I’ve been wanting to work on my B&W conversion abilities in Photoshop for awhile now. Having nothing to do tonight, I thought I’d head down to Union Station and take some night shots. Night shots are by nature contrasty, so the conversion process would be a little easier.
The only problem I ran into is that a couple of the shots seemed a little too clean, so I added a little bit of artificial grain to a couple shots. Tri-X in Rodinal they’re not, but at least they have a little more character.
Anyways, enough babbling. Here’s the shots:
(I guess this is as close as we get to the classic “Mizpah” arch that used to grace the front of Union Station…somehow the RTD arch doesn’t seem quite as interesting).
WOW. Amazing Chris. You truly have the eye for seeing and getting just the shot you want. KUDOS to you! These belong on a calendar or postcard after being hung on the wall.
stmtrolleyguy - Thanks for the comments. They were posted when I was getting a little sleepy, too, so I’m glad they came out OK!
Dan - Thanks for the kind words. I think there’s a couple of these that I will be printing and hanging up (maybe even at work!)
Brian - Thanks for the kind words. BTW, I haven’t seen you post any shots here or at Fuzzy’s for awhile. Have you been shooting at all?
Bob - No offense taken. This is one of the shots where I added some grain to give it a little more “film-like” feel. Generally speaking, I love the nice clean shots that I get from my K100D, and even go to the lengths of removing digital noise from shots taken at ISO 1600 sometimes. Every once in awhile, though, I kind of like grainy shots. I always liked the look of Tri-X developed in Rodinal for certain subjects - mostly street shooting kind of shots. I thought this shot had that kind of feel to it.
Apart from the grain, I think it’s kind of aesthetically pleasing (to me). I like the contrast between the dark girders of the track supporting structure above and the lighter tones of the subterranean passageway below. The pictures on the walls show Union Station in its glory days. The blurred pedestrian adds a sense of movement to the shot. Oh yes, about that pedestrian: I guess we could actually call this a self portrait. There weren’t many people out yesterday evening, so I had to provide my own foot traffic. Thank goodness for the self timer on my camera!
Quentin and Jean - Thanks for the kind words! I agree that the picture might have been a little better if the cars had been lit. I’m developing a greater sense of appreciation for the work of O. Winston Link, and the cooperation he had from the N&W. He liked shooting at night because he could control the light a lot better. Had this been his shot, I’m sure he would have placed a flash bulb or two in the cars to illuminate the interiors a little bit. Alas! I’m no OWL, and didn’t have permi
Unfortunately, no- I’ve been too busy with work and family to get out. My wife just had partial knee replacement surgery last week, so hopefully she’ll be much more mobile in a couple of weeks, and I’ll be free to venture down to the tracks again. On the positive side, my son (whom you met at our short rendezvous at Georgetown) and his wife are now living in our basement, and he’s gainfully employed by a gaming company in Iowa City.
Thanks for the very kind words, RJ. And don’t cut yourself short, you do some very fine work. Just for curiosity, by selective desaturation, are you talking about shots like this? That’s the only shot like that I’ve ever been able to make work. Do you have any tips for making these work?
Thanks for the compliment. There are times when it’s humming a little more than it was last night, but it still would have been fun to see it in the glory days.
…One more comment Chris. It looks like there are steam or hot water raditors inside those waiting room seats. If so, should have heated the room very nicely and comfortable.
Also wouldn’t it have been a bit nicer if those {high}, wall lights would have been turned on…At least I believe that’s what they are. Would have added to the ambience of the already beautiful shot.
Hey Chris, this set of pictures was not so scary (brrrrr) as some of your others this time of year.
Are you using the Channel Mixer adjustment layer in PS to do your conversions? Much better than just going directly to grayscale. I still have fond memories of Rodinal with PXP instead of TXP, but either one has a very unique look that bears repeating digitally.
I enjoyed the “desolate” station shots, which remind me of my last visits to Chicago Union Station about ten years ago. We took a mid-morning train out to Brookfield for the zoo and there was hardly anybody in the station, as opposed to when we came back in late in the afternoon in the middle of the afternoon commute when the place was packed. Some difference, that’s for sure.
