HOW do you get those pictures?

[CruisinHoneymooners]

Browsing around on the boards here, I see tons of amazing pictures of the details of the ships. My question is for those of you who manage to get the pictures taken in all these busy public places with no one there...how does that happen? Do you make a point to get up extra early in the morning or what? I'd love to have some tips so that I can get some of these types of shots on our HM cruise next summer.

[Arubalisa]

You are on the right track for sure...get on your ship early the day it sails, always take your cabin photos when you first arrive and before your luggage arrives and everything gets disorganized

As to other shots, yes, wake up early, or even days in port when most people are ashore. Keep in mind too with a digital camera you can take almost an unlimited number of photos. Take a couple extra shots in case there is a person who happens to step into the frame.

Then once you get really experienced, you can learn photo editing. Remove garbage cans from deck, dirty dishes off of tables, drinking cups oo of the pool deck...you get the idea...

[Spring]

A lot of my pictures are take just at the begging of the 2ed dinner time, around 8:30p as most of the people that was at the 1st is now going to see the main show and the 2ed set are just now starting there dinner. I fine this to be the best
time in the normal day, 7A until 11P

http://public.fotki.com/SpringTx/

[pierces]

That's the trick...be there when they're not! You can also get mid-day shots if you're patient and wait for pedestrian traffic to pass. I've had perfect strangers kindly stop the flow of people so I could get a shot...then we all have a chuckle afterwards.

Here's a shot taken at 6:30 AM after the crew and before the tourists. Early, patient and polite gets you a long ways.



If you click on the picture bar below and go to Panama 2005, there are a lot of photos of the Infinity, which was a very fun subject.

Enjoy!

Dave

[CruisinHoneymooners]

Thank you all for the tips. Dave, I have admired all of your photos many times over now, you are definitely very gifted with a camera! Many of your pictures are what led me to wonder how one can get the detail shots with all the people around.

I think that I will try to set aside at least one day to get up nice and early and try to get some wonderful shots before too many people are running around the ship.

Again, I appreciate all of your input.

[CruisinHoneymooners]

Spring, I just realized that the link at the bottom of your post is to a photo gallery. Heh, yep, I'm THAT observant lately. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for sharing your photos with me. They are all really good.

[zackiedawg]

I've always used the same trick, which works quite well: I shoot most of the ship's public rooms the day I board the ship. So many people are either checking out their cabins or sitting out on the deck having drinks or hitting the buffet lunch that the public rooms below are basically empty.

Here is a link to some of my Celebrity Summit ship shots on day 1:

http://www.funtigo.com/zackiedawg?b=...ext&cr=1&rfm=y

And some from HAL Zuiderdam:

http://www.funtigo.com/zackiedawg?b=...rev&cr=1&rfm=y

If I were a bit more patient, I could have waited for the 1 or 2 people wandering through some shots to go away...but as long as I get a good view of the lounge or room itself without lots of people everywhere, I don't mind one or two people in the room.

Also, deck shots can be great at dusk, around first seating dinner - they are usually quite empty by then. Just use a slow shutter, or boost your ISO a bit to compensate for the low light, or use a tripod to avoid camera shake.

Otherwise, a little patience is always a good thing. Situate yourself anywhere on the ship where there are a handful of people (assuming you aren't trying to photograph just before a show or dinner) and if you have patience to wait a few minutes there will inevitably be a break in the flow for you to get a shot without anyone getting in the way.

And finally, as others have mentioned another great time to get some ship shots is any day the ship is in port. If you are at a port you've seen many times, you may want to come back early, or leave late, so most of the ship empties at the port and you can take any photos you want around the ship with minimal interference.

Try some combination of all of these methods...and over a 7 day cruise (or longer) you should be able to get a clean shot of basically every part of the ship!

[Steamboatin]

As you would expect there are no sane individuals roaming the decks at between the hours of 4 to 5 a.m.

So for good ship interior shots that is when I get up and take my ship interior photos. You will be surprised how cleaning staff will gladly turn up the lights for you if you ask nicely and take their picture in the process. Of course the one with the staff member in it just may be culled out later.