I had time to dig around the net and find a couple pertinent web pages that might help you understand a little bit, and perhaps figure out how to deal with BNSF colors.
The first article, while a little heavy technically, is absolutely fascinating (at least to a photo technoweenie like me). It's an article about color management over at the Luminous Landscape. Definately worth your time to check it out, IMHO.
The second article was written by Grumpy over at Grumpy's World. While his site might be a little rough for some audiences, there's a wealth of photo knowledge present. In this article, Grumpy tackles the interesting topic of RAW conversion. I think you'll especially like the fact that he used a BNSF loco in the demonstration. You'll see he compares the baseline conversions from four different convertors. It's interesting to see how each interprets the data presented to it in the RAW file (because the RAW file is just that...raw. It takes a RAW conversion program to turn all the data available in that file into a viewable image). Of course, you can tweak your RAW files quite a bit, and probably should to get the best results. What tweaks to do, and how much to do will depend on your convertor.
Hope this helps a little bit.
-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
No film or sensor can ever duplicate exactly what exists in the real world. This is especially true when you consider that we each see color a little differently. Some people are fully color blind with the inability to distiguish certain colors easily. Likewise, we all have a slightly different "color space" in our heads. Profiling a monitor can synch colors between machines, but that still doesn't mean it's showing them the way you perceive them.
The human brain is also highly adaptable. Even with wild white balance changes, dim or bright light, or even faded paint, we can learn to recognize "BNSF Orange." Your film or sensor isn't as good at processing this information. Even with 'correct' exposure and white balance, your preferred media will present a faded unit as a faded unit. You may be seeing the unit as brand new, but your image won't.
Best advice I can give you is to scan your images (if you're shooting film) and tweak them. If you're shooting digital, shooting in RAW can give you a big advantage, because you'll have more control over image parameters that may affect the image (exposure, white balance, saturation, etc.). Speaking of saturation, some RAW convertors tend to blow saturation on BNSF orange. IIRC, it's easy for some convertors to blow out the red channel, so watch your histogram while you're working on the image.
Something I have always noticed about pictures of BNSF engines, in any of the Heritage schemes, and even the new H3, swoosh, etc. scheme, is that pictures just don't accurately reproduce the true colors of these units for some reason. BNSF engines just look a lot different (and a lot better) to me in real life than in pictures. Has anybody else noticed this?
BTW, I haven't noticed this with any other RRs, only BNSF.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.