What constitutes a great Railroad Photography?
[Download a PDF version of this text]4.40 MO – 9 pages – High quality pictures
This title sounds ambitious and provocative, I admit that. The Images & Trains Project motto is after all, “New Perspectives on Railroad Photography”. Many people I meet wonder just what this means. Why would some pictures be better than others? Isn’t that an “over the top” vision of the I & T people’s work, when compared to other photographer’s work? What about the classic ¾ angled pose with the sun behind the photographer, (also known as wedgies)? Are they so bad? I will atempt to answer these questions within this essay. I will also give you all some clues to creating great railroad photography.
Light, atmosphere, aestheticism,
(The railroad photographer’s Holy Trinity)
Light, atmosphere and aestheticism: when a railroad picture has all three qualities, it is a great railroad picture! A fourth quality – chance – can make a picture both unique and amazing.
Taking a picture is having an intimate relationship with light. Some photographers even describe their work as “writing with light”. People have written books about light and I won’t start a new theory here. I will talk about light with regards to our hobby however.
Light has a strength and a color. Light’s angle changes throughout the day and light changes with latitude, the season and the location where we take pictures. Sometimes, light appears all of a sudden, from a place we never anticipated. In every case, you have to make the light one of, if not the most important subjects in your pictures.
Here is an example: Paris Gare du Nord (France). There was a short time of four or five minutes, when the sky looked simply amazing. The composition of the picture itself is not very creative. What makes the picture look so beautiful is the magenta coloured light reflecting off the bottom of the clouds. The light’s colour imparts an unusual and surreal perspective on the evening rush hour.
One element of classic railroad photography dogma is: “nice light means sunny day” and it is even better if the sun is behind the photographer! There are however, amazing lighting opportunities occurnig on cloudy or rainy days! Don’t limit yourself! Take the best picture you can using the light available at any given time. Great light permits weaker composition, you just have to concentrate on interpreting the light quality.
One should remember also that a great quality of light can come from an artificial source. The next picture shows two trains in an underground environment near Paris. There is a mix of colors: from yellow (cast by incandescent bulbs) to green (cast by fluorescent lighting). The scene looks surreal.
One point to remember when working with digital cameras, check your white balance regularly and adjust it as necessary.
To learn more about the quality of the light, I recommend reading books about landscape photography.
Pictures With Atmosphere… or how to translate the mood at the time you take the shot
Pictures conveying atmosphere have a very strong affect on us, particularly from a historical or documentary point of view. A black and white picture from the 40s, taken anywhere around the world on a station platform, touches everybody. In this case, atmosphere is conveyed by details such as people’s clothing and look, rolling stock, advertising, etc.
But a rising winter sun on a quiet mountain, or a morning fog on an empty platform also convey strong atmospheres. The atmosphere of a picture picture creates a relationship between the photographer and the viewer. There is a kind of intimacy between the two people at that moment. And the stronger the feeling the photographer conveys, the stronger it will be for the reader.
Here is an example. We visited Persan-Beaumont station on a foggy morning, a town located in the Northern suburbs of Paris. The subject is kind of commonplace, a night shot, a small station. It’s not even a documentary picture as we can not really see any details of the moving train. But there is an atmosphere, A deep fog, some ghostly commuters, blue screens contrasting with the global orange colour. No doubt, that morning was cold, just like I was when I took the picture.
But be careful when you take pictures like these, the camera has no feelings and sometimes the result of your work will be a bit disappointing. Our brains transform our realities depending upon our our pre-conceived notions of reality.
Aestheticism is the most concrete notion of the photographer’s Trinity. For me, this means having a great selection of pictures while knowing a minimum of photographic skills.
Quality is better than quantity in this case. You have to make a selection of the most powerful pictures you want to show. You should use a critical eye on your own work. Forums are a good example of how people flood their messages with tons of medium quality pictures. This is a shortcoming of the digital era. The result is simply that the global quality goes down.
To take aesthetic pictures, you only have to know a minimum of photographic rules. Practicing the rule of thirds, basics of composition and elements of design will quickly improve the visual quality of your pictures and you don’t need a degree in photography to do that! There are dozens of books that explain these principles.
Aestheticism is that artistic flair and good taste that creates a debate. Many people link it to elitism. I will talk about that at the end of this text.
