What a great old engine, and the color treatment worked well to hide the lights ... I kept looking and looking to see if I could find them and I couldn't! Great subject, though I think this would have worked a bit better if you would have either chosen to go in much closer to focus in on some of the detail and the shapes and forms of the engine rather than the whole thing, or stepped back a bit farther to show us the whole engine and some of its surroundings.
Initial impression: As mentioned in my earlier comment, I love these old trains and I like the sepia. I find this shot to be very atmospheric and evocative of the time that these trains ran the rails.
Technical: I like the composition here as it helps show off the immensity and solidity of the engine. Good dof and I am a fan of this kind of pov. Looks like it was shot on a slightly overcast day as there aren't any telltale areas of glare on the metal. Light in upper left borders on being flat, but isn't, so good that there is a softness there to contrast with the engine.
Artistic: Very good choice of pof, but the crop is a bit tight. I'd like to see more room in front of the train, so there is a sense of a place for it to go. Also, would like to see either the top of the cab, or all of the wheels, just to further enhance the scale.
The pp is quite pleasing, and very clever idea to use the sepia tint to help hide the Christmas lights! One trick I learned here on dpc is to do all your image adjustment work first, then resize, usm, and save for web.
All in all, still very much one of my favourite shots from that challenge, and I am glad I got the chance to criticque it.
A very nice antique look to this image is a huge plus. Solid detail is also a plus. The temptation to boost the image by over sharpening was avoided and is a plus. The monotone approach with the slight color cast was a great choice. Unfortunately, the blank and unremarkable sky tends to overpower all the excellant work done in capturing the locomotive and the post processing effort. This is one image that could have done with a layer treatment to increase the washed look of the sky - might be worth revisiting just to see if it would work better. A good solid entry into the challenge.
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