Good weather for photography?

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Hello to all from Chippenham, UK,

I would like to ask for some opinions on the subject of railroad photography. Personally I enjoy the results of my hobby most when I’ve shot material on a great sunny day, you can’t beat a blue sky etc…or can you, I’ve seen some great material in TRAINS taken in dull weather and am curious if anyone has a opinion regarding which is best?

I’m guessing that the singular advantage with cloud cover is that you don’t have to worry about shadows or which side the sun will be shining?

Secondly, I am pretty keen on taking obscure images of the railroad too, that shot of a freight car truck assembly, a yard shot with just the heat shimmer off the rails, you don’t necessarily have to have a train in the shot I suppose, in essence the sort of thing that is all too easily overlooked but shows an aspect of the railroad that might well be a conversation starter.

Anyone have any theories on this subject?

Cheers

Dave H

2

My personal favorite is shooting film in the rain (under a canopy of course [:P]) and capturing the “gloomyness” with the rain drops dripping off the roof in the foreground of the picture.

3

Hi, thanks for that. A real surprise actually but one for me to think about.

Thanks

4

I have no expertise in the subject, but my understanding is that a sunny day imparts a great deal of contrast between the shadowed and illuminated things that are being imaged. If you were intent upon shooting a bridge against a backgound of trees and rocks, that would be a good thing on a sunny day…the bridge is sure to stand out. On the other hand, if you were wanting to image the structure of a trestle, particularly the innards of a Howe Truss for example, the contrast would make improperly set cameras take the bright stuff clearly, but the shadowed details inside the truss would be lost…essentially black. This is the same for wanting to shoot into engine cabs, under scrub, and so on…a dark dull day would probably reveal more of the darker stuff.

5

I agree with selector. Being from the “old school” of photography, I learned my ABC’s on film. I was forced to become competent (not masterful!) using black and white film, before I started with color film. Everything else being equal, a bright sunny day, especially when the sun was at an angle to your subject matter, was always going to give you fits with too much contrast to capture the whole range of detail available. Sacrifice in detail was usually the result. How one selected what to sacrifice made the picture (unless darkroom magic was used).

Today, with digital photography, I’m not sure the same rules apply, or to what extent. But my old school habits still say an overcast day with few or no shadows makes the best DETAILED photograph. Bright sunny days have their place, but for many people, any great shot made on such a day is often by accident.

6

Hello,

I like the details of railroading also. Sometimes seeing trains in the usual three-quarter shot gets a little old. Its nice to see a good detailed shot of a truck assembly, a coupler or something along those lines, especially in black and white.

My favorite lighting is in the autumn season when you get that late afternoon soft light with the shadows.

Cheers,

Gregory

7

I agree with you there, autumn is a great time of year for photography with all of the foliage bringing out the background colors. I have seen some amazing work done in the fall season.

8

There is no right answer to your question. It all depends on what you’re looking for. F’rinstance, a foggy/misty day can bring great drama to an otherwise rather ordinary picture. Or ruin what could be a great shot, because you can’t see much.

A thin overcast will lessen the contrast a bit, but too much overcast really flattens things out, light-wise and can be less than desirable. Or useful, as in if you are trying to shoot something that would otherwise require shooting into the sun.

Re: Digitals - The point-and-shoot digitals are the “Kodak Instamatics” of our day. On the other hand, if you pick up my Digital Rebel and apply your knowledge gained with film on a 35mm camera (or other manual), you will be turning out technically great digital images in no time. With any luck, you’ll get some keepers in there, too.

(Before anyone gets upset about my ‘insult’ to your photography skills - it’s an old rule-of-thumb that you usually get one or two ‘great’ photos out of a roll of film. The ratio holds true in the digital world, too. You may take dozens of good shots, but only get one or two you’d frame and hang on the wall.)

The bottom line (especially in the digital world) is to learn something about composition and take lots of pictures. Memory is getting cheaper all the time - a 1 gigabyte memory card can be had for maybe $50 and will hold a ‘ton’ of pictures. Money well spent.

9

For great foggy/ mist shots, it has to be perfect condtions or your wasting your time.

10

I loved taking RR pictures with my 35mm Canon EOS. I used a Canon 35 to 135 mm zoom and a Promaster 100 to 300mm zoom.

But I could not afford the cost of prints and was disappointed when I did not get the shot I wanted.

I was totally excited when Canon Digital SLR Were able to use EOS lens.

I was going to buy the 8MP EOS until online I found out about the new 10Mp EOS.

I took my 35 to 135 lens to a store and tested the lens. Worked great.

On line I found a Canon EOS rebel XTi for 1/2 store and about the same price as the 8MP online.

I purchased the 10MP Xti.

Immediately after receiving the camer a and reading the manual (Thick). I shot several shots out my back window and walking arounds my yard with the 35 to 135 lens in AUTO. all shots were great.

Then I put on the 100 to 300 Promaster. Immediately I get an error message “99” on the view window. NO EXPLANATION in manual of what the error codes mean. The manual states to contact Canon for all Error messages.

I removed and replaced the lens on the camera. I checked it to make sure it was seated correctly.

I was able to take two pictures before I got the “99” error message again.

When You get an error message the camera locks up.

I removed the lens and cleaned the contacts. Still Errored.

I put on the 35 to 135mm. Camera worked good.

I E-mailed Canon and explained the problem in detail.

