mick

I was looking at some loco photos online this morning to gain ideas and inspiration for the next set of photos. There was a photo of a class 56 under power and with the sanders operating and I felt it was something I could hopefully bring across. Here 56127 is hauling the 100t TEA tanks having just exited the tunnel and is now accelerating away with an application of sand to aid traction. This photo looks better when cropped in closer to the loco but I like to see the AWS ramps and point motors in photos. 56127 again as it's about to pass over the mainline cross-over and I think the sanding effect looks pretty convincing even at close quarters. 56049 is idling away in the distance on the down loop Finally the same train but further down the line and the driver's still applying the sanders as he passes a loaded MGR on the up line.

This is another photo from a couple of days ago and to be honest I thought I'd overdone this one. I've actually done several version of this particular image while trying to perfect the smokey exhaust technique (one example featured above) but while looking over them again this evening I thought, actually this one's not too bad. The train has clearly been standing in the down loop for some time and the driver is now keen to get on his way and make up some time. I'm sure that the exhaust will clear in a little while. Is this too much?

Another two photos this evening, both in colour but this time with the originals alongside for comparison. Firstly the pair of class 37's and this is the actual photo I began working from I've added sky and a decent amount of exhaust, edited the colours/contrast slightly to give a slightly moody effect and the photo has then been cropped. The second photo is of 60078 and again it's on the Cawoods PFA container wagons. This one required slightly more work than the previous one but the blurred MGRs on the up line are intentional as in my opinion it conveys a sense of motion. I just set the MGR train moving at a crawl while the photo's are taken. The 60 doesn't have a driver figure and I didn't notice the wonky buffer while taking the photos. There's also several small fibres on the roof near the front. Here's the finished image with added sky, driver installed in the cab, wonky buffer rotated using Photoshop, fibres removed and finally some light exhaust added. I should probably have added the missing light having looked at it again!

Hi Andrew and thank you for your comments. Yes you can erase any unwanted distractions pretty easily these days. Photoshop has a 'content aware' tool that allows you to simply highlight an object or person and it will replace it with 'content' that fits in with the background, usually pretty successfully. We're talking £9.98 monthly subscription for photoshop (photography plan) but I use both photoshop and lightroom (both included in photography plan) for photographic purposes so it's worth it to me. These days replacing the 'sky' as I've done in the railway photos takes no more than a minute. There is a 7-day free trial available for photoshop. I've never compared many other packages. I have 'Affinity Photo' which supposedly does much the same as photoshop and at the moment is on offer and costs round about £40 to purchase (free trial available) but I've got so used to using the Lightroom and Photoshop package that I find it hard to get into anything else. Freeware you might struggle to get the same options as available with the paid for programs but as I've said, I haven't really looked into it.

I'm going to have to keep working at this but the results are very promising. The difficult part is not going over the top with it because it's so easy to do just that. This is a lovely photo of 37692 and 37698 double heading the Cawoods containers and departing the down loop. I haven't quite got the exhaust right yet but it gives you an idea of what is possible.

Up to now I've been using a smudge type tool to give loco photos the impression of some exhaust without which they appear too static. I've now learned how to add something a little more creative and certainly a lot more realistic than that method. I've been trying it out on a class 56 photo and okay, not all loco's emitted exhaust to this degree but many of them did and some did so to an even greater extent which I am sure I'll visit in the not too distant future. It's a good basis to work from and only takes a few minutes.

A slightly different method with this photo. As well as' photoshopping' in a driver figure and adding a replacement sky along with some loco exhaust, I've also altered the position of the train on the opposite line slightly between shots so as to give an impression of movement.

One of the main shortcomings with some of the photos I have taken is the fact that the many of my loco's don't have a figure sitting in the driving seat. I don't relish the task of dismantling loco's and prising cabs out in order to install a driver in the cab, though maybe it's something I should look to do in the future. When I'm running trains it's not something that really bothers me but on video and in photographs the omission is quite evident. One of the photos I posted on 22 December was of 60005 which is a loco without a driver figure and the large cab windows draw the viewers attention to that fact. So anyway, today I copied a photograph of a loco I found online, pasted it correctly over the top of my image and then masked out everything apart from the driver. A minor addition to my own photo but it finishes it off nicely as seen below. Another loco without a driver is 58048 and this time I've been able to add a faint indication of one which again makes a difference to the photo No such problems with 56084 as I've previously added figures in the cab of this one.

Hi Ken. Yes it's certainly warmer up in the attic than it would be out in the garden shed and I've not yet had to turn the heater on up there. The weather's not good for getting out and about with the camera so the attic is as good a place to be as any. I'm pleased to hear you're still able to get things done and look forward to seeing what those Xmas gifts are.

Two colour images from the session today