American Steam Locomotive 5197

usa 5197 b, originally uploaded by foto-art.

American Steam Locomotive 5197, photographed on the Churnet Valley Railway. Winter is a great time for this sort of shot, which was taken close to the shortest day of the year. A wet evening in the city also provides a great subject, with the wet streets providing reflections of the street lights. Using a digital camera with night mode and the flash turned off is the best way. But you need a sturdy tripod!

Manor class steam locomotive at night Night shot tutorial

night gwr, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Art effect treatment of a GWR Manor Class Steam locomotive in the sidings at Cheddleton on the Churnet valley railway. This photo was taken using a digital camera. The night mode was used and the flash setting turned to off. Flas usually only works to a range of about 15 ft or about 5 metres so for this kind of shot is a waste of time: not only is its range too short to reach the subject, it also may play havoc with the light meter reading and give a poor exposure. In addition, any flash from the camera is coming from a 'false' direction and would light the subject inappropriately. This means that the photographer has to rely on available light and fortunately for this shot, there were a number of floodlights lighting up the scene. A tripod is pretty essential for this kind of shot as the shutter speed is so slow: any movement will blur the image. Failure to have a tripod means having to rely on any handy flat surfaces such as fences, walls, litter bins...anything to rest the camera on. Unfortunately, this severely restricts your ability to choose a good viewpoint. After the shot was taken, it was given an art treatment effect. (See tutorials elsewhere). This kind of subject lends itself very well to the art effect treatment as steam locomotives are quite difficult to paint. This kind of image captures the sheer weight of these locomotives: they are in excess of fifty tons weight!

New York - Times Square

new york - times square, originally uploaded by foto-art.

Times Square, New York. A spur-of-the-moment shot whilst on holiday in New York. The camera was set to night mode and it is essential that one uses a tripod or some sort of ad-hoc camera rest for this kind of shot, else it will simply suffer from motion blurring due to camera shake. Such motion blurring can be quite effective....see the image 'Jazz' for example. But here I wanted a sharper image and had no tripod. In this case, any flat surface will do: a bollard, a bit of fencing, a rubbish bin, anything where the camera can be rested flat and still. This of course restricts vantage points and perspectives. Afterwards in Photoshop, converging verticals were corrected. (See tutorial on converging verticals)