Canon E-Mailed back to send in the body and lens and they will correct it.

Cost me $20.00 to send it in.

A week later I received an E-Mail message that

11

Almost any weather can be used to great effect if you’re careful.

The key to sunny days is to look for areas of low contrast, or otherwise scenes where the black shadows or blown highlights won’t work to your detriment.

There are also various tricks to working with high contrast scenes to maintain detail. Film shooters might use zone system development with black and white to expand or reduce the contrast of the film according to the scene. Film shooters might also just use color print film and know that it can capture a huge range of luminance values. Digital shooters might use the high dynamic range function in Photoshop, although if overdone I think this can look fake.

Overcast days are, of course, great for their soft, flat, shadowless light.

Early morning and early evening are also great times to shoot, with lots of great warm light.

Just a couple of other comments:

Someone also mentioned that a typical film shooter might only get 1 or 2 great shots on a roll of film. I once heard this nicely summed up in something called “the rule of three” that goes something like this.

When shooting 100 digital shots, 1 36 exposure roll of 35mm film, 1 12 exposure roll of medium format film, or 3 sheets of film, the typical photographer will get three shots worthy of printing. My own experience tends to mirror this.

spikejones5200,

My guess is that your Promaster(store brand) zoom lens was probably made by Sigma. Certain older Sigma lenses do not work with more recent Canon cameras, both film and digital. Sigma reverse engineered the Canon lens mount, and Canon made a small change that caused Sigma’s older lenses to no longer work on recent Canon bodies. Sigma has since corrected the problem, and can rechip older lenses, provided that they still have the parts in stock, to allow them to work on recent Canon cameras.

In general, third party EF mount lenses will work just fine on all Canon bodies, both film

12

I’ve shot under all kinds of conditions, and there is no “best”. It all depends on what you’re after.

Rainy or heavily overcast days add moodiness to the shot, but can dull the colors and blend the highlights and shadows.

Shooting at high noon on a cloudless day can give you harsh shadows, and washed out highlights.

Evening light is usually warm, and the low angle can produce dramatic shadows. Morning light is usually cooler, but you still get the great shadows.

If you are familar with photographic techinque and the features of the camera, many of the desireable elements can be enhanced and undesireable elements can be reduced.

And of course you can change the look and feel of any picture using lens filters, and dark room magic (for those of us that remember lens filters, and dark rooms) or the programs of a digtal dark room.

I could turn night into day. Day into night. Sunny days into rainy ones. Or rainy days to sunny ones. Among other tricks.

Nick

13

Yes, indeed. Autumn gives you foliage, lower humidity and lower sun angle. Great time of year for rail photography.

14

Sunny weather and clear skies are fine, but every blue-sky day is like every other. Clouds, fog, rain and snow can make a scene more special, in my eyes-- though they can discourage most of us from going out in the first place.

15

That’s a great point. Snow, for example, is probably the biggest discouragement for railfanning. Then again, have you ever looked at some snow shots? Some of them are amazing. I have only done it once but I hope to be able to do it again some day.

16

Gotta agree with Railfan 1. Hard to mess up a snow shot unless your finger is covering the lens…don’t ask.[(-D]

Rainy weather generally keeps me away from being trackside. However, when I am on expedition and the weather is lousy, I get a devil-be-damned attitude and really knuckle down on composing my shots. Usually, I get that one shot that made it all worthwhile.

17

Ive only taken pictures outside once and I was able to get everything back inside 2 minutes before the rain started falling. Heres the results.

18

Tomnoy: that second-to-last shot looks like a train headed for disaster! Or, maybe just a normal day on the UP, according to some people… [B)]

While I have found this to be true some of the time, it isn’t true all of the time. I used to take pictures almost exclusively on cloudy days, just so I didn’t have to worry about shadows. But as I progressed a bit more, I started to really, really like those nice sunny days, and started figuring out the best place to be for those sunny shots.

Anyways, back to the cloudy days… While clouds do make an effective “filter”, I’ve found that there’s still enough light coming from whatever direction the sun is hiding to make shadows of sorts. I’ve had plenty of less-than-satisfactory shots that I thought would turn out fine from the clouds, but those shadows… [:(!]

19

Mark, I guess I was looking at the ModelRailroader and Trains forums in different tabs so I got them confused and thought this was a model rr post.

-Tom

20

I know what you mean. The thing to consider is the thickness and altitude of the clouds. High-level (25000’+) are of the cirrus family, and are composed of ice crystals, and thus do not block the sun effectively. But they do make some spectacular optical treats (sun dogs, parahelia, etc). They are just enough to give most images a slightly washed-out appearance.

Lower clouds such as the alto type (10000 to 15000’), are composed of either water or ice, depending on the season. These tend to be thicker than the cirrus types. Frequently you can just barely see the sun through the clouds. These types usually do not produce precipitation; however, I have seen altostratus clouds produce snow.

The lowest in altitude clouds are the stratus types. These are found between 3000 and 10000’. These usually obscure the sun completely, and are the best for shadowless photography. The down side is that these types frequently produce precipitation, usually of the drizzle or steady light rain (or snow) type.

The clouds features in tomnoy3’s photos are of the strato-cumulus types. These produce more of the hit-and-miss showers that annoy most photographers.

For me, the most interesting clouds are the cumulo-nimbus variety. Those are the thunderheads we see in the summer. These produce the severe storms and hail and tornadoes. These rarely form in winter.