As promised, here is another installment of some of my recent railroad work. These are some shots around Lower Downtown Denver (locally known as LoDo) and the northwest side of Denver:
These are a couple of shots taken at Fox Junction on Sunday morning:
I really like the exposure range in the second shot; is that an HDR image? If not, how did you get such good exposure of the yard tracks without blowing out the sky (or conversely, how did you get such a nice sky without losing the yard in darkness)?
And regarding the “boring wedgie” shot–there is a reason those are so popular: they are pleasing to look at. In your shot, we have a train, mountains, signals, big sky, foliage…sure, as a dramatic unique locomotive photo it doesn’t measure up, but it is a nice location shot.
Not an HDR image. I’ve just gotten very careful about metering since I started using the Canon 5D. The RAW files out of the 5D are a lot less forgiving of incorrect exposure than my Pentax K-5. With the K-5 and it’s 14.1 stops of DR, I just had to make sure that I didn’t blow out the highlights and I could pull on the shadows almost unlimitedly.
With the 5D and it’s older sensor, I have to be mindful of both sides of the histogram. Trying to pull too hard on shadows results in a lot of noise and sometimes banding issues. Because of that, I watch both sides of the histogram pretty carefully.
There’s still a decent amount of DR available from the 5D RAW files – probably around 11 stops. Careful exposure combined with the impressive abilities of Lightroom 4 yields dynamic range far beyond what slide film was capable of (though still short of the best negative films). The soft morning light in that image allowed me to capture both highlights and shadows adequately to work with in post processing.
While I’m missing the big DR of my K-5 (and will celebrate having it again, assuming I ever get my camera back from the repair shop…), shooting the 5D has made me a more careful (and I think slightly better) photographer. Full frame is getting a little addicting, though. Looking through that big, bright viewfinder is addictive and FF allows for a lot more control of DOF. And even though it’s 7 years old, the 5D Classic can still deliver some pretty impressive files when one is a little careful about the exposure issues I mentioned above.
Depending on what happens with my K-5, I may be switching brands again…
I especially like the first photo. The early AM light gives the downtown skyline an almost surreal quality, almost like a painted backdrop. I appreciate that you also include Denver pictures in addition to all your previous mountain photos.
