PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
An Introduction to Synchronized Night Photography GUEST COLUMNIST: STEVE BARRY
ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWING ASPECTS of the railroad photography hobby is synchronized night shooting — capturing moving trains in the dark. Once the domain of profession- al photographers like O. Winston Link, the development of digital photography and high camera ISO settings means you can light up a lot more train with a lot less light. What once took 20 or more flashbulbs can now be done with three or four studio strobes. While it is certainly possible to do synchro-
nized night photography with one strobe, multiple strobes allow more of the scene to be lit and more depth to be added to the scene. One flash tends to give you a locomotive pok- ing out of the dark, while multiple strobes allow lighting more of the train and other ele- ments in the scene. The strobe shooters have broken down into
two primary camps (although there are other ways to approach night photography as well). One camp uses somewhat large studio strobes that light up large portions of the scene while deploying only three or four lights. The other camp uses smaller flashes, such as “speed- lights.” These light smaller portions of the scene, allowing for more precision in light placement, but can mean deploying ten lights or more. For those falling in the former camp, the
light of choice is usually AlienBees™ strobes from Paul C. Buff, Inc. (
www.paulcbuff.com). The B800 model puts out about 320 watt-sec- onds of light (about the same as the No. 5 flashbulb of yore) and is usually adequate for
54 MARCH 2016 •
RAILFAN.COM
TOP: A CSX train rumbles down the street of LaGrange, Ky., on August 14, 2015. This is a basic three-light setup, with one light aimed at the buildings, another aimed at the front of the locomo- tive and a third down the street aimed at the second unit of the consist. ABOVE: A similar three- light setup was used at New Hope, Pa., on December 31, 2012. One light was aimed at the front of Consolidation No. 40, while another was aimed at the tender. A third light (visible in the photo) was set up on the road across the creek to light up the houses. In both shots, long-throw refl ectors were used on the two fl ashes on the train, and a wide-angle refl ector was used on the fl ash on the buildings to get more light higher up. STEVE BARRY PHOTOS
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