Today the C.V.S.Ry. ran an Independence Day Photographer’s Special. Weather was near perfect, just a little warm & humid. I took over 300 shots in RAW mode that will need sorting through and processing, which will take a few days. In the mean time here are some teasers from the JPG previews. First up, a nice low angle shot of C-19 #8 on the down-grade rounding Coal Dump Curve in the bright late afternoon sun…
There are literally hundreds more with many angles I’ve never shot before. As I get through them I’ll post more. Stay tuned!
NOTE: All of my photos are posted in high resolution, reduced to screen width by the forum software. If you want to view the full size image just right click and choose View Image. You may need to click the + to get full size. If you are still one of the folks using dial up or really slow internet, I apologize for hogging all your bandwidth!
Those are nice! Looking forward to your final versions. I particularly like the 2nd shot with the train on the curve, the gorgeous trees behind it, and the church in the background. Nicely composed!
It looks like I have a bit of a learning curve to conquer. My photography buff friends have been recommending RAW mode for years as it offers much more flexibility for software correction. I had a computer crash about a year ago and lost my install of Photoshop CS. My CD’s are good, but they no longer support the licensing server, so they offered a permanent license version download. I did manage to get that download installed before the crash, but attempts after failed.
Rather than fight with an old version of Photoshop I decided to go with new free software. I liked what I read about GIMP. Downloaded and installed that only to find that it needs a RAW Mode editor add-on, so I installed Darktable. I’m now able to open the files in GIMP, but most of the correction happens in Darktable, and so far it is not very intuitive. Of to search for a manual / tutorial now.
BTW, My RAW files from yesterday total a little over 6Gb! Very slow getting them off the CF cards via a USB reader. I moved just 15 files to start learning the software.
Not free, and less powerful than photoshop or, I presume, gimp++, but I use Lightroom and am very happy with it. Really helps when you are culling a large set of pics.
Want to send me one of your raw files and see what I can do with it?
Ah, after having a bit of time to look at what the internet says about Darktable, it seems to be a free version of Lightroom. Cool! The general consensus is that Lightroom is a bit easier to use and a bit more powerful (i.e. it is a bit more mature) but that Darktable is pretty darn good.
Have fun, Jon! I find sitting and editing images to be fun. Instant gratification and you don’t need to wait for glue to dry!
I uploaded the raw file of that image to my webspace, but I’m not sure if you can download it. Following the link will result in an error as it’s not a browser supported file. Maybe I can send it via PM.
Jon sent me the RAW version of one of his pics (very close to the second pic in his first post here) and I fiddled with it a bit. Here are 2 versions of it, one heavily cropped:
The plantings are magnificent! What beautiful, beautiful work!
Eroc
Thanks Eric (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)But in reality, when it comes to gardening I’m just a hack. I buy stuff, plop it in the ground and most of it dies. After years of repeating that cycle I have been sticking with what will grow here. Some of those trees are going on 15 years old now with lots of trimming along the way. The bright green Sedum is really like a weed; Even broken off parts will root and grow!
The sunlight in this area around the curve has also varied a lot over the years due to changes in trees and shrubs surrounding it. My neighbors both have tall hedge rows, one of which has grown to over 25 feet! We used to have mountain views from our back porch. Now all we see is his tree line! We also had a tornado a few years ago and lots of big trees were lost surrounding us. We suffered nearly no damage. The changing light conditions have changed my gardens dramatically. Dwarf Alberta Spruce trees that were doing great 5 years ago have all but died off. The ones that are left are sparse, but those Arborvitaes thrive. I have some Creeping Jenny ground cover that has migrated to follow the sun!
Most of my railroad varies from part shade to deep shade, which is a challenge. Only this curve area gets bright sun, but only for 3 or 4 hours a day. My latest thought is to find wild deep shade plants I like on the islands where we beach our boat and try and bring them here. So far, the only thing that was moved from there to here was some decorative grass that probably came across the lake from the mc-mansions on the other side!
