Travel Photographers Network

Text and Photos by Ian Lawrence - All rights reserved.

Jim White asked me to discuss some of the techniques I use to capture moving trains in low light conditions. I’m sure some of these may be useful for other types of travel photography too.

Nobody taught me how to photograph trains so I’ve developed my own style over the years. Most railway photographers feel some of my pictures are rather experimental as the train is often only a small part of the picture. I increasingly enjoy photographing the atmosphere around the railway before anyone is awake or after everyone has gone home. The more traditional railway photographers are less enthusiastic about my style. If you’re new to this type of photography, you’ll need to try this at home before you venture out into exotic destinations. If you take your first sunset shot halfway up mount Everest you may end up disappointed with the results which is avoidable if you practise first.

Usually a railway photographer will be taking a landscape shot which includes a fast moving object. As light disappears at the end of the day you’ll need lenses that you can shoot wide open as well as fast film (400 asa) or high asa digital to prevent motion blur. You will reach a point where you’ll find even fast film and lenses will reach their limits as there is simply insufficient light to take the standard ¾ sun in the background shot. Should you then head home? No stick around, you can still take:

• Regular sunset shots

• Sun glint shots

• Backlit steam shots

• Silhouette shots

• Night shots

Note that when combining moving objects (train, cars, bikes or other) with a fleeting natural phenomena like a sunset, you need to accept that most attempts will fail as the train will come too early, too late, not at all, moves too fast or appears larger or smaller in the frame than you anticipated.

Regular sunset shots

I was in northern Germany at the time. I’d been taking all the usual shots during the day. After dinner I went down to the Hindenburgdam to a spot I’d scouted out earlier that day which would give me good sun glint possibilities. It came and went. Then the sun set virtually in line with the railway line. It was great, I shot it without a train… and with a train which came in just in time, lucky me!

The best place to catch a regular sunset is at the coast, shooting over the sea, although flat areas and rivers can yield good opportunities too. The time to take a regular sunset is when the sun reaches or is just disappearing behind the horizon. The lower the horizon is (over the sea is as low as it gets), the better the odds of getting the red glowing ball you are looking for. The best shots in my opinion are made with a long lens to increase the size of the sun in the frame. You need to know of a location with these possibilities and then you need the train to pass at just the right time. Because of the weakness of the sun just as it sets, the risk of pointing the camera directly into the sun even with a long lense is minimal.

Glint photography - without the sun in the frame

The very best glint shot I took was in a opencast coal mine of JalaiNur (China). It was –25 C and I had staked out the spot earlier in the day. The sun did behave as expected and set in the right position, but it was unexpectedly quiet on the normally busy network. There might be no train. I might miss the shot. Suddenly a train came from behind. Alright. This was not my preferred shot as I wanted the train coming towards me but it was better than nothing. The train passed. The glint I saw on the rails also materialized on the side of the train. The cold was instantly forgotten. I shot several frames as the train passed. That moment alone was worth the long journey.

Glint photography is when you shoot almost against the sun. The low sun makes a small angle with the side of the train and the photographer gets set up at the same but opposite angle to the train so that the side of the train acts as a mirror and turns it into a lovely golden yellow colour. Usually you’ll have to just keep the sun out of the frame, as it’ll still be pretty strong. With a long lens, a good and long hood is paramount to prevent flare. If the hood isn’t sufficient, try to position yourself so that a shadow (for example, a telegraph pole) falls on the glass of your lens. I always use standard matrix metering for glint shots.

Glint photography - with the sun in the frame

Warning: Take extreme care when looking into the viewfinder when aimed directly at a strong sun. The longer the lens, the greater the risk. Use common sense. If you think it’s not safe looking into the viewfinder, then don’t!

We had left the hotel before sunrise and were driving to a railway station with known glint shot possibilities. As we got there, the sun was just rising and we saw a train approaching. There was a mad scramble to get out of the bus and into position before the train reached us. I only just managed to set up for this shot, using the tree to filter the sun.

Sometimes the sun will be weakened by thin clouds (in Western Europe) or smog (in the third world) and including the sun becomes a serious option. If the sun is too weak there will be no glint, so it’s a fine balance. If the sun is too bright you may be able to hide it or weaken it behind a tree or the like. You need to search the viewfinder for flare (don’t forget to stop down when doing this), as a small change in framing can make all the difference. With a digital camera I’ve found that taking a testshot and inspecting this closely on the display will reveal most, but not all flare. If you have the time and opportunity, it’s advisable to take several shots with slightly altered framing so you can pick the frame with the least flare. Of course this isn’t always possible as sometimes there is only one really good framing possibility. Digital shooters can try to move the flare to a part of the image where it’ll be easier to clone out and later crop the frame to suit.

Another option which has become possible with the advent of hires digital cameras with pixels to burn, is to use a shorter lens than you would like and later crop out the part you don’t want. Advantages are that a shorter lens is less prone to flare (less glass) and that framing a really strong sun, which can be dangerous and impossible using a long lens, can just about be safely done with a shorter one. And because you are cropping anyway, the framing doesn’t have to be so accurate, so you can quickly squint into the viewfinder and point the camera in the general direction. If you’re using a tripod you can use the LCD screen as a viewfinder, by taking testshots and adjusting it until you get it right.

Backlit steam

Read my essay “The Shot”, for one extreme example of backlit steam.

A second example was in the opencast mine of Jalainur. When the sun rises at a certain point in the morning it illuminates the steam exhaust of the hardworking engines, but not the side of the pit behind. I’ve shown this image here before and have reworked it as was suggested.

