Norfolk Southern’s local on the Lititz Secondary rolled along at a jogging pace.
I’d previously scoped out a few angles from West Lexington Road at Limerock in Lititz, Pa. When I arrived, the the short train was coming into view. I had ample time to make these images using my FujiFilm XT1 with 16-50mm Fujinon lens
All were exposed as RAF Raw files, then converted into DNG format using Iridient X-Transformer. This software makes more effective use of the Fuji Raw format. Working from the converted files, I made adjustments to exposure, contrast and color balance using Adobe Lightroom, and then produced scaled output for digital display here.
Finding trains on CP Rail’s Moosehead Subdivision requires patience and good luck. On our visit last weekend Kris Sabbatino & I found that operations consisted of basically one road freight in each direction a day.
Moosehead Lake is an area of exceptional scenic beauty and Greenville, Maine is a lovely rural town with several fine places to eat. We only spent a small portion of our visit to the area line-side waiting for trains, but kept our ear to the ground anticipating the sounds of an approaching freight.
Several times, Kris heard or spotted a train before I did. And this was a huge help in getting into position line side with time enough to make photos of the passing freight.
One evening at Greenville, we heard a distant whistle, and drove west to the old Greenville Junction station to photograph its passage.
Lighting at the station was tricky. The evening sky exhibited subtle hues of magenta and blue, while the station building was in shadow. Light levels were low enough to require a high ISO setting on the camera to stop the action.
For these photos, I worked with my FujiFilm XT1 with 16-55mm Fujinon zoom lens. I set the camera to ISO 1000.
In post processing, I converted the Fuji RAW files to DNG format using Iridient X Transformer, then imported these into Lightroom for adjustments. These included lightening the shadows, while darkening the highlight regions to hold detail and color in the sky, plus some contrast and color control.
For comparison, I’ve included the unmodified In-camera JPG and the adjusted DNG versions of the same image at the bottom of this posting.
Greenville Junction, Maine. Fuji RAW file converted to DNG format and adjusted using Adobe Lightroom.Greenville Junction, Maine. Fuji RAW file converted to DNG format and adjusted using Adobe Lightroom. Compare this version to the unmodified in-camera JPG of the same image below.Screenshot of the in-camera JPG file with information showing details of exposure.
Yesterday morning, I photographed Conway Scenic’s Snow Train as it crossed the River Road bridge in North Conway, NH bound for Attitash.
The sun was directly behind the train, and if working with conventional theory for railroad photography I might have dismiss these lighting conditions as unworkable.
This is the scaled image but otherwise unmodified from the camera RAW file. This was before I made the adjustments as described below.
Instead, I opted for a sunburst silhouette. Working with my FujiFilm XT1 and 16-55mm Fujinon zoom lens, I set the aperture manually to f22 (the smallest setting). By using the smallest lens opening, I caused diffraction of the direct sunlight that results in the sunburst effect. This is enhanced by filtering the sunlight through the tree branches against a clear blue sky. I adjusted my exposure to maximize the sun burst, which resulted in underexposure of the main subject, which is GP35 216 leading the Snow Train.
After exposure, I walked back to my office at the North Conway Station to adjust the image for final presentation. First I converted the Fuji RAW file using Iridient X-Transformer, and then imported this into Adobe Lightroom. I lightened the overall exposure, while lowering highlights to make the most of the sunburst, then lightened the shadow areas to brighten up the train. Finally, I boosted overall image saturation to make sky seem more blue, and lowered contrast to lower the impact of the photograph.
My sunburst silhouette after adjustment. Notice I minimized the wire in the sky at top right.
These adjustments required less time than the five-minute walk from River Road to the North Conway Station.
Last Wednesday, I organized an extra train on Conway Scenic to film for an upcoming television segment.
On the way west we paused at ‘Patch’s’ (a convenience store near Glen, New Hampshire).
While the train was paused, I exposed these photos using my FujiFilm XT1 with 16-55mm lens. I then converted the camera RAW files to DNG format using Iridient X-Transformer and made contrast and color adjustments in Adobe Lightroom.
On this day two years ago, I photographed New England Central GP38s in the classic blue & gold paint leading the southward 608 at Stafford Springs, Connecticut (Stafford on the railroad).
