I wish this challenge had taken place in the spring. Had to go all the way to ISO 800 to handle the heavy shade at this spot this time of year. When I saw this challenge I knew I had to redo this shot. I have a feeling I\\\'ll get knocked for the blown out parts in the background.
Editing Steps:
Converted to Tiff in Pentax Photo Lab- Custom Color Balance
In PS2
Color Balance +21 0 -5
Levels 10 .74 238
Filter>Distort>Lens Correct> -359
Flatten
Shadow/Highlight 1% 76%
Desat- Not the best way, but couldn\'t get channel mixer to come out any better
Levels 10 1.08 199
Dodge Bridge sections
Burn Smoke and Foreground
Statistics
Place: 36 out of 196 Avg (all users): 6.0888 Avg (commenters): 7.8750 Avg (participants): 5.8529 Avg (non-participants): 6.3036 Views since voting: 2076 Views during voting: 388 Votes: 214 Comments: 22 Favorites: 4 (view)
I love how you got right in front of the train. The straight on angle works perfectly for that "coming down the tracks" feeling. This looks like it could have been taken 50 years ago.
Greetings from the Critique Club: I have been assigned your photo to critique and here are my thoughts:
Personal Reaction: This is a very good image, for which you got a good (but not great) score. I liked it. And while I didn’t vote this challenge, I would have given it a seven.
Composition: Most would counsel you to avoid a centered composition. In this case it worked very well! So ignore that advice if your receive it.
Technicals: The technicals are all fine: focus; DoF; color; levels and so on. But the image feels flat to me. This sometimes happens when you use Shadow/Highlight. I would try to use curves first, then Shadow/Highlight as a last resort. And for sure, use a better B&W conversion than “Desat.” You said you had tried channel mixer, which gives me my best results. Next time, I suggest you try harder.
Conclusions: Great image. Very nice mood. The only thing standing between your 6.09 and a 7 was the lack of depth and texture in the image.
As always, this is my personal opinion. Feel free to PM me if you’d like further dialog.
This is a very interesting shot. The smoke and steam makes the train look as if it is emerging from some type of ethereal portal. I would have liked to see just a bit more contrast. Well done.
I would like to see this one with faded corners. Of course if you did that for the challenge someone would no doubt say they didn't like it. You can't please everyone but I think it would look good that way.
I like the feel of this photograph. The subject, perspective, and processing all create a very nice antique sense to support the theme of the image. The billowing black smoke really creates a sense of volume and movement in the scene also. As a big fan of railroad images, I really love this one. I can smell the environment and feel the rumble in the scene. I love the smell of a coal-fired locomotive :)
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