You can get backlit steam in most glint shot situations. Normal glint shots are an option with diesel and electric trains too. For backlit steam you’ll of course need a steam engine, making plenty of steam. That means you need low temperatures. Your best chance will be as an engine leaves a station, or with a hardworking engine on a gradient. Don’t waste time waiting for a train rolling down a hill or rolling into a station unless it’s really cold and you know it has leaky cylinder gaskets. Another place to get these shots is in a depot early on a cold morning as the engines are being prepared.

The best backlit steam shots are where you can contrast the backlit steam against a dark background. For example, when the sun is rising and is illuminating the steam exhaust but is still too low to light up the scenery around the train. Make sure your exposure is sufficiently short so you don’t blow the highlights in the steam. In “The shot”, a normal matrix metering worked fine. Sometimes you’ll have to force it and meter the sky and reframe like I did in the Jalainur shot, which hardly included any sky.

Silhouette shots

We waited all day for a train to pass this bridge. Every time we enquired they said it would leave within the hour. Morning came and went. Midday came and went. We spent the afternoon camping out on the sunny side of the bridge. Finally we got word that the train was really on its way, but the sun was setting fast. Would it come in time? We picked up our bags and moved to the opposite side of the bridge to shoot against the light. The train came just after sunset, but even so we got the best shot of the tour.

You need to shoot against the sun exposing the sky so that the foreground and the passing train will become nearly black. You will need to get the train onto an embankment and get down low yourself to get the sun not only shining around the train, but also through the windows and under the train. With a steam engine, the sought after shot is with the sun itself visible between the boiler and the frame with moving wheels, or maybe shining through the drivers cab. With electric or diesel passenger trains you can get the sun shining through the windows. Depending on the size of the train in the frame you’ll need to meter the sky or if the train is rather small a normal matrix metering will suffice.

Before sunrise or after the sun has set, the same type of shots can be taken so don’t go home too early. All you need is a light sky as background. The timespan with which this is possible will depend on the relative speed of the train to the photographer. As you will usually be at a right angle to the track (remember you want the sun through the windows), the speed of the train needs to be relatively low. Digital shooters can crank up the iso and get shots for a longer period of time. As the amount of fine details you’re capturing is limited, you can apply quite aggressive noise suppression without negative effects.

My experience with digital is that with suitable twilight situations and using 1600 asa, you can even get shots of relatively fast moving trains which actually show the illuminations inside the carriages. Even so you need to reduce the relative speed of the train by staying some distance from the track, and as the light gets poorer you need to choose ever wider lenses (if the framing possibilities allow for this).

Night shots

Nothing new to say here. You can only shoot stationary trains, so this is no different from city scapes at night. All the same rules apply. The main problem is getting the colours to look right. With film you may need to use filters depending on the type of lamps used in the scene, or do some serious post processing of the scanned images. Using digital, setting the right white balance is the main problem. The right white balance isn’t necessarily the whitebalance which yields the most truthful image. Sometimes you need to change the colours to make it look just “right”.

Equipment and camera setup

You need flare resistant lenses and long lens hoods for any shot with the sun near the edges of the frame or in the frame. Stopping down often helps, but in low light situations it may not always be possible to stop down enough. Using a digital camera, you can use a strong lamp to check at home which of your lenses are most flare resistant and how far they need stopping down. Knowing this will help you set up in the field. There is no law saying you have to remove protective filters, but cheap filters can be a real problem. You need to carefully check if your filter increases flare. I’ve checked mine and with the filters I presently have there, is no need to remove them. Check this at home before you find yourself on a ledge halfway up a mountain, which is no place to mess around unscrewing and swapping filters around. If you find your filter increases the problem, remove it beforehand or better still, buy a better one. More expensive filters have more coating layers and actually do perform better in this respect.

I find a tripod to be of only limited use with fast moving objects because preventing motion blur of the train will usually dictate a shutter speed which can be handheld. It may be of use for slower objects and a long lens on a distant scene will certainly benefit from a tripod as camera shake is the main factor here. Consider having one on tour if you haven’t got a steady hand. Without a tripod consider shooting bursts as the action of pressing the shutter usually is the main cause of camera shake, so the second or third shot of a burst will often be sharper than the first.

My standard camera setup has focus and exposure/shutter release programmed on one button. This is what you need to be ready for unexpected quick action. For the above mentioned types of shot there is normally time to prepare. I’ll then set my camera up so that focus and exposure/shutter release are on separate buttons. This way you can prefocus on the relevant spot. In particular with the sun in the frame, you may have to focus on something else at approximately the same distance. When the train finally comes, all you need to worry about is metering correctly and framing. I always use matrix metering. Colour film, and now digital, has enough latitude not to worry with the odd stop of exposure as opposed to slide film. I will however ensure I get sufficient light sky in the frame when metering (I use intuition here more than any set rule). Reframing after metering is then often required.

Now go and do it

Practise makes perfect. Whether you shoot trains, cars, boats or bikes, next time light is running out and you’ve got the shots you came for, don’t be in a hurry to leave for home but try out some of these shots. You may surprise yourself and be pleased with the results.

About the Author

Ian Lawrence lives in the Netherlands and works as a civil engineer (piping and pipelining). He spends his spare time photographing trains in their surroundings, always looking for the perfect shot in the best light. As the Netherlands don’t have many locations where he can get the type of shots he likes, he travels abroad whenever he can.

More of his work can be seen on his homepage at www.railway-photography.net

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