Jon sent me the RAW version of one of his pics (very close to the second pic in his first post here) and I fiddled with it a bit. Here are 2 versions of it, one heavily cropped:
Those are nice Jim! I’m making a little progress on the software side. Darktable is not intuitive at all and learning the how the UI worked took me some time. I’m still not sure I will use it for much more than a RAW file converter from within GIMP. I just need to figure out some good default values for it, one of the defaults throws my colors way off! So yesterday after some putzing around, I got this same pic into GIMP. GIMP’s UI and terminology are very similar to Photoshop, so I’m picking that up quicker than the highly technical darktable. This is by no means what I would consider a finished work, but this is where I ended up with only a few hours invested in both programs…
In comparing to your un-cropped edit; you managed to bring out much more of the detail in the loco’s running gear, but I still like the color temp of the rocks in mine - it is closer to what it actually is. Of course, never having been here, and not being a New Englander, you probably don’t have the glacial till rock that we do for comparison.
I am back to work part-time tomorrow, so I may not get much more progress made quickly. Maybe Ill post a few more of the JPG previews. There are at least 1 or 2 more that I think came out great!
Here are a few more from the JPG previews. I decided that it might be fall before I am confident enough with the new software to post my edits. To start off, a slightly different angle on the diamond at Walk Landing Trans-Load…
So I think that covers all of the scenic locations. The North tail of the wye is pretty ugly as is the elevated track heading back indoors beyond ‘the curve’.
Nice pics Jon, lots of action areas to keep you busy
On the ground, to the right of the loco is a yellow sign. Used to stand upright, but it got snapped off. It says <–4 CARS in paint pen. and is placed the exact distance from the portal as the depth of the tunnel. So if you stop before entering, you can get a good visual on what will fit. I am having issues going in loco first. My new 2-stick radio seems to be having range issues and I loose the loco in the tunnel. I probably didn’t plug in the antennae properly when I swapped the boards.
Here are a few more from the JPG previews. I decided that it might be fall before I am confident enough with the new software to post my edits. To start off, a slightly different angle on the diamond at Walk Landing Trans-Load…
I hope you will be holding the camera straight so the horizon is level
I noted your uploaded photos are pretty big. I try to keep mine down below 1500 px wide for quicker loading.
Pity we don’t have a quicker up-load facility, like GSC’s drag-and-drop. The attachment is rotated, enhanced and cropped in my Photoshop Elements.
Hi Pete - Unfortunately, the attachment link is not working for me. I’ll mess with it later. But thanks for your comments and effort.
That shot is nearly square with the camera almost level. Notice the trees on the right and the roof line of the building! The track the boxcar is sitting on is a fairly steep grade, as is the track with the train. Track Cross-level is bad here too. In other shots I can see how tipped the hoppers are after the loco gets on cross-level track.
I upload in high resolution intentionally. Most Evey picture I post is 2048 x whatever. I use a lot of compression to get the files size reasonable. I do this because my on-line photo library is my reference and I want photos I can zoom detail. Years ago I would make two versions, a small under 6-800 pixels wide, and a large 1024 or larger. When Bob’s software started handling the wider files, I stopped creating both. It is much simpler to find things in a text listing when there is only one of each image. I’m sure there are those who will complain I am wasting their bandwidth, but if they don’t like it they don’t have to open my threads. Anyone who wants to see the detail just needs to right click and view image.
EDIT to add your attachment. LSC software was corrupting the link. I’m just posting the attachment file as an image here…
Your rotation looks good, maybe just a tad too far left. I probably would square the engine house roof with the photo edge. I also kept the foreground to show off some of the plantings that actually grow here, but from a composition point of view, you are getting the subject in a better spot.
Through the “way back machine”, there is a complete history of the build, the Fryer’s Mausoleum, and the root blockng the entrance.
My chance of finding all that history, other than in my foggy grey matter, is pretty slim. However, Daktah Jon has unexplored talents to dig up
the most mundane stuff, so who knows what might show up.
Google is your friend when you use advanced search: DeepCut Tunnel site:largescalecentral.com which turns up lots of photos and the original thread from 2010:
