Hey Gang,
I apologize that it's been so long since I did my last installment of this series. Life getting in the way and all that. I really do intend to do an introductory post relating to gear one of these days. I always seem to have something that I feel is more critical, though. Don't get me wrong, gear is important. But it's nowhere near as important as having vision. Cameras and lenses are only tools. Good tools are only useful in the hands of people that know how to use them.
Today's lesson is an example of that. When I posted my Boston South Station shot the other day, it wasn't just a grab shot. It was a photo that evolved with time. I thought it might be kind of instructive to post some of that evolution and my thoughts that went into the final image.
The idea for this shot dates back to my October trip to Boston. I stopped at South Station on my way to ride and photograph the PCC cars on the Mattapan High Speed line. My first view of the exterior of the station was in the late morning sun. This is my shot, straight out of the camera with the default Lightroom settings:
Boston Trip October 2014_20141012_2870-2 by Christopher J. May, on Flickr
Oh my, that's not very inspiring is it? Still, it was a building that I vey much liked so I tried to do *something* with it:
Boston Trip October 2014_20141012_2870 by Christopher J. May, on Flickr
That may be the tiniest increment better. Still I can't help but hear my father saying that "you can't polish a turd." Rather, you can but the resulting effort will still be...you know....
The biggest problem here is the orientation of the station itself. Take a look at the GoogleMap view:
GoogleMap View of South Station
The curved entry with those lovely columns faces North/Northwest. If I want direct low level sunlight, I'm stuck shooting very late in the day in the middle of summer. And even that won't work because there are a lot of much taller buildings to the west of here. So low level sunlight is out.
I could shoot on a cloudy day with soft, diffuse lighting and focus on details. It might be OK, but I don't think it's what this lovely building deserves. So that really leaves me one practical option: shooting at night. Or more specifically in that lovely hour right after sunset called "blue hour."
The appeal of blue hour for an architectural subject like this is that there's a point when the intensity of the manmade lighting matches the sky perfectly. Neither overpowers the other. Plus, that gorgeous blue color of the sky is tasty!
So on this latest trip I decided to head down to the station shortly before sunset. I want to have a little time to tweak compositions and such when I get there.
When I arrived, I set up in roughly the same position as last time. Here's my first frame:
BostonTripDecember2014_20141205_4089 by Christopher J. May, on Flickr
This is straight out of Lightroom with no adjustments yet. Basically it's a compositional test. You'll notice that the skylight is still really overpowering the scene so I have some time to do some adjusting.
Initially I went in with the idea of trying to keep the sensor plane as close to parallel with the building as possible. I don't have a shift lens for this camera so it's a little tougher than I'd like, but oh well. You work with what you have. I can correct a little bit of keystoning distortion in post processing, but if this gets too extreme, the top of the building will look stretched.
The other thing I thought about once I was set up was trying to use the motion blurred people as a compositional element. Every few minutes there would be a flock of them that would just jaywalk en masse towards the station.
I kept going with that theme for my next test shot:
BostonTripDecember2014_20141205_4102 by Christopher J. May, on Flickr
OK. The light is changing fast. I don't have a ton of time to get things dialed in. The people thing is kind of working...but I'll either need to dedicate time to getting shutter speed and supplementary lighting (a flash) to work for that or to adjust the composition. As I'm looking at the LCD, this view of the station is just seeming far too documentary. I'm not liking it. So I decide to get that straightened out first and if I can work the people thing, I will.
Maybe a little tighter view would help? Those colored lights are nice. Would eliminating some of the city around the station help?
BostonTripDecember2014_20141205_4115 by Christopher J. May, on Flickr
No. Not at all. Still documentary. Not what I'm after this particular night. How about even and tighter and vertical, similar to my original shot in October?
BostonTripDecember2014_20141205_4121 by Christopher J. May, on Flickr
I like that a little more, but it's still not what I'm looking for. There's no drama. Hmmm... Maybe I'm approaching this incorrectly. Instead of trying to keep the vertical lines vertical, why not deliberately employ keystoning. Almost comically so? I dug in my bag and found my ultrawide angle (the wider the angle, the weirder keystoning can get). Let's see what happens when shoot like this?
BostonTripDecember2014_20141205_4131 by Christopher J. May, on Flickr
Whoa. WHOA! That's what I'm talking about! It's almost as if the much taller buildings surrounding the station that usually dwarf it are bowing to its grandeur. OK. maybe that's a little cheesey, but they still look good framing the station.
You'll note that the sky and the station lighting are pretty similar now, though. I don't have time to figure out the people thing. OK. I can save that for another trip. But I do have one question left to answer. Do I try to maximize the streaking car lights like this shot, or try to minimize them? I was already pretty happy with the light patterns in this shot, so I utilized my few remaining minutes of nice light to try and get one as auto-free as possible (not an easy thing to do in Boston at rush hour). I took a LOT of frames trying to get what I want (giving me plenty of light trails if I change my mind). This was my favorite frame:
BostonTripDecember2014_20141205_4137 by Christopher J. May, on Flickr
After shooting this last series, it was time to wrap it up. My awesome girlfriend has been standing next to me freezing in the cold wind coming off the buildings behind us. I'm happy with the shoot and don't want to ask anymore of her.
Next stop is Adobe Lightroom where I start picking a suitable image and then set about tweaking it (which, honestly, I'm still kind of doing). The (current) final result is here:
Boston South Station by Christopher J. May, on Flickr
I plan to dedicate another lesson to basic post-processing, but the big things I did here involved color adjustments, flare/dustspot cloning, clarity adjustments and cropping. Ideally there'd be no cropping, but sometimes you just see things differently once you get it on the computer screen instead of looking through a viewfinder or a tiny LCD.
The equipment I used helped me get this shot. I used my Nikon D600, a Sigma 12-24mm f4.5-5.6 II lens and my trusty Bogen tripod. All three contributed to what the final image is. The D600's sensor is nothing short of awesome. The Sigma is so crazily wide that it lets me do things other lenses won't. And the tripod is much sturdier than a $30 Walmart special (crucial with the strong winds coming off of the buildings behind me).
Still, I think the most important part of this image was both having an idea of what I wanted and being able to adjust that idea when I encountered the exact circumstances that were present.
I'd like to address both of those ideas more deeply to close up this lesson.
The first (and most important) key is vision. I wanted to showcase this beautiful station in better lighting than I had the first time around. I can't stress this enough: think about what you want to say! If you're just hanging out at a grade crossing taking wedgie shot after wedgie shot in ugly light, there's not a lot of depth to your image, is there? Basically your photo says, "Here's a GEVO I shot on December 13th at Tennyson St." Not a very good story is it? A picture is worth a thousand words. Make sure that those words say the right things.
And secondly, don't be afraid to experiment and adjust once you see what you have. Sometimes you can perfectly plan a shot and execute it just as you imagined. It's really cool when that works out. Sometimes, though, you have to think on your feet. If I had stuck with my original vision, I would have come away with a nicely lit shot of a beautiful building. That would have been fine. Instead, I came away with an image that I'm very proud to put into my portfolio.
That does it for this episode. If you're so inclined, your homework is to go out and shoot something deliberately. And adjust in the field if need be.
-ChrisWest Chicago, ILChristopher May Fine Art Photography"In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration." ~Ansel Adams
I think it's time for Chris to have his own occasional column in Trains.
Seriously.. awesome info and a great writing style.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
+1,I would re-subscribe for that alone!
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Maestro, that was absolutely fascinating. Who says photography isn't an art form that requires a bit of sweat?
And I second the motion "Trains" could use a photography column. Why not? "Railfan and Railroad" has had one for years.
wonderful thanks for the lesson
but now what did you do with those singular Mattapan PCC's?
My mouth is watering for your reply.
Firelock76 Maestro, that was absolutely fascinating. Who says photography isn't an art form that requires a bit of sweat? And I second the motion "Trains" could use a photography column. Why not? "Railfan and Railroad" has had one for years.
And to what Zugmann said and Houston Ed seconded: Excelent ideas for a Sunday discussion !
Any thing that would help us "non-technical, point and click, gee- whiz, picture taker- types" would be very helpful!
Chris(CopCarSS) has been very helpful to me, in the area of composition of what I look at over time. Even without a camera in hand, I can visualize 'pictures' much better.
Firelock76Who says photography isn't an art form that requires a bit of sweat?
From the sounds of it, sweating was probably not involved.
CopCarSSInstead of trying to keep the vertical lines vertical, why not deliberately employ keystoning.
Chris:
Good call. Our tendency is to try for the straight verticals, in the manner of using a view camera. That is a comfortable goal and laudable most of the time. As you have found earlier, though, an extreme wide-angle lens affords opportunities for a dramatic presentation by breaking the straight verticals rule. What makes this work here is the minimal distortion of South Station coupled with the dramatic distortion of the taller buildings that make a great frame of your main focus.
BTW, I liked the ghost people in some of the earlier shots; they tell an interesting story in and of themselves and certainly should not be ignored in the future.
ChuckCobleigh Firelock76 Who says photography isn't an art form that requires a bit of sweat? From the sounds of it, sweating was probably not involved.
Firelock76 Who says photography isn't an art form that requires a bit of sweat?
Well OK, he says it was freezing cold, but you know what I mean! :)
*Blush* Thank you all for the very kind comments!
Dave - This post has my favorite shots from the Mattapan excursion:
http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/239191.aspx
Chuck - I agree that I need to work with the streams of people if I make it out to Boston again. I really liked the effect but didn't have the time to work it like I would have liked this time. I definitely have an idea of how I'd like to do this one now, so we'll see if I make it back there again.
The brilliance of this shot isn't so much the technical stuff that allowed you to capture it, it's the imagination in your mind's eye that led you to compose the thing.
If you told me to use a wide angle lens' keystoning to frame the shot, I might have figured out the rest. I just never would have thought of that!
Really well done! I am always amazed at your stuff!
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
http://www.shorpy.com/node/19063?size=_original#caption
Just found this shot from way back, compare it to Chris May's shot and see how much has changed, and how much is still there.
Like the shot from Chris better, but still a peek back into the past from a hundered and ten years ago.
edblysard http://www.shorpy.com/node/19063?size=_original#caption Just found this shot from way back, compare it to Chris May's shot and see how much has changed, and how much is still there. Like the shot from Chris better, but still a peek back into the past from a hundered and ten years ago.
Elevated & Street Car lines - Gone!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACDElevated & Street Car lines - Gone!
Not to mention all those one- and two-horsepower vehicles.
edblysard And the brick street….makes me wonder what is really under the asphalt there now!
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
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