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A WW2 Army Air Corps officer looks from a train window.
A WW2 Army Air Corps officer looks from a train window.
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Feb, 2016Views
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Red5
June 18, 2016
Hi Jim, this is from a WW2 event (Southern at War) at the Bluebell Railway in Sussex, UK. This role-player was on one of the trains at the station.
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken at my local heritage railway called The Bluebell. The event was a D-Day commemoration called 'Southern at War' where re-enactors show what it would have been like at the railway during World War 2.Time
The 14:10 had pulled into the station and the light coming in under the station canopy was perfect, the guy was lit perfectly and I didn't need a fill in flash.Lighting
I wanted to try and get some light reflected in the carriage windows and had I used a flash it would have bleached these out but the plan was to have a shallow depth of field to try and keep any modern furniture and people out of the shot.Equipment
It was taken with my Nikon D810, handheld with my 80-200mm f/2.8. No flash was used.Inspiration
I had seen the role players looking out of the windows when the trains pulled in and they are usually very good at posing for togs but I wanted to ensure the subject was natural and not looking at the camera. As the train pulled in I saw a window pulled and down and he looked out, I set the frame and took the shot. It was one of those 'perfect moments'.Editing
The image is slightly cropped to focus in on the character and remove some unwanted imagery at the edge of the frame. It's slightly processed with Exposure X to dampen the colours so it doesn't look too modern.In my camera bag
My Nikon D4S goes everywhere with me, and I my goto lenses are my 24-70 f/2.8 and 85mm f/1.4 which is an incredible portrait lens. For my sports work I have my 80-200 f/2.8 and 200-500mm f/5 which is great and not huge. The 810 is amazing portrait camera but struggles hand-held because of the large sensor size.Feedback
Try and watch first, don't assume that the situation will never happen again and if you can plan your angles and light beforehand then do it. You may get lucky but if not, wait and try again. If you can set your camera to a continuos release then take a batch of shots and hopefully one will be right, better to take ten and get one than take one shot and miss it. For people shots have a longer lens as this gives you a chance to be slightly back and get that candid image. Lastly try and fill your frame. I live by the amazing Magnum Photos photographer Robert Capa's comment "If your photographs aren't good enough, you're not close enough". If you can't get physically closer then use a longer lens.
