261 Steam Locomotive

Hey Gang;

Got a chance to shoot the 261 on an excursion from Minneapolis, MN to Milwaukee, WI. The goal was to get some "pacing" shots, shooting from our car on the road traveling the same speed as the train. It is a good thing that memory is cheap, because it took a while for me to get some good shots!

#1

Interesting photos! You captured the sense the engine hightailing it very well. What exposures were you using? There is considerable blurring of the rods on the drive wheels.

Now that's a loco, great stuff.

Beautiful shots! What an awesome steam loco.

Beautiful!

Good shots, but possibly a little overexposed - Could use a bit more PP for their full potential.

Nice composition.....beauti​ful old engine.

Cool shots....well done considering the amount of motion taking place.

Cool shots I like seeing the motion.

That must've been fantastic to chase alongside, what was the noise like?

jdando wrote in post #6113735
#2

I like how you have composed this photo. I don't think the problem is necessarily overexposure, but that of having too much contrast. I think it would be good to see some more shadow detail in the locomotive. You have allowed Image Editing, so I have attached an edited version of this photo below. All I did was move the middle slider in Levels to the left and this brought out a lot more of the detail in the wheels and running gear.

#3

In terms of exposure, this is better. You can see detail in the boxpok wheels and running gear.

Harold_L wrote in post #6113980
Interesting photos! You captured the sense the engine hightailing it very well. What exposures were you using? There is considerable blurring of the rods on the drive wheels.

The ExIF information is still attached.

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Very nice shots! Who cares how many you deleted? Shooting night shots at the Dream Cruise last night, I expected to get 5% keepers. I got 3%. Who cares? Pros never show you their losers, anyway?

This is not really a complaint, but more a comment. A true train lover would like to see more of the tender. It really is an integral part of the locomotive, and helps with identification. The shots are excellent, but I would have liked to see at least one of the whole engine.

I was impressed with the paint in #2. It is more highly reflective than you'd imagine on a big old dirty machine like that.

Harold_L wrote in post #6113980
Interesting photos! You captured the sense the engine hightailing it very well. What exposures were you using? There is considerable blurring of the rods on the drive wheels.

The EXIF is intact. The goal of this trip was to show "motion", I had to get the shutter speed down to 1/60th to get decent blur on the rods/drive wheels.

Swiss Toni wrote in post #6114770
Now that's a loco, great stuff.

Thank you!

Trainboy wrote in post #6115684
Good shots, but possibly a little overexposed - Could use a bit more PP for their full potential.

Thanks, my post-processing skills are really lacking . Looks like I have some good pointers in this thread.

Anke wrote in post #6116044
That must've been fantastic to chase alongside, what was the noise like?

LOUD AS HECK We were driving at 60mph, a 100 feet from a steam locomotive blowing his whistle at every grade crossing. Great fun

belmondo wrote in post #6118590
This is not really a complaint, but more a comment. A true train lover would like to see more of the tender. It really is an integral part of the locomotive, and helps with identification. The shots are excellent, but I would have liked to see at least one of the whole engine.

I was impressed with the paint in #2. It is more highly reflective than you'd imagine on a big old dirty machine like that.

Yep, ideally I would have more of the tender in the picture. It was hard enough to get the steam engine, but I will work on that for the next run. Anyone have a 18-55 IS they can loan me (or better yet 17-55 IS)?

And yes she is a beautiful locomotive!

Carjo wrote in post #6116488
I like how you have composed this photo. I don't think the problem is necessarily overexposure, but that of having too much contrast. I think it would be good to see some more shadow detail in the locomotive. You have allowed Image Editing, so I have attached an edited version of this photo below. All I did was move the middle slider in Levels to the left and this brought out a lot more of the detail in the wheels and running gear.

In terms of exposure, this is better. You can see detail in the boxpok wheels and running gear....

Thanks for the edit, it does look much better. I appreciate your edit, it helps me learn some post processing.