On December 21, 2015, I exposed this photo of Amtrak’s Christmas Tree at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station using my Lumix LX7.
I processed the original Lumix RAW file using PureRaw. This shows the entire image capture, which owing to the pecularities of the lens design produces an oddly shape field of view.
I imported the PureRaw conversion into LightRoom and cropped it to produce a classic rectangle.
Do you wonder what someone in the future might think of the uncropped RAW image? It might be difficult comprehend that at the time of exposure, I never saw the wildly distorted image as captured in the RAW file.
Lumix RAW file after conversion into PureRaw and before input into Lghtroom.This is the same image as above, following cropping and cosmetic adjustment to shadow areas and color balance.
Tracking the Light Posts about railroad photography!
I anticipated that Amtrak’s Crayola-Blue ACS-64 621 would lead the first or second eastward Keystone from Harrisburg.
With this in mind, I arrived at Jefferson Drive in the morning to intercept the first train. For me this was a good news/bad news scenario.
The good news: although I’d cut it a bit fine, I arrived ahead of the train.
Bad news, the ambient humidity was extremely high, so as soon as I stepped out of the car my camera lens fogged. No amount of cleaning would keep it clear.
Good news: the Crayola Blue locomotive wasn’t leading.
Bad news: my photo of the first train was fogged.
Good news: Kris suggested I use the ‘Dehaze’ effects slider in Lightroom to correct for the fog, and to my surprise this trick worked very well.
Better news: I had another chance at catching Amtrak’s Crayola Blue locomotive on the move. So I drove east with the heat on in the car and the windows open. My hope was that, while uncomfortable, this might bring my camera up to temperature so that it would be less likely to fog when I got out of the car.
This is scaled, but otherwise unmodified RAW file as it came out of the camera. Although it was a bright clear morning, high humidity fogged the front element of my lens, which had the side effect of resulting in underexposure as well as reducing clarity and contrast.Kris suggested that I try Lightroom’s ‘Dehaze’ slider. This effect compensated for the undesirable effects of lens fog. Afterwards I lowered the saturation slider and lightened the image using exposure controls. It’s not perfect, but much better than the flat, soft and underexposed image that I had out of the camera.
On a very frosty morning in February 2010, I visited Toronto with photographers Pat Yough and Chris Guss.
We braved the Arctic-chill on the four-track line near Sunnyside, west of Toronto Union Station.
Shortly after sunrise, using my Canon EOS-3 with a telephoto lens, I exposed this Fujichrome slide of an eastward VIA Rail LRC train meeting an outbound GO Transit commuter train.
I scanned this slide the other day using a Nikon LS-5000 slide scanner and processed the Tif file using Adobe Lightroom.
Below is the unprocessed scan and the processed version of the same image, plus the Adobe Lightroom work window to show the changes that I made.
Scaled but otherwise unmodified scan of an original Fujichrome slide.This is the same image as above following a range of adjustments to level, contrast and exposure aimed at improving the appearance of the image and maximize the data in the scan. This was scaled following post processing.Screen shot of the Adobe Lightroom work window showing the slider controls used to adjust the scanned slide.
Last night Kris and I paused at Leaman in Paradise, Pa., to roll by Amtrak’s Keystone enroute to Harrisburg.
It had been raining heavily all day, and just as I stepped out of the car the sky opened up.
I’d set my Lumix LX7 to ISO 400, which is about the functional limit of its sensitivity. While it is possible to set the ISO setting higher, the results are not usually worth it.
I set the zoom to its maximum (17.7 mm), which about the equivalent to a 70mm lens on 35mm film camera. As the train drew close, I panned the leading ACS-64 locomotive with the shutter a 1/100 of second in effort to keep the locomotive and train as sharp as possible despite comparatively high speed.
The pantograph of the locomotive was dispersing water from the overhead catenary as it sped westward.
Below are two versions of the same file.
The first is the in-camera RAW without adjustment or cropping, but scaled in Lightroom for internet presentation.
The second is an interpreted file. First, I converted the RAW to DNG using DxO PureRaw, which corrected for lens defects and reduced the effects of pixelization from high-ISO, while effectively sharpening the image. I then imported this file into Lightroom to make cosmetic adjustments to contrast and exposure, lightening shadows and reigning in the highlights.
PureRaw’s re-interpretation of the pixels in the RAW file combined with water on the lens, pouring rain and panning motion resulted in some visual artifacts that are something other than was perceived with the naked eye. However for presentation here, the interpreted PureRaw version (complete with post-processing cropping) appears as a more dramatic image.
This is the in-camera RAW without adjustment or cropping.RAW file converted to DNG format using PureRaw, then adjusted cosmetically, including cropping, using Adobe Lightroom.
Friday, April 9, 2021, Conway Scenic Railroad operated a Work Extra on its Conway Branch. The sky was clear and blue and the sun bright. This was a perfect opportunity to experiment with my Nikon Z6 digital camera.
Although I purchased this image making machine six months ago, I haven’t come close to mastering it.
The Z6 has an amazing ability to capture and store visual information.
However, to best translate the Nikon RAW (NEF) file requires a bit of study and interpretation, and it is in the interpretation that I am still learning.
Below are two images of the Work Extra, and two interpretations of each. The top in each sequence represents the camera-JPG output with built-in Vivid color profile (scaled but otherwise unadjusted in post processing). The bottom of each sequence is my interpretation of the NEF file using Lightroom, where I’ve made nominal changes to color temperature, shadow and highlights, and overall contrast.
Camera JPEG with built in Vivid color profile. No changes to exposure, color temperature or contrast in post processing.NEF (Camera RAW) file adjusted using Adobe Lightroom to correct for color temperature, contrast, and shadow/highlight exposure.Camera JPEG with built in Vivid color profile. No changes to exposure, color temperature or contrast in post processing.NEF (Camera RAW) file adjusted using Adobe Lightroom to correct for color temperature, contrast, and shadow/highlight exposure.
