Tag Archives: Sligo

photography, Tips and Technique

Irish Rail at Sligo; Techniques for Improving a Dark Slide.

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Scaled, but otherwise unadjusted scan.

On April 23, 2000, I exposed this view of Irish Rail 072 with Mark 2s at Sligo.

It was a typical overcast Irish day.

Working with Fujichrome Sensia II (ISO 100), my result was a slightly underexposed colour slide, common with these unflattering lighting conditions.

To improve the photograph, I scanned the original slide at very high resolution (4000 dpi) using a Nikon Super Coolscan5000 digital scanner and outputted the file as a hi-res TIF.

I then imported the TIF into Lightroom and made a few minor changes to contrast, colour balance, and exposure that I feel make for a much-improved photograph.

Adjusted scan.

While I can output the adjusted file as a TIF, the resulting file size is much too large for presentation on this site. Instead, I’ve made a pair of low-res JPG’s specifically sized for internet presentation here. One is scaled from the un-adjusted original scan, the other is my improved scan.

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Contrast and density tweaked for internet viewing on social media.

photography

Irish Rail’s Sligo Timber at Islandbridge.

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Recently discussions of Irish Rail’s Sligo Timber have led me to ask, ‘When did this traffic end?’

Sometimes my memory offers a clear picture of the past, in other situations it is fuzzy and lacking desired detail. This is among the reasons I try to apply detailed labels and captions to my photographs near the time of exposure.

I recall the Sligo timber’s revival in Spring 2002, and my many opportunities to photograph timber trains on the Sligo Line and in around Dublin in the years that followed, but I’m unable to remember when the last train operated.

On guessing, I thought 2007 or 2008 was pretty close. So on reviewing my photo files, I was a bit surprised to find this photograph dated 21 May 2009.

Photo by Brian Solomon on 21 May 2009.

I exposed this view on Fujichrome from my regular spot at Islandbridge Junction, which shows Irish Rail 232 in the modern green livery leading a timber out of the Phoenix Park Tunnel. The construction-progress of the apartments at left helps me confirm the date of the photo.

So, when was the final movement of timber by rail from Sligo? I must have been away.

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photography, Tips and Technique

Irish Rail 079 at Sligo-April 2000; Seeing Square (pardon the dodgy crop).

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I exposed this view of Irish Rail 071 class diesel number 079 at Sligo using my Rolleiflex Model T loaded with Fuji Neopan 400.

I processed the film at the Gallery of Photography at Meetinghouse Square in Dublin using Agfa Rodinal Special concentrated liquid developer.

Final processing was accomplished digitally using Lightroom.

The Rollei allowed me to compose using a square field rather than a more common rectangular field. I've found that the square changes the way I see, and thus produces different compositions. Someone might ask, 'couldn't you just crop it?'. You could, yes, but that's not my point.
The Rollei allowed me to compose using a square field rather than a more common rectangular field. I’ve found that the square changes the way I see, and thus produces different compositions. Someone might ask, ‘couldn’t you just crop it?’. You could, yes, but that’s not my point. ‘So what about the lead-in version? That’s cropped, isn’t it?’ Yes, but not by choice! That’s an effect of the software/internet/webhosts.

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