Today’s Post by Joe Farace
There’s something about the sound of a train that’s very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.—Paul Simon
A few weeks ago Mary and I were going through some of our boxes (and boxes) of 4×6 prints we had made over the years featuring processing from such long lost names as Robert Waxman Camera and Seattle FilmWorks. Mary was looking for specific family pictures and as I watched YouTube videos of people building LEGO and she would occasionally comment on some of the old photographs she was uncovering. (Try having this much fun, looking at thumbnails of digital images.)
On the Right Track
As she was going through the photographs she would say things like, “look at this photo when your beard was black, ha, ha” and stuff like that and then she says. “Look at all the pictures of trains”. And every few seconds she would repeat,” more trains!” Yes but you already know that I like trains.
How I Made this Photo: I also like infrared photography. This image of a classic locomotive and consist was made at the Colorado Railroad Museum and was shot with a Canon EOS 50D that had been converted to infrared capture by Life Pixel with their Standard IR (720nm) filter. The low angle was possible, not by me lying on the ground but from the fact the track sits on a small hill, so I was shooting up at the train to get this dramatic angle. The lens used was the Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD (at 31mm) with an exposure of 1/100 sec at f/16 and ISO 400, with a plus two-thirds exposure compensation.
The image was captured in RAW+JPEG format and was initially converted to monochrome using Silver Efex. Next I applied the Vivenza filter to the image, with some corner burning and Platinum toning from PhotoKit, to give the image a vintage look.
PS. I know this is my second infrared post this week but I can’t help myself. Infrared Photography is also the main topic of the next podcast with Barry Staver. Keep an eye on my YouTube channel for when it appears. I think it will be real soon now.
I’ve found that Life Pixel does a great job with IR conversions and they’ve done some of the conversions for my Canon DSLRs and all of my Panasonic Lumix G-series cameras. This is not a paid or sponsored endorsement, just my experience.
Used copies of my book, The Complete Guide to Digital Infrared Photography are available from Amazon starting around nine bucks as I write this. My book Creative Digital Monochrome Effects has a chapter on IR photography and is available new from Amazon for $11.46 with used copies starting around six bucks as I write this.