Train Car
Feb, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken in Granbury Texas, 70 miles SW of Dallas. It was a dilapidated railroad car that has recently been dismantled.Time
I had to go to our local main Post Office and saw this railroad car a couple of blocks away. Decided to come back and take pictures the next day as I am always trying to find new things to shoot. I shot this about 4:00 in the afternoon.Lighting
I am relatively new at shooting quality pictures and have a hard time finding the right angles and crops. I shot this about 20 times and just didn't seam to have anything interesting. I tried all around the car. When I shot on the other side the light was to bright. When I shot on this side it had to many shadows and bright light coming through from the other side. Did several shots at different setting all in manual mode.Equipment
I used my Nikon D750 camera with a Nikon 24-120 mm lens. ISO 200 exposure was 1/100 sec at f/5.0 hand held shot raw.Inspiration
At the time I took this I was doing some Grunge PP and thought it could be a candidate but had to wait till I downloaded to see. This is just one of several shots all around and inside this railroad car. While inside I had to watch my step, the floor was rotted and falling apart.Editing
I did a lot of Photoshop Post-processing. As I remember I decreased highlights, opened shadows, increased whites, increased blacks, added some clarity. I then made a layer and darkened the grass and bright areas from the other side. At this point I thought I might have something but needed some sort of dramatic effect. My final edit was to use AuroraPro HDR one photo HDR. I don't remember what settings but I only used enough to get a mild effect. I am not one to use strong HDR, I think I have only done that once on an old fire truck.In my camera bag
The question posed is what is NORMALLY in your camera bag? I have found that to be different for different outings. My favorite lens is Nikon 24-120. It will work when I know I will not be reaching out. Use this a lot for car shows and people shots. If I were going on a cruise I load up my 28-300mm all around great lens with my Nikon D750 and SB700 speed light with simple plastic defuser. I would also have my 50 mm 1.4 prime lens for inside low light shots.Feedback
My advice for anyone trying to get this capture is have a speed light. One never know when you will need the extra help in lighting. I normally have it in my bag but this time I only took my camera no bag, not sure why. You might try a 3 - 5 shot HDR set varying your aperture, 2 over and 2 under. I went back later and took shots inside using a speed light with much better success you can find them in my Viewbug photos.
