Locomotive NS7742 'Bello' from the "Stoomtram Hoorn-Medemblik" museum.
Build in 1914 by the Schwartzkopff factory, Berlin, Germany. It rode from 1914 until 1955. After that it was displayed in silty open air until 1978. In pretty bad condition it went to the museum. After restorations it was back back in service in 1985.
I wish the sky was better, but I went to this place four times. Three times it rained too hard and today it still rained very lightly. Crap sky. :(
I chose 1922, because that year the locomotive went from the HIJSM to the NS and it looks like the 1920's is what they are trying to mimic in the museum.
Editing (captured as Nikon NEF)
- whitebalance to 6000k
- color mode to Adobe RGB (mode II)
- slight pull upwards on the curve line
- D-lighting HQ 24, 1, 60
- sent to Photoshop as 8-bit file
- rotate canvas a bit to the left
- crop max 3:2 part out of the remains
- Fred Miranda Chroma Noise Reduction
- Channel Mixer
- Curves
- Lab color, Lightness Channel USM 10% 50px
- Lab color, throw away a and b channel
- grayscale
- rgb
- color balance -100, 0, +30
- brightness +5
- contrast +2
- resample to 640 wide
- lab color, lightness channel USM 120%, 0.3px
- save for the web
Statistics
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how do you like that 30mm sigma lens? i was looking at getting one. is it worth it? how often do you use it?
There might be more people interested in this, so I'll react here and not trough a private message.
I like my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 a lot.
It has actually become my standard lens, but that is also because I like shooting with primes. With a prime you do not need to worry about zooming and how it will end up perpective wise. When you know your prime you know how it makes pictures look. You just move yourself to fill the frame. Because you move a lot you are interacting more with your subject and that gives far better results than being static and using a zoom lens. You experiment more with it.
For me 30mm was a perfect size on a DX/APS-C camera, it comes close to my old 35mm rangefinder with a 40mm lens. The view does not distort perspective, while indoors or in a street you are not constantly with your back against walls and when you want a close up you really need to come close. You're not hiding in the crowd with a long lens, people seem to appreciate that a lot more.
Another important reason was the f/1.4 max aperture and how sharp it looked at that aperture in the first online tests. I got the lens to shoot in low light conditions without a flash or minimal fill flash. When you are walking trough a city in the morning at sunrise and can take the shots where someone with a F4 lens needs to push up his ISO or use a tripod.
In both aspects the lens hasn't let me down. It is sharp, sharp enough at f/1.4 and very, very sharp from f/1.8 onwards. It already made me capture shots that would be impossible with slower lenses. When you shoot a scene with the main subject at a distance and use f/2.0 for example, you'd be amazed how much dof you still have. It also worked on the streets, I need less room to work with.
Here is an example of a shot I took at f/1.4 and processed for DPC:
//www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=211483
Technically; It is very sharp, has good contrast, neutral color, focus is fast and silent with little hunting and good focus lock on the right spot, very little CA.
Downsides: Corner softness, my sample is pretty good, it doesn't bother me at all, but I've seen some complaints here and there.
Vignetting, this is often visible and could be bothersome. But I shoot Nikon NEF and run them trough Nikon Capture, which has a good Vignetting correction tool. So this too is not really a problem.
I wish it had a lens cap like the Nikon 18-70 DX. With the hood on (forwards) I cannot get the lens cap on or off.
The way I can work with it is for me far more important that a bit of corner softness and vignetting. I guess a 2nd place with the very first entry with this lens proves that. :)
Is it value for money? For me it is.
When you want to see some fullsize samples on a D70, check:
//www.pbase.com/azrifel/fullsize
Love this shot - the mood of the moment has been wonderfully captured, after much patience no doubt.
The steam effect really gives it life and frames the subject locomotive in a nice way.
The sky adds rather than detracts from the overall effect.....well done!
Curious about the museum aspect of this. Are the people real? They look real! Well done and congratulations!
Yep, they are real. This was shot at Wognum trainstation. In the summer some people dress up and load stuff on and off the train for example. Also some people on the train are actors. The main musuem is in Hoorn, but they don't dress up there. In Hoorn you can look at the app. 10 trains they have.
I'm not sure if they have an actor on all trains. This is the most favorite locomotive and it runs on special days and in the summer. These carts are the oldest and most authentic as well.
Thanks all, didn't expect this at all. You made me very happy. :)
About the angle this is shot at (why not more attention to the steam at both sides): There is a modern big and ugly industrial area right behind the train. The train hides it all. An angle to include more of the steam would also have shown that area.
8 - Met the Challenge (I think a photo of this put into a 'time capsule' would give future generations a good depiction of this era/year, if that is the correct 'interpretation' of the Challenge). This is a great shot. Criticism; not much at all. I really like the steam you have captured, the characters, the texture/surface of the train - ok, maybe those power lines I just noticed should not be there in 1922 for 'true authenticity' - who knows. The lamp posts look good, the b/w or sepia? looks very good - perhaps just a slightly more front on angle to get more perspective on the train and platform, and get both those (but especially the 'left) shot of steam in the frame.
After searching high and low I finally found an image I feel worth of a 10
Good job! Love the cloud texture and that reflection emitting from the (black?) paint
1922
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