I shot this train (tramway line 5) in the morning on my way to work. It’s one of the new trains with low entrances, actually looking more like a gliding metal worm than like a train. I used the Nikon 18-200 at 200mm, f5.6, 1/60s and ISO 720.
Post-processing was … hmmm … elaborate 🙂
The problem was, that the file had more noise than I like, and even worse, that because of the dynamic range, in any normal exposure the highlights in the red channel would clip excessively. Developing for the highlights was not an option either, because that would render the image much to dark.
My solution was to create an HDR image from the RAW file (Photomatix Pro allows that from a single RAW file), use highlight compression for tone mapping, and use that along with a version developed for the midtones in Photoshop, one in screen mode over a gray single color layer, the other in soft light, both slightly desaturated in the extreme yellows and reds. Noise Ninja on the pixel layers, a beauty blur mixed in, some sharpening with the high-pass filter, a little warming in Lab, hmm … I’m sure I’ve forgot something.
Don’t forget, you can now click on the image and see a much bigger version.
The Song of the Day is Tom Waits’ “Downtown Train”, but today not by Tom Waits, no, not even sung at all, today we glide along with the Spring String Quartet on their 2002 album “Train Songs”.