Today’s photo is a scene from the Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! attraction in Disney California Adventure. Disney sure has seemed to have perfected the art of making you feel like you’re in the middle of one of their animated films, and the Monster’s Inc. attraction is chock full of beautiful scenes!

Shooting in dark rides is a challenge. Using a flash is not only frowned upon by Disney but it would totally wipe out the carefully chosen lighting of the scene. Just look at how the characters pop out in this scene, thanks to the lighting. I wanted to capture the characters, but it was also important to capture the doors which are much more dimly lit.

I chose an ISO of 3200 which I thought was the lowest I could go. The difference between 3200 and 6400 can be quite noticeable with this camera, and although you would see a bit of grain if you blow this up to poster size, it’s relatively low for such a high ISO. In rides, I almost always want to use the lowest aperture simply because it gives me the chance to use a higher shutter speed which works well when you’re moving on a ride. The first time I went through this I tried a shutter of 1/125 and this scene was just too dark for that.  Although I was in a moving vehicle, I know the characters weren’t moving much so I took a gamble and tried a bunch in this scene at 1/60  and this one came out really well.

Give it a try, and if you get any monstrously good photos, share them with me!

Feel free to write or comment if you want any more details about the photos, such as settings I used, etc.