A Personal Vision And Approach
With regards to photography, we all have our own definition of reality. Some people think the picture has to be “as seen” at the moment the photographer took the picture. People having that philosophy will perform a minimum of post-processing work; no framing, no color change, etc. Some other people and I am one of them, take more liberties with their pictures and have a more artistic (and sometimes philosophical) approach. This is acheivable at the moment you take the picture, (with help of wide angle lenses or filters, or by finding an unusual composition, or by the creative use of the light), or by performing a post-processing transformation of the picture.
This approach may not really be welcomed by some railfan photographers. They may think that pictures only have a documentary role; for historical purposes, or for modeling purposes. For those purposes, details and colour authenticity are essential. A typical example of this is the North American roster picture. I have a deep respect for this vision of the Railroad world. It is part of our history that builds up in our memories. But if your photography is limited only to creating documentary works, you miss out on applying the personal touch to your work.
My first example of a personal approach: Black and White photography.
The picture above shows an endless grain train, somewhere in Idaho, in the U.S.A. There is a strong contrast coming from the back-lit scene. The mist draws silhouettes in the background. The long string of hoppers make a nice pattern, rich textures. This scene was perfect for black and white processing. Many photographers in the digital age, think that black and white is simply a trick to transform a bad picture (because of the poor lighting or weather), to a “corrected” picture. That’s completely untrue! Digital photography gives us the freedom to use the black and white medium purposefully. Doing so shows the strength of a strong personal approach. Removing the colours can reveal what hides behind. Black and white can be a very interesting and rewarding medium. I will write further articles about black and white photography in the future.
Another approach one can take is what I call “Environmental Railroad Photography”. This is similar to landscape photography and as such, railroad photographers often take pictures of both. When you photograph in this manner, you have to know the location extremely well. Environmental railroad photography forces you to walk away from the tracks and look all around you, in order to let the environment become part of you. To familiarise yourself with pictures taken in this style, I invite you to discover Clément Ecoffey, Mashima Mitsuhide, Feunteun & Sabiron or Dale Sanders’ works. Maybe you will try a similar approach.
I have written here about two personal approaches that move away from the more usual documentary photography. There are plenty of other creative approaches to this as well. You could try HDR work, Human or Night Photography for example. The point being that a personal approach can distinguish railroad photography from the norm, making it different and greater by the fact that it has something special to say. When this happens, the photogropher’s personality becomes part of the picture.
In Conclusion
Searching for the perfect light, the right atmosphere, possessing some basic technical skills and having your own approach are the secrets to great railroad photography. Remember, the goal is not to be the best photographer ever, or to be part of an elite group. You must be yourself and show your vision on the magic in the world of railways by using your sensitivity. That is very far away from elitism!
Vision, style and approach are all words taken from the photographer’s general vocabulary. This article hopefully explains that, the core goal of the Images & Trains Project is not to simply display more pictures of trains. But rather, the project’s images share the photographers personal vision through a railway related “Photographic Art Form”.
So use an objective eye towards your own work and ask yourself about your own vision. Be humble, curious and look at other photographers’ work. Then you too will take great railroad photographs.
I invite you to share your railroad art through the Images & Trains project.
English Translation Editing : Gerry FERNS.
[Download a PDF version of this text]4.40 MO – 9 pages – High quality pictures
Black & White: 2010 Selection
Black & White Photography – Year 2010 : you will find the 2010 selection of picture. This section is updated on a regular basis.
Most recent pictures are first in the list. Keep checking for updates!
Last update : 09.04.2010
Homa – A borough in Montreal
HoMa is another name for Hochelaga Maisonneuve, a borough of Montreal (Canada). Long ago, this was a small suburb community. Since then, it has been absorbed and is now part of the second biggest French speaking town in the world. This is a working people area that slowly modernizes. But it hardly find its way. Today you can find middle class people in condos around little parks and a few feet from there you have very poor people.
HoMa is the place of one Canadian Pacific big yard. There also are some little customers, little businesses that need one fright car or two. Some of them are closed and people decided to build lofts in there. Some are waiting for demolition. All this give an interesting mix, a creative material for the photographer. You just have to take time to find the good idea.
Here is a collection of atmosphere that I brought from HoMa.
