The Anatomy Of A Photograph; Or What I Did To Plan And Execute To Get The Image I Wanted

Final image as envisioned. (click to enlarge)
Nikon D810, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 VR lens @ 16mm; !/30th sec. @ f/7.1; ISO 400; 6 stop ND filter

How important is planning and visualization to successfully create the image you envisioned? How important is to to understand what you need to do before leaving home in order to properly execute a certain image you want to make?  Of course, the answer is "very" in some cases.  

I had mentally conceived of an image of an Amtrak train passing an historic and now restored railroad depot that I wanted to create (above) and I thought you might find it interesting to learn the steps I followed in order to capture the exact image I had in mind. If you are, read on.

First, I'm not saying this is an image that will wow anyone.  I shoot stock and I wanted to create a good image showing certain aspects of railroading.  So, if you don't think the image is very good, that is okay as it was created for licensing purposes and not necessarily for aesthetic purposes.

Most of you probably know by now that I am an enthusiast of railroads, especially steam locomotives and all that makes them operate.  I also like most things associated with railroads and have posted my images here over the years.  A few days ago, I conceived of a photograph of an Amtrak passenger train passing by the historic and now restored railroad depot in the northern part of the city in which I live.  Almost all photographs of trains, whether moving or still, freeze the train and there is no sense of motion.  For this image I wanted to create a sense of the train speeding by the depot.

I had two choices.  I could show up and randomly hope I captured the image I desired or I could think about what I wanted, prepare and then execute.  Here is the preparation I did to make the image at the top of this blog post.

The first thing I thought about is the composition and lighting conditions.  Also, because the depot is on a well traveled road, when could I photograph the depot so cars didn’t block the view?  Another consideration is time of day and position of the sun.  Since Amtrak only operates two trains into town and two trains out of town each day, the options are limited.

Before even driving to the station, there would some homework to do.  I needed to know what shutter speed would work best to capture just the right amount of movement and the direction of the sun when the trains would be traveling south into town.

The inbound morning train, if on-time, would reach the station about 10:50 a.m.  Using the Photographer’s Ephemeris, I was able to determine the sun would be high enough in the sky to be above some nearby trees as well as be on the side of the tracks as is the depot.  Perfect!  Also, I thought that on a Sunday morning would be the least amount of traffic.  So, the day and time was set.  I just needed to wait for a good Sunday morning—weather-wise.

The Amtrak trains in my area have a speed limit of 79 mph (127 kph).  I needed to show movement in the train but not too much movement as too much would totally obscure and make the train unrecognizable.   I quickly calculated that at 75 mph, the train would move 110 ft. per second.  I thought that the train traveling about 5 ft. would show blur but not too much that it would obliterate the shape and render the Amtrak unidentifiable.  After some calculations, I determined 1/30^th (0.03333) of a second would allow the train to travel between 3 and 4 ft.  That would be about perfect, in my estimation, especially if the train actually traveled a bit faster at its 79 mph speed limit.

But sometimes there are slow orders and the trains travel much slower.  So, if I quickly determined the train was traveling at a much slower speed, what shutter speed would I then need and how would I quickly make the adjustments on my camera? Contingencies must be taken into account.  I would do that by keeping my aperture the same but reduce the shutter speed by changing the ISO.  I thought it might be best to place the ISO function on Auto so when I reduced shutter speed the ISO would change instantly as well, thus maintaining overall correct exposure.

I decided to use my Nikon D810, an incredible 36mp tool and my Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 VR lens.  Since I planned on making the image on a sunny day, the Nikon has the greater dynamic range to capture the bright silver of the train as well as detail in deep shadows. Its native ISO is ISO 64.  But!  On a sunny day and 1/30^th sec. that would give me an aperture of f/22.  Not good as diffraction limiting will take a toll on image sharpness.  So, the plan would include using a 6 stop ND filter at 1/30^th sec. at about f/8.  I would adjust the ISO to give me correct exposure for those settings.  In this case, it was ISO 400, which isn’t a stretch for quality for the D810.  I shouldn't see any loss in quality or dynamic range.

