Railroad at Night

I took this picture with a Nikon D80 (that I returned a week later). I like the image, but it needs work. Suggestions (the more detail the better) to make it better would be greatly appreciated.

The upper corners are a bit purple. That's caused from the noise issue the D80 has and was the reason for returning the camera (and my motivation to go to Canon).

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

You've nailed the exposure - just enough in the darkest areas to tell what's there, and the points of light still have good definition.

Congratulation - not terribly interesting, but excellent techincal aspects.

I love the composition and exposure on this. The tracks and the power lines really work together to make this an image you like to spend some time looking at. Good job!

You don't think it's under-exposed? What about the purple corners?

This is terribly coincidental - have you seen this post, a few threads below yours:

https://photography-on-the.net …php?p=6529658#p​ost6529658

This has to be the same power plant and railroad. That is freaky.

The purple can be toned down with some PP adjustments ( a little desaturation, for example). You could also fudge over it by applying a dark vignette (it appears to be from some vignetting anyway, so that would make sense.

There is also some funky distortion of the perspective in the receding rails - my guess is that you plunked down the tripod in between the rails and then panned the camera to your right to get the power plant in the frame. that sort of throws off the perspective a little by making the tracks appear as if they are tilted to the left relative to the horizon, for lack of a better way of describing the issue (for example, the railroad ties are not parallel with the horizon, but appear to slant downwards to the left). I'm not sure it is a big deal, and I'm not sure I would do anything differently, just pointing it out.

Kirk

kirkt wrote in post #6529855
This has to be the same power plant and railroad. That is freaky.
Kirk

That's definitely the same power plant. In fact, I know exactly where that person took that shot (called Legion Park).

Totally different idea than mine though.

Hilarious! I didn't even notice your post. What are the odds. I am hardly ever in Boulder as well.

This is a tough exposure without resulting to HDR. I think you have done very well with the exposure.

Fanbtastic exposure, my only critique is i would have seen all of the tracks to the left

Great job- but it needs a train coming towards you! That'd be cool!

The_Camera_Poser wrote in post #6533064
Great job- but it needs a train coming towards you! That'd be cool!

Y'know I woulda tried, but alas no trains when I was there (and it was really cold that night)

I just downloaded a trial of Lightzone which I've been happy with so far. I changed up the image a big. Is this better or worse than my previous version? I might try another approach so please give me as much C&C as possible.

Also, my monitor and home and my monitor at work display this picture at different levels of brightness, why?

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

No response for better or worse?

The original is better, as to your monitors looking different, could be a number of things. Ambient light, calibration, gamma setting, different type of monitor.

The original is much better. Nice shot; but as mentioned before you need a train.