This is a story about focus, color, and contrast.

The setup: At Washington Boro, we noted a Clear signal for an eastward train. We continued to Columbia while I scouted potential locations near milepost 37. We waited near COLA Tower until I heard on the train radio, “Clear COLA.”—the eastward train calling the nearest signal at the far end of the interlocking. That gave me the 60 to 90 seconds I needed to get into position near Milepost 37.

There was just enough light remaining in the evening sky to compose what was essentially a daylight photograph. I framed the train between the former Pennsylvania Railroad catenary poles, using the colorful sunset sky and the Susquehanna River as the backdrop.

I placed my focus point toward the lower left of the frame and used a very wide aperture to maximize the available light while separating the background from the main subject—Norfolk Southern locomotive No. 4613.

Initially, I wasn’t pleased with the results, but Kris thought that I’d made a great photo. That prompted me to take another look and interpret what I’d captured.

I created two different interpretations from the RAW file, which I first converted to a DNG using DxO PureRAW 5 with DeepPRIME 3 processing and lens corrections.

The top image benefits from carefully adjusted local contrast, while the lower version features greater amont of brightening and sharpening to emphasize detail.

Which interpretation do you prefer?

Stay tuned for more!

Tracking the Light examines the details of railroad photography.