http://bnsfkline.rrpicturearchives.net/archivethumbs.aspx?id=2119
I hope you guys can help me out of what I could do better in my photography
What kind of camera are you using??
Look OK to me, maybe watch the low light levels, can be kinda tough with the new fangled Digi-cameras, never a problem with my dinosuar Pentex K1000.
Yes, cloudy days on a digital camera are difficult. I’ve never really been a big fan of roster shots, I always like the action photos with stuff going on. Sunny days are always a photographers best friend, especially when it comes to trains. Not to say you can go out in the clouds, but it’s a lot tougher to get an interesting photo. Now I’m no expert I know, but I’ve done a lot of trial and error.
One thing that I find really useful, drive around the tracks near your home or where you’re going to shoot photos and look for intersting spots without a train. Then when one comes your way you know exactly where to go and get that great shot!
If my photo gallery can be of help, take a look and feel free to email! Stay Safe!
Jim
look at page one of your gallery, and I can see auto exposure problems. What your camera is doing is reading the brightest part of the picture and adjusting for that. The result is, for example, “TRRA 1508”, you get real pretty sky and the shadows black up. The best method to avoid this problem is to have manuel override on your camera, take your light reading from the shadows, lock in that exposure reading, and then take your picture. Otherwise, use a photo program on your computer and lighten the shadows in the picture and darken the highlights a bit. This will balance the exposure quite a bit but can also give color balance problems.
Another problem endemic to digital cameras is that they seem to want a lot of light or a very long exposure time. Mine is this way, and it can take a long time (two or even three seconds) to get a photo that would take 1/100 from ASA 200.
To use one of your photos as a comparison, compare either of your TRRA photos (1507 or 1508) with BNSF 127. There is snow on the ground in the forground shadow. This reflects a lot of light back onto the locomotive parts that are in shadow and brightens up the picture. This picture worked this way because your exposure was taken from the sky which is brighter than the snow reflected light from the locomotive.
Another problem that I have noticed with digital photography using auto exposure is when thigs get a bit dark. Heavy clouds (such as a rainy day) will cause badly underexposed pictures for the same exposure reading problems as explained above. Evening shots have the same problems.
Cloudy days are really the best for photography if you can keep good exposures. With film, this is not anywhere near the problem it is with digital. The advantage of clouds is that it spreads the light out much more evenly permitting much better exposures than bright sun with has very bright (hot) spots and deep shadows (cold). Clouds give you a neutral contrast situation and sun g
The tRRA units look nice
Jim,
Great Photos. Digital on Cloudy Days drives me nuts you are constantly trying anything get a good shot.
Kenneo is right on in this suggestion. This is because all camera exposure metering systems are calibrated to the neutral gray test card. The end result of this calibration is that all your pictures tend to wash out unless you compensate for this, That’s why cloudy rainy days provide such great color saturation. There’s another trick that you can use in the field, and that is to meter off aged asphalt, green grass, or any other neutral density source available. This tricks the camera into thinking it’s looking at one of the gray cards.
whoa…a 364 day lapse inb between posts…
Same here, I use a K-1000, and it’s never let me down! Highly reccomended as it’s inexpensive, long lasting, and high quality!
And yes…how come these threads seem to come back to life exactly a year after they died…
Looks like 06archerd dug it up from obscurity…