Night shots....Second Attempt.

[AlcoFanRS27]

Hey all!

I decided to try my hand at taking some night shots again. Let me know what you think.


5377_Stevens Point Engine Facility by Alco 251, on Flickr


5379_CN SD75I #5660 by Alco 251, on Flickr
If you look close on this one, you can see a SW1500 still wearing WC colors! Maybe the last one? I don't know.

 

[Gary38]

Now your getting it nice shots Matt.

 

[-chet]

Fine work.

 

[papio]

Very nice.

 

[AlcoFanRS27]

Thank you all for the compliments. Ill keep trying to get shots like this. Sometimes it seems like it all comes together and I get good ones, other times it seems like I am kicking a dead horse and get jack-squat. haha

 

[kenw]

Thank you all for the compliments. Ill keep trying to get shots like this. Sometimes it seems like it all comes together and I get good ones, other times it seems like I am kicking a dead horse and get jack-squat. haha

Here's where studying your EXIF data can help, as well as remembering the surroundings, light postions, etc. You can learn a lot from ones that work (like these) and even those that don't. Again, these work very well.

 

[Abilene Ks Railfan]

very nice!!!

 

[brad_in_omaha]

Great work! Night shot are fun!

 

[AlcoFanRS27]

Thanks guys!

 

[SDJeff]

Good work. I rarely get out at night anymore, but when I tried nightshots, there was always a light that was too bright in the shot. Yours look really sharp.

 

[AlcoFanRS27]

Good work. I rarely get out at night anymore, but when I tried nightshots, there was always a light that was too bright in the shot. Yours look really sharp.

Thanks. I had to take a bunch before they ended up that clear. I used the "timed shutter release" function/feature to actually release the shutter. It works since the engines were just sitting.

 

[Pat]

Looks pretty good. You can adjust the color temperature and pull some of the color cast from the lights out. The lights are hard to get away from. You need them but it's hard to keep them out of the picture. These worked in pretty well.

What is the unit back behind the 5660?

 

[AlcoFanRS27]

Looks pretty good. You can adjust the color temperature and pull some of the color cast from the lights out. The lights are hard to get away from. You need them but it's hard to keep them out of the picture. These worked in pretty well.

What is the unit back behind the 5660?

Thanks, but what do you mean by the color temperature? The unit behind 5660 is C44-9WL #2505, I assume you mean the one coupled to the 5660?

 

[Pat]

Light has a color. Incandescent lights are yellowish. The noon day sun will be bluish. Your mind corrects the color to make white things appear white and for the most part you overlook the shifts in color. The color “temperature” of light is loosely related to the color of a “black body” being heated. Imagine an iron bar being slowly heated. First it will glow red. Then as it gets hotter it turns orange, yellow, white, blue etc. A light sources color relates to the temperature of the black body being heated in degrees Kelvin. Incandescent lights will be around 2800 degrees and the noon day sun 5500.

Your camera on auto white balance makes adjustments for the shift in the light color to reproduce the colors we expect to see. In most situations it’s pretty accurate. With night shots the camera won’t completely compensate for the light color and leave some color cast in the shot. Sodium vapor lights for example will leave an amber cast to the shot.

In your shot you can see the color from two different light sources. There is an amber color on the pavement from one light source and the green color on the 5660’s trucks from another. Adjusting one will affect the other.

You can set the white balance on the camera manually to eliminate the color cast and make the scene look as it would with something close to a white source. If you shoot RAW you can change the color temperature in your post processing. The colors sometimes add to the feeling of night time and sometimes pulling some of it out give the shot some extra pop. On overcast nights with reflection from the clouds I like to shift the white balance to take some of the color out of the sky.

I kind of like this one the way it is, the orange glow in the parking lot and the more intense light on the trucks where someone will be along to inspect them. White balance is worth playing with if you like night shots.

Way in the back of the shot it looks like an SW1500 maybe?

 

[AlcoFanRS27]

Light has a color. Incandescent lights are yellowish. The noon day sun will be bluish. Your mind corrects the color to make white things appear white and for the most part you overlook the shifts in color. The color “temperature” of light is loosely related to the color of a “black body” being heated. Imagine an iron bar being slowly heated. First it will glow red. Then as it gets hotter it turns orange, yellow, white, blue etc. A light sources color relates to the temperature of the black body being heated in degrees Kelvin. Incandescent lights will be around 2800 degrees and the noon day sun 5500.

Your camera on auto white balance makes adjustments for the shift in the light color to reproduce the colors we expect to see. In most situations it’s pretty accurate. With night shots the camera won’t completely compensate for the light color and leave some color cast in the shot. Sodium vapor lights for example will leave an amber cast to the shot.

In your shot you can see the color from two different light sources. There is an amber color on the pavement from one light source and the green color on the 5660’s trucks from another. Adjusting one will affect the other.

You can set the white balance on the camera manually to eliminate the color cast and make the scene look as it would with something close to a white source. If you shoot RAW you can change the color temperature in your post processing. The colors sometimes add to the feeling of night time and sometimes pulling some of it out give the shot some extra pop. On overcast nights with reflection from the clouds I like to shift the white balance to take some of the color out of the sky.

I kind of like this one the way it is, the orange glow in the parking lot and the more intense light on the trucks where someone will be along to inspect them. White balance is worth playing with if you like night shots.

Way in the back of the shot it looks like an SW1500 maybe?

Thanks pat for the information and compliment, seems like a lot to have sink in but I'll put it in my notes on photography.

Yes, that is a SW1500 in the very back. Its one of (or the last) one still in WC paint. All the other SW1500's are in CN Red & Black with WC markings below the cab.

 

[Tacoma Tom]

I love night shots and take them all the time. I see a few things you can do to help this picture. If I was taking this shot I would either lower the camera or get closer to eliminate that sodium light above the rear fan on the 5660. I would also either zoom in or crop the photo to eliminate that second light on the left. That storage box is right in the way and in the middle of the photo. In this case I would get closer to the 5660 taking a shot that has a full photo of the 5660.

Not a bad start. Watch the lights with poles and try to avoid them in your photos as they are a big distraction.

 

[AlcoFanRS27]

I love night shots and take them all the time. I see a few things you can do to help this picture. If I was taking this shot I would either lower the camera or get closer to eliminate that sodium light above the rear fan on the 5660. I would also either zoom in or crop the photo to eliminate that second light on the left. That storage box is right in the way and in the middle of the photo. In this case I would get closer to the 5660 taking a shot that has a full photo of the 5660.

Not a bad start. Watch the lights with poles and try to avoid them in your photos as they are a big distraction.

Thanks for the tips. I would have liked to have gotten closer but it would have been trespassing and I don't want to get "the boot" from the area cause I frequent there a lot.