Sunday was the perfect day.  I used the Amtrak app on my mobile phone to track the train’s progress.  It was on time.  The depot was about a 20 minute drive from my home.  I left an hour before the train was scheduled to arrive so I had time to confirm my exact position where I wanted to make my photo, get the camera on the tripod and then make a few test exposures.

When I arrived, I planned my composition as you see in the image just below.  Nope.  It wouldn’t work.  I didn’t like it.  The large foreground shadow was distracting and there were too many objects cluttering the scene between the train and the camera.  Plan B.  I would walk across the street, compose more tightly and leave out the grade crossing, which I originally wanted in the image.  If I hadn’t arrived early and had just arrived on time, I may not have had time to experiment with some alternative compositions.

This position was my original thought for a composition.  I arrived early to test it out.  I didn't like it and went to Plan B.(click to enlarge)

The image below is the composition upon which I settled.  I set up my tripod, composed carefully, set my exposure parameter, cleaned then attached the ND filter.  I made a couple of test exposures to check my histogram, focus and determine at what point the train would be when I would trip the shutter as it roared by from right to left.  Also, I knew I would tilt the camera up a bit, which would make the verticals on the building and the signal towers on the extreme left tilt in, so I composed loosely.  I do that so I have room to straighten the verticals and keep my desired composition.

During this time, I continued to check my Amtrak app and, lo and behold, the train was going to be about 10 minutes early!  Good thing I was ready and had repeatedly checked the app.  I now waited the few minutes for the train to arrive.

After exploring several possibilities, I settled on this view.  It gave the engine on the train a greater exposure to the camera, included the signals on the left and the full depot on the right.  I tilted the camera up and composed loosely so I could straighten the verticals and not lose important content.  I would also crop most of the parking lot out of the final image. (click to enlarge)

The image just below was made at the moment I pushed the shutter button to record the engine and part of the train roaring by at 79 mph.  Perfect!  I captured the movement I wanted which, to me, gives the image a more dynamic effect.  In this image, I straightened the verticals, but not all the way.  Read on and I'll tell you why.

The image as captured.  Also, the verticals were straightened, but not fully (click to enlarge)

Here is the image in its final crop and composition.  There was a crow flying across the sky
and that was removed in Lightroom CC 2015. (click to wenlarge)

As a second composition, I also made an image of just the train cars whizzing by.  It is always good for stock photography to have alternate compositions. (Click to enlarge)

This is the final version of the image, which is a duplicate of the image at the top of this post.  What's the difference between this and the image two above?  I've explained in the narrative.
(click to enlarge)

After not quite fully straightening the verticals and making the final crop, I didn't like the perspective distortion in the right hand side of the depot.  Look at the image directly above and the one two images above it and you can see a difference in the distortion of the roof trusses.  In the upper image, they are very much elongated and out of proportion.

To address this, I sent the image to Photoshop CC 2015 and engaged the "Adaptive Wide Angle" filter, set it to perspective and allowed much of the distortion to be eliminated.  It also allowed me to rotate the image as it was slightly not horizontal.  This gave me the slightly extra breathing room to then fully correct the verticals.  If I had done so before going to Photoshop, I don't think there would have been enough real estate on each side to ensure I didn't lose any important content.

Finally, and not shown, I made two additional variations of this scene.  For one, I composited a nice blue sky with cumulus clouds to create another version of this image (not shown here).  I thought the plain blank sky is good for inserting text which would suite being used in a variety of ways, a sky full of puffy white clouds is aesthetically more pleasing.  FYI.  (I have many images of just skies with various cloud patterns, from extremely wide angle to slight telephoto isolating a few clouds.  Also, with different sun angles.  You never know when you need a sky for an image!)  For the second, I added more sky to the top of the image to create additional clear space to place text, if needed by a licensing entity.

So, that is it.  Much more than you imagined, I suspect.  But you know what?  This type of planning and execution of a visualized image is really stimulating for me.  One of the reasons I love photography—challenge!  You just never quite know if you have planned and calculated thoroughly enough to get the image you wanted.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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