We arrived at the Pequea Boat Launch in the gloom of night.
The scanner squawked, “Clear signal, West Harbor.”
Gazing upriver, we saw the headlights of a Norfolk Southern coal train crawling across the Safe Harbor Bridge, about two and a half miles compass north (and timetable west) of Pequea, Pennsylvania.
With time to spare, I took position on the bridge over Pequea Creek and listened.
The roar of the long, heavy train swelled as it approached. Finally, the lights swept over me and burst forth from the trees to the west.
The sensation was surreal. I wondered if I’d been sent back in time.
Tracking the Light Posts About Railroad Night Photography!
As a follow-up to yesterday’s Tracking the Light post, “Perfecting the Art of the Pan,” I am continuing the theme by detailing my night-panning technique as a means of making effective railroad action photos at night.
Many modern digital cameras, with their exceptionally sensitive image-capturing capabilities, now make it possible to expose photos of moving trains in extremely low-light situations. However, even with these tools, I’m still faced with using slower shutter speeds than would be needed to “freeze” a moving train.
My solution has been to combine a very high ISO with an extremely fast lens, using a very wide aperture in the f/1.4 range, and employ my panning technique. After exposure, I process my RAW files using sophisticated software, specifically DxO PureRAW, to minimize the effects of high-ISO pixelization, correct lens imperfections, and boost contrast.
Consider this sequence of Norfolk Southern symbol freight 36A rolling through Washington Boro, Pennsylvania, at about 35 mph.
I worked with my Nikon Z6-III in “A” (aperture-priority) mode, which allows me to set the lens to a wide setting, f/1.6, while letting the camera select the appropriate corresponding shutter speed for the lighting conditions.
This is beneficial because I don’t need to try to adjust the lens setting as I’m panning or anticipate the most effective exposure combination in advance. Instead, I can concentrate on making a smooth and uninterrupted pan and releasing the shutter at key moments.
We timed our arrival at Downingtown, Pa., to catch the last westward Amtrak Keystone, Train 671, on its run from New York Penn Station to Harrisburg.
Located on curve, Downingtown station offers a suitable location for action night railroad photography because it has plenty of ambient illumination, both from platform lights and city streetlights.
I made this sequence as the train glided into the platform, paused for passengers, then continued its westward journey.
This common scene is repeated every night, day after day, yet on most nights it likely goes unrecorded.
Minutes after Amtrak, an eastward SEPTA local made its station stop. Stay tuned for those photos.
From LED headlights to distant twinkling starlight, there’s a lot of contrast in this sequence of Amtrak’s westward Keystone train 651 passing Bird-in-Hand, Pa.,
I’ve been pushing the envelope of still photography at this location for several months. My goal has been to ‘stop’ the action of a relatively fast train using only existing light (no flash).
This goal has been aided recently by a very fast camera sensor (in my Nikon Z6-III), a ‘fast-fifty’ lens (Nikkor Z-series f1.4 50mm), and modern PureRaw image post processing that uses AI technology to make the most of photos exposed with very high ISO.
For this sequence, I mounted the camera on my 3Pod tripod (with legs carefully tightened to avoid any unexpected sudden downward movement). I used all manual settings.
Several minutes before the train came into view, I focused on the rails roughly parallel in the film plane to the front of the old freight house (on right).
As the train passed through the scene, I made subtle adjustments in exposure. After the lead engine passed me, I dropped the shutter speed from 1/320th of second to 1/200th to allow more light to reach the sensor.
Following conversion to DNG files using PureRaw, I made a host of selective cosmetic adjustments in Lightroom.
Tracking the Light Posts about railroad night photography.
