Cruise Shooting

[rga]

Wondering if anyone has a good solution (or perhaps this is a not a problem), for shooting landscapes from the deck of one of those big honker cruise ships. At 50 ISO and a 35 with a center filter (and possibly a polarizing filter), shutter speeds may be slow (1/8) during the day...

At any rate, wondering if the engine vibrations cause a loss of sharpness and, if so, any solutions used. I'm assuming calm seas...

Thanks for any input,
Bob

 

[GrahamWelland]

I don't have experience of shooting off a mega cruise ship but every reasonably large ship I've ever shot from has been an unsuitable platform for tripod or other support use due to the vibration. I've found that my body did the best job of damping this so long as you avoid bracing yourself on any part of the ship (rails/superstructure etc).

With my Alpa STC & 35 XL I've found that handheld shooting down to 1/15s is very easy to achieve with very acceptable results. I tend to remove the center filter though when shooting handheld though. I'd definitely consider raising the ISO though than dropping much beyond that range though unless you have super technique for slow shutter speeds. Just this weekend I shot inside the US Air Force museum in Dayton and to be honest was surprised at how well handheld shooting held up, even when I had to shoot down to 1/15s, push the ISO to 400+ and/or under expose given the dark museum conditions.

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Just came off a cruise but did not shoot off the deck. As Graham said it is not really that stable and I was on a big ship with calm seas. Not sure I would go less than 1/30 th of a second on a tripod. Now doing a interior of the ship would be different since your moving with what your shooting in the same direction.

 

[Wayne Fox]

Wondering if anyone has a good solution (or perhaps this is a not a problem), for shooting landscapes from the deck of one of those big honker cruise ships. At 50 ISO and a 35 with a center filter (and possibly a polarizing filter), shutter speeds may be slow (1/8) during the day...

At any rate, wondering if the engine vibrations cause a loss of sharpness and, if so, any solutions used. I'm assuming calm seas...

Thanks for any input,
Bob

It isn't the engine vibrations that will be problematic. I don't think any seas are going to be calm enough ... even if they were the ship is moving forward at 14-18 knots, so certainly not sitting still. If the subject matter is a long way away it may be kind of like stars in the night sky ... may be "ok" sharp.

I'd experiment with hand holding at a 30th or a little faster ... may just have to crank the ISo up a little and deal with the noise.

 

[rga]

Thanks Graham and everyone.
That's what I figured, though I'm impressed with you being able to hand hold at 1/15th!
I was thinking about no center filter on the 35 and using LCC correction to fix it up.
Unfortunately the P45+ does not perform well above 100 ISO IMO...
Also the movement of the ship vs land is a concern.
Thanks very much for the suggestions everyone. Looks like I'll take the tech cam for on shore mostly along with the 5DII for ship and quick shots.
Best,
Bob

 

[GrahamWelland]

Thanks Graham and everyone.
That's what I figured, though I'm impressed with you being able to hand hold at 1/15th!

Ok for travel shots but by no means fine art. Success rate at 1/30s and higher was much better.

 

[Wayne Fox]

Thanks Graham and everyone.
That's what I figured, though I'm impressed with you being able to hand hold at 1/15th!

You wouldn't be if you saw the shots I would never try it with film but digital captures are "free" so you can "spray and pray" and maybe get lucky

 

[Wayne Fox]

Ok for travel shots but by no means fine art. Success rate at 1/30s and higher was much better.

Well, you can always hand hold it for a second or two and go for the "fine art" blur effect ... I've only done Caribbean cruises, strictly for relaxation. Best camera I've ever taken along with me is my NEX5.