zigzagw]

I am trying to find out what the best setting would be on my Canon SD800 to get good pics of the nighttime parade at magic kingdom. Last time we were there the pictures came out all fuzzy. I will not have a tripod, but the camera does have a fireworks mode, and a nighttime scene mode. I think there are some manual setting I can adjust if that would present a simpler solution.

Thanks,

W

[pagerboy]

Problem with a parade is that everyone is moving so longer exposures are out of the question, with a good flash you may be able to get some shots.

I use a tripod and manual mode for parades(no flash) therefore I need to take the shots in a well lit section of street.

[Caboose]

you might do some experiments with the fireworks and night time modes. Try taking some night shots of cars in an area where they are going pretty slow, like downtown areas. I'm pretty sure the night time mode is going to use flash, which may or may not be your best choice. A lot of the floats there have lots of lights, but not really bright lights, and a flash may wash them out. I doubt that the fireworks mode uses the flash, but the shutter speed may be too slow. Head downtown tonight and test everything you've got and keep notes so you know what you did for each shot, should give you a better idea as to what to do for different effects you may want at the real parade.

[BillDrew]

Caboose wrote:

... Head downtown tonight and test everything you've got and keep notes so you know what you did for each shot, should give you a better idea as to what to do for different effects you may want at the real parade.

Good idea. Much of that information will be in the EXIF data so you might not have to take any notes.Figure that outbefore going downtown and you will save yourself a lot of work and possible mistakes.