photography, Tips and Technique

California Zephyr at Pinole

In the early 1990s, Amtrak’s F40PH was the ubiquitous long distance passenger locomotive.

When I made this photo on the evening of February 22, 1992, the F40PH seemed very common.

Amtrak had more than 200 F40PHs. I have thousands of photos of them from New Hampshire to California; from Quebec to Florida. Yesterday morning on my way to work I wondered, ‘Did I photograph them all?’

I scanned this Kodachrome slide using VueScan software and a Nikon LS5000 ‘Super Coolscan5000’.

Below are two versions, both scaled from the hi-res original scan using Adobe Lightroom. The top has ot been modified in post processing, while the bottom is the same scan following a series of minor modifications aimed at making a better image.

Scaled but unmodified scan of a Kodachrome 25 slide.
Scan modified to improve level, contrast, shadow and highlight detail and color saturation.

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