During our coal mine tour a few weeks ago, I exposed this image of a coal mine locomotive on display deep below the surface.
It was pretty dark inside the Lackawanna Coal Mine, so I set my Z7-II for ISO 8000 in order to record this photo handheld.
Afterwards, I made four versions of the same image. The first is a NEF RAW straight out of the camera. The second has been processed using Lightroom. The third is the NEF RAW after conversion to DNG format using PureRaw; the last is the Lightroom adjusted PureRaw DNG formatted file. Each is captioned appropriately.
All have been scaled for internet presentation.
Image 1: NEF RAW file straight out of the camera.Image 2; NEF RAW that was processed using Lightroom. NEF RAW after conversion to DNG format and without adjustment or post processing adjustment. NEF RAW after conversion to DNG format following post-processing adjustments to color, contrast and exposure.
Air pollution, fluffy clouds and very low sun can create some wonderful soft lighting.
Evening glint is a fleeting ephemeral condition.
The Northeast Corridor in central New Jersey is an ideal place to make use of soft glint.
Long tangent sections of track, a favorable north-east to southwest alignment and ample quantities of air-pollution plus very frequent service, allow for excellent opportunities as the light shifts and fades.
I made these photographs at Jersey Avenue in New Brunswick.
Exposed using anFujiFilm X-T1 digital camera with 18-135mm lens. Camera set at ISO 1000, 1/180 of a second at f7.1. Here I’ve set the white balance to ‘auto’, however typically I recommend that for glint photography a white balance setting for ‘daylight’ will yield redder more impressive photos.
ISO 1250, f5.6 1/250th using the Fujifilm ‘Velvia’ color profile, with white balance set to ‘auto’.
Getting the exposure right is crucial for successful glint photos.
I usually use manual settings. I’ve found that when exposing for glint light it is important pay careful attention to the highlight and shadow areas.
I avoid clipping the highlights (as result of over exposure), but also make sure that I don’t stop down (reducing the amount of light reaching the sensor ) too much, which will make the shadows completely opaque.