Working with the FujiFilm RAW file from my XT1, I first converted the photo to a DNG file using Iridient X-Transformer, then imported that file into Adobe Lightroom for adjustment.
To make for a more pleasing image, I reduced contrast, lightened shadows, and lowered the intensity of the highlights.
Last week, Conway Scenic Railroad temporarily evicted former Boston & Maine F7A 4268 from stall 4 at the North Conway, NH roundhouse where the locomotive has been undergoing an operational restoration by the 470 Club (that also owns sister F7A 4266 which is operational at CSRR).
Saturday morning (November 21, 2020) brilliant late-autumn presented excellent light to photograph this relic of mid-20th century dieselization. B&M 4268 was originally an EMD demonstrator and features the builder’s less-common ‘passenger pilot’, which makes it distinctive among B&M’s F-unit.
I made these photos using my FujiFilm X-T1 with recently acquired 16-55mm Fujinon lens. After exposure, I converted the camera-RAW files to DNG format using Iridient X-Transformer software, which does a more effective job of transforming these files for conversion by Adobe Lightroom, than either Lightroom itself or other image processing software.
After conversion, I imported the DNG files into Lightroom and made some minor adjustments to color temperature, contrast, and highlight/shadow detail plus saturation.
Below are examples of the in-camera FujiFilm JPG (using Velvia color profile, and a comparison DNG file converted from RAW using the Iridient software.
All photos were then scaled and exported using Lightroom.
Scaled and watermarked but otherwise un-modified JPG file exposed with the Velvia color profile using my FujiFilm XT1.Camera RAW file converted to a DNG file using Iridient X-Transformer and then imported into Lightroom for adjustment to color temp, contrast, and exposure)Scaled and watermarked but otherwise un-modified JPG file exposed with the Velvia color profile using my FujiFilm XT1.Camera RAW file converted to a DNG file using Iridient X-Transformer and then imported into Lightroom for adjustment to color temp, contrast, and exposure)
Using my FujiFilm XT1, I made this photo on First Street when visiting Los Angeles in August 2016.
I was pleased to catch then-new cars working the Metro Rail Gold Line light rail line.
Below are two variations. The top is the in-camera JPG, using the ‘Velvia’ color profile. The second view I converted from Fuji RAW to DNG format with Iridient X-Transformer (a specialized 3rd party software aimed at producing superior results with Fuji RAW files) before importing into Lightroom for final adjustment.
In-camera JPG using ‘Veliva’ color profile.DNG file converted from Fuji RAW using Iridient X-Transformer.Notice the superior shadow detail.
Yesterday, November 3, 2020, Conway Scenic Railroad operated a work extra on its Conway Branch.
I followed this train by road and exposed photos along the way using my FujiFilm XT1 with 16-55mm Fujinon lens.
Working with the camera RAW files, I used a program called Iridient X-Transformer to convert the files to a DNG format before importing these into Adobe Lightroom for adjustment.
Yesterday, October 15, 2020, I made a late season foliage photo of Conway Scenic Railroad’s Mountaineer descending from Crawfords at milepost 79 near the Arethusa Falls grade crossing.
Working with my FujiFilm XT1 and 90mm prime telephoto, I set the ISO to 1000. I needed relatively high sensitivity because I was working in the shadows of the trees and mountain side and wanted a sufficiently fast shutter speed to freeze the motion of the train, while using a smaller aperture to minimize headlight bleed.
Then I imported the Fuji RAW files directly into Adobe Lightroom for processing, while making a comparison set of files by importing them first into Iridient X-Transformer which converts the files to a DNG format and then imported these into Lightroom.
As previously described on Tracking the Light, the Iridient software does a superior job of interpreting the Fuji RAW files.
See comparisons below.
Fuji RAW file processed by Adobe Lightroom and adjusted for color balance and saturation in post processing.Fuji RAW file processed by Iridient X-Transformer and adjusted for color balance and saturation in post processing.Close up of the Fuji RAW processed by Adobe Lightroom.Close up of the Fuji RAW processed by Iridient X-Transformer. Notice the superior clarity of hard edges and better definition at the edge of the headlights.
