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Southern Pacific:
Sacramento Division
The time from the late-1950s
until the mid-1990s were years of transition and decline of the SP’s influence in the west;
however, the photographs and extended captions presented
here emphasize the railroad in its former, healthy condition. With 223 photographs by
45 photographers, Southern Pacific: Sacramento Division presents a thorough look at
SP’s mainline and branchline operations from Dunsmuir to
Fresno, and from Sacramento to Ogden. The presentation illustrates the dramatic geographic and geologic
conditions through which the Southern Pacific’s various Sacramento Division lines were built, from pastoral
farming land, to deserts, to rugged mountains.
$79.95
S/H per book: $5 US, $9 Canada, all others, call or email for rates. Order item SPSD
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RAILFAN.COM
Any lens wider than about 21mm (35mm equivalent) is getting into the ultra wide angle category and can have “rectilinear distortion,” which causes straight lines to curve, especially away from the center. The distortion from a 16mm full frame fi sheye lens on a DX DSLR has caused the signal post, background antenna, the straight rails, and even the locomotive to “bend” in this photo at Palmer Lake, Colo.
is getting into the ultra wide angle category and can have extreme “rectilinear distortion” causing straight lines to curve. This is espe- cially true of lenses like the 16mm full frame fisheye lens as illustrated. A possible good use of extreme wide angle distortion is for an eye-catching image or two to “spice up” a slide or digital image show. Using a wide angle-to-tele zoom allows
many shots of an approaching train starting at the tele end and zooming back into the “normal” lens range; the wide angle end of the zoom allows you to keep shooting as the train gets too close for a normal lens. With an SLR you will need autofocus to do this effectively, to avoid having to manipulate the zoom ring and focus ring at the same time. Point & shoot zooms are usually autofocus. Be aware that using autofocus on an approaching train in low light has its own problems, as the overly bright headlights in the overall dim scene can cause AF to “hunt and search” for a spot to focus on (see the October 2013 CAMERA BAG). As I pointed out last column about shoot-
ing teles hand held, the rule of thumb is to use a shutter speed at least as fast as the mm power of your lens to avoid hand held cam- era shake. But this does not mean you can get away with a 1
/30 second shutter speed when
using a 28mm lens. Although with care you can get an acceptable sharpness on a station- ary subject, a faster shutter on the order of at least 1
/500 is still needed to render a speeding
train sharply. You will also have the same problem I men-
tioned with a tele zoom with a variable aper- ture, such as an ƒ4 to ƒ5.6 zoom that changes aperture settings when zooming in or out. Gaining or losing a stop of exposure might not be a problem if you are shooting in aper- ture-preferred autoexposure on a sunny day, but in lower light it might cause your shutter speed to drop too low to freeze train motion. If
you set exposure manually, you will have to remember to change the aperture or shutter speed when you zoom out or in.
Depth of Field
A disadvantage of telephoto lenses is their inherent reduced depth of field (DOF), the depth of the area front to back in a compo- sition that has acceptable sharpness. A wide angle lens, on the other hand, has an inher- ently deeper range of focus at any given aper- ture when compared to a telephoto. Whereas a large telephoto focused on the locomotive will probably have a DOF of only a few feet, rendering the far end of the train out of focus, a 28mm wide angle’s DOF when focused at about 15 feet will be sharp from about eight feet out to infinity, rendering a sharp image of the entire train. You may like to use a tele for certain situa-
tions such as a candid portrait of an engineer in the cab window or a brakeman throwing a switch, with the subject being tack sharp and the background fading to a soft blur. This soft faded background will not be as easy with a wide angle, even with a fairly wide aperture. So which type off wide angle is the best for
railfan photography? Like I recommended in that telephoto column, for 35mm film and FX DSLRs a mild wide angle (28 or 35mm) to small tele (120 or 200mm) zoom is probably the best choice due to its versatility, ease of handling, and eliminating the need to change lenses for different situations. A zoom that starts at 18mm (like an 18-105mm) will give you the 28mm coverage on a DX camera. For Four Thirds and compact cameras, you will need a zoom that starts at 14mm or (approx- imately) 5mm respectively to get an equiva- lent 28mm coverage. For a medium format camera with interchangeable lenses, a 55mm or 65mm lens will give you good wide angle coverage.
DO YOU HAVE A RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY QUESTION? Send your questions and comments to
camerabag@railfan.com.
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