An Amtrak Acela rolls along near Westport, Conn., at sunset in an HDR image made from three separate frames (left). Photomatix was used to eliminate “ghosting” caused by the train being in three different spots on the three original frames (below left). HDR was also used to balance the unlit New Jersey Transit locomo- tive (above) with the bright platform lights in the background. EMILY MOSER PHOTOS
inside a passenger coach and you want to take a picture. If you expose the inside of the coach properly, you’ll likely find that the vista out- side the train is completely blown out. HDR can compensate for this, yielding a final photo where you can see everything both inside and outside the train.
Some Long-Exposure Night Photography
When taking long exposure photos at night, you may find that some lights are far brighter than others, and by using HDR you can com- pensate for this. In the above example, taken at Hoboken Terminal, the locomotive is, for the most part, unlit. Thus to get a decent ex- posure of it, I had to leave my shutter open for a full six seconds. Meanwhile, the light rail platform behind the locomotive is well lit. In a six-second exposure, it is completely blown out. Using HDR, I was able to get a decent exposure on the locomotive, the background, and even the new World Trade Center in the far distance.
Combining Three Photos Into One
For HDR, I definitely recommend Photomatix Pro, because of a lot of cool features that it has. Current HDR software like Photomatix can accommodate for slight movement in your bracketed photos, which will most likely be the case if you’re not shooting on a tripod. The best feature of Photomatix, which would be heavily used by a railfan, is the moving object compensation. Unless you’re shooting a train that isn’t moving, when you bracket it, the train will be moving across the frame. By highlighting the train in the photo, Pho- tomatix can appropriately blend the best po- sition of the train for you. HDR is the type of subject that almost ev-
eryone has an opinion on, and usually a pret- ty strong one. Many railfans are unfamiliar with the deghosting tools available, and as- sume HDR is not possible with a moving ob- ject. Others are pretty certain that you can’t shoot handheld and do HDR, which is also possible since modern programs can match features and crop out the edges from the min- imal movements that your hand makes when shooting the three exposures. It can be a lot of fun. Give it a try, you may just be surprised with the results!
DO YOU HAVE A RAILROAD PHOTOGRAPHY QUESTION? Send your questions and comments to
camerabag@railfan.com.
56 SEPTEMBER 2015 •
RAILFAN.COM
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