{"id":44813,"date":"2026-08-03T06:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T10:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=44813"},"modified":"2026-08-01T20:24:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T00:24:50","slug":"coal-train-against-an-evening-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/coal-train-against-an-evening-sky\/","title":{"rendered":"Coal Train Against an Evening Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is a story about focus, color, and contrast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The setup: At Washington Boro, we noted a Clear<\/strong> signal for an eastward train. We continued to Columbia while I scouted potential locations near milepost 37. We waited near COLA Tower until I heard on the train radio, “Clear COLA.”\u2014the eastward train calling the nearest signal at the far end of the interlocking. That gave me the 60 to 90 seconds I needed to get into position near Milepost 37.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was just enough light remaining in the evening sky to compose what was essentially a daylight photograph. I framed the train between the former Pennsylvania Railroad catenary poles, using the colorful sunset sky and the Susquehanna River as the backdrop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I placed my focus point toward the lower left of the frame and used a very wide aperture to maximize the available light while separating the background from the main subject\u2014Norfolk Southern locomotive No. 4613.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, I wasn’t pleased with the results, but Kris thought that I\u2019d made a great photo. That prompted me to take another look and interpret what I’d captured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I created two different interpretations from the RAW file, which I first converted to a DNG using DxO PureRAW 5 with DeepPRIME 3 processing and lens corrections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top image benefits from carefully adjusted local contrast, while the lower version features greater amont of brightening and sharpening to emphasize detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which interpretation do you prefer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Stay tuned for more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

This is a story about focus, color, and contrast. The setup: At Washington Boro, we noted a Clear signal for an eastward train. We continued to Columbia while I scouted potential locations near milepost 37. We waited near COLA Tower until I heard on the train radio, “Clear COLA.”\u2014the eastward train calling the nearest signal at the … Continue reading Coal Train Against an Evening Sky<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44815,"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":[6568,7979,7337,8522],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/NS_4613_w_unit_coal_train_near_Columbia_PA\u00a9BrianSolomon_DSC_2649-DxO_DeepPRIME-3.jpg?fit=2048%2C1365","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-bEN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44813"}],"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=44813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44816,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44813\/revisions\/44816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}