{"id":44211,"date":"2026-05-08T06:13:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=44211"},"modified":"2026-05-06T22:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:36:13","slug":"20-seconds-at-f-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/20-seconds-at-f-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"20 seconds at f-Dark."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the gloom of a cloudy night, we pulled into a riverside park along the Susquehanna to listen to the peeper frogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the high-pitched chirps, I could hear a dull roar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a big train coming, but it\u2019s still a ways off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minutes ticked by. The chirping remained constant, while the roar gradually grew more pronounced. It was the sound of freight cars on the move\u2014lots of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My scanner squawked: \u201c622, clear Shocks . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLoaded coal train, and getting close.\u201d I grabbed my tripod and N6-III fitted with a 50mm f1.4 lens and in near total darkness, I set up for a photograph. As I fumbled with the level, focus, and other niceties, the headlights illuminated the right-of-way. Before the train entered the scene, I opened the shutter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made two photographs to record the train\u2019s passage. The first was exposed for 20 seconds at f2.8, ISO 500. The second was made without the benefit of headlights; this one was exposed for 10 seconds at f2.8 and ISO 6400. Both were processed with DxO PureRAW 5 using DeepPRIME 3 treatment, which minimized noise and lens aberrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are conceptual train photos\u2014ghosts passing over a bridge. I knew I could do better, and soon we were following the rolling roar downriver . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tracking the Light examines railroad photography!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These are conceptual train photos; just ghosts passing over a bridge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6060,10,6108,48],"tags":[3786,8638,4990,5383],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/NS_622_crossing_Vinegar_Ferry_Rd_Marietta_PA\u00a9BrianSolomon_DSC_1768-DxO_DeepPRIME-3-2.jpg?fit=2048%2C1365","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-bv5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44211"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44216,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44211\/revisions\